The Classical Music Book

251

The last page of Stravinsky’s

handwritten score for Le Sacre shows

the chaotic nature of the piece, with

some huge intervals between notes.

Lydia Sokolova, for example, later

reflected: “As soon as it was known

that the conductor was there, the

uproar began.” Some accounts

suggest that blows were even

exchanged and that as many as

40 audience members were

arrested for violence and disorder.

A year later, however, Le Sacre

was performed in Paris without

dancers, and it was the greatest

success of Stravinsky’s career. This

fact may have contributed to the

composer’s later tendency to prefer

Le Sacre as a concert piece. For

Diaghilev, however, any publicity

was good publicity; he later

claimed that Le Sacre’s premiere

was “exactly what [he] wanted.”

Stravinskian legacy

The influence of Le Sacre on

subsequent music is hard to

overstate. This is most strikingly

seen in Stravinsky’s revolutionary

use of rhythm, which surpassed

anything seen before. Stravinskian

“motor rhythms” would drive the

minimalism of the 1960s–1980s

as much as they permeated film

scores and influenced popular

styles. Stravinsky’s particular

style of modernism influenced

later composers in the trends of

primitivism, exoticism, and

experimental composition.

Perhaps because Stravinsky’s

musical style soon evolved in

a neoclassical direction, the

“Stravinskian aesthetic” was not

only to influence future neoclassical

composers but also to reenergize

the performing styles of Baroque

and Classical music in a way that

can still be heard today. ■

MODERN 1900 –1950

Diaghilev and the

Ballets Russes

Sergei Diaghilev founded his

ballet company in Paris in

1909. For two decades until
      his death, the Ballets Russes
      performed regularly in Paris,
      throughout Europe, and in the
      Americas. While the company
      prominently featured highly
      skilled Russian dancers, and
      often showcased Russian
      composers and works, they
      never performed in Russia.
      In stark contrast to the
      conservative Russian artistic
      culture from which he hailed,
      the progressive Diaghilev was
      responsible for commissioning
      groundbreaking new work
      from the leading composers of
      the day. Chief among them
      was Igor Stravinsky, whose
      commissions are among his
      most significant pieces. He
      also commissioned works from
      Sergei Prokofiev, Erik Satie,
      and three members of the
      Parisian group of composers
      known as Les Six. Well-known
      artists often designed sets or
      costumes for his productions,
      such as Pablo Picasso, Henri
      Matisse, and Coco Chanel.

Sergei Diaghilev (right) greets

Igor Stravinsky at Croydon Airport,

London, UK, in 1926. The pair

collaborated on four ballets,

including Le Sacre du printemps.

I heard, and I wrote

what I heard. I was the

vessel through which

Le Sacre passed.

Igor Stravinsky

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