The Rite if Spring is undoubtedly Stravinsky's most well-known work, upon which Stravinsky himself commented later in life “Frankly, I am no longer interested in furthering the career of the Rite as it is played out of all proportion to my other works.” It nevertheless stands as one of the most influential, colorful, and grandiose pieces in the orchestral repertoire and has influenced many composers.

The piece is part of his Pre-World War I ballets, even though predecessors to the Rite - Firebird and Petruska - are viewed as early works in which Stravinsky was developing his musical language. The Rite was the culmination of his “new musical speech” during his Russian period. He then began to turn to the neoclassical style and later to serialism.

Ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russe Sergei Diaghilev was immediately impressed with the works of Stravinsky when he heard his Fireworks, a piece written by Stravinsky while he was as a student to Rimsky-Korsakov. Diaghilev himself was at one time also a composition student of Rimsky-Korsakov, who had eventually told Diaghilev that he had no talent for music. Diaghilev sought out Stravinsky and commissioned him to do several orchestrations and eventually the ballet Firebird. It's phenomenal success led to Petruska and later the Rite, performed in 1913. Stravinsky commented on his first presentation of the Rite to Diaghlev. He noted on his “at first ironic attitude to the long line of repeated chords.”

The scandalous premier is familiar to many, but there are only speculations as to what exactly caused the uprising. Large ruckus orchestras and thick dissonances were common in new music at the time. Some speculate the uprising was the result of the angular and jagged choreography by Nizhinsky. He had just recently received poor reviews for his work on Debussy's Jeux. Stravinsky later recalled that “It is still almost incredible to me that [Monteux, the conductor] brought the orchestra through the end.”

Stravinsky was a master orchestrator, and the Rite is a perfect example of his skill. The Rite is one of his most challenging works and is scored for an usually large orchestra, which later editions sought to simplify. In the original version, eight French horns create a strong primal force during Dances of the Young Girls Eric Satie noted that “Any one of Stravinsky's works will cause you to perceive with extraordinary clearness this vibratory 'transparency' of which I speak. [The Rite] is full of it; and it is perhaps in this work that it will appear to you with the most persuasiveness; you will be prodigiously bathed in it, deeply saturated.” Stravinsky's orchestral clarity is undoubtedly masterful, as instruments are often contained in dense but never crowded orchestrations.

Despite the forceful and primitive nature of the Rite, Stravinsky himself was known as a calm, collected man who always sought knowledge and cared for his family. He was friends to Schoenberg, Otto Kemperer, who said Stravinsky was co-operative and easy to deal with, and other composers of his time. Aaron Copland wrote “At home he is a charming host, a man with clearly defined ideas and a sharp tongue... but the the music seems to exist on a supra-personal plane, in an aural world of its own.”

Written by Mark Oates (2007)



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