The Rite of Spring

the Rite of Spring (in Russian Веснасвященная ) is a Ballet in two acts or tables of the pagan Russia ( worship of the ground and the sacrifice ), composed by Igor Stravinski and choreography by Vaslav Nijinski for the Russian Ballets of Serge de Diaghilev. Its creation with the Théâtre of the Fields-Élysées to Paris in 1913 caused a real scandal. It is considered today that the partition of Stravinski opened new ways with the European music.

The scandal of creation

The work, subtitled Tables of pagan Russia , intended for the Russian Ballets, was created the May 29th 1913 with the Théâtre of the Fields-Élysées, with Pierre Monteux with the direction of the orchestra. The choreography of Vaslav Nijinski as the music of Igor Stravinski caused an uproar which remained famous. Stravinski told itself that Nijinski was in slide, upright on a chair, shouting the indications with the dancers who did not hear any more the orchestra.

The type-setter in addition remained very critical with respect to the dancer and choreographer: “ the general impression that I had then and that I keep until now of this choreography, it is the unconsciousness with which it was made by Nijinski. One clearly saw his incapacity there to be assimilated and to adapt the revolutionary ideas which constituted the creed of Diaghilev, and which were obstinately and laboriously inculcated to him by this one. One rather distinguished in this choreography a very painful effort without result that a plastic, simple and natural realization, rising from the commands of the music ” (I. Stravinski, Chroniques of my life , ED. Denoël, 1962)

Argument

The ballet is imagined and conceived by Stravinski between 1911 and 1912. It calls upon Nicolas Roerich, painter and specialist in Slavic antiquity, to write the history which is used as argument with the ballet.

Work is divided into two large tables: worship of the ground and the Sacrifice .

First part: worship of the ground

Introduction

spring omens, Dances of the spring teenagers
Play of the abduction

Round
Play of the rival cities

Procession of wise the
wise the

Dance of the ground

Second part: the sacrifice

Introduction

mysterious Circles of the teenagers
Glorification of Elected the

Evocation of the ancestors
ritual Action of the ancestors

sacral Dance (Elected)

The orchestra

The ballet is written for a Symphony orchestra exceptionally large. The partitions of the String instruments are often subdivided into two, three, even four different parts. Each desk of wood has five executants, some playing two instruments, even three like the second clarinet (clarinet in, clarinet in si♭ and low clarinet) . The coppers are not remains about it with exceptional instruments like the bass trumpet in mi♭ or the tubas tenors played by the seventh and eighth horns. The section of percussion most important is mobilized for a ballet. Stravinski produces a large variety of stamps of this unit, beginning the ballet with a solo of bassoon very quiet and finishing with a frantic dance played by the whole orchestra.

Outstanding interpreters

Pierre Monteux

Pierre Monteux was the creator of the ballet which it directed on May 29th, 1913 to the Théâtre of the Fields-Élysées. It was also the first to record it on disc in 1929, before Stravinski (the same year) and Stokowski in 1930. He is the only chief to have recorded four times the Sacre in studio (1929 with the symphonic full orchestra, in 1946 with the Symphony orchestra of San Francisco, in 1951 with the Symphony orchestra of Boston, and in 1954 with the Orchestre of the Company in the concerts of the Academy), Stravinski, Igor Markevitch, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Pierre Boulez having recorded it three times. He directed also work in 1963 at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of his creation to London in the presence of the type-setter.

Ernest Ansermet

Ernest Ansermet was a friendly close relation of the type-setter, he collaborated with him, with the preparation and with the corrections of the original partition of 1913 for its first impression of 1922 and its reprinting of 1929, he had also carried out a handwritten and corrected copy material of orchestra of 1913.

Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Stokowski created work with the the United States and was the third leader to record the Sacre in 1930, he interpreted a version curtailed and modified by his care for the cartoon of Walt Disney Fantasia .

Igor Markevitch

Igor Markevitch saw its first two recordings (1951 and 1959) preceded by the Académie of the disc. Its interpretation insisted on the choreographic character of work.

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez will see him also its first recording collected in 1963 with the Théâtre of the Fields-Élysées, for the fiftieth anniversary of creation, rewarded by the Académie for the disc. An American newspaper had required of Stravinski to compare three versions of the Sacre : that of Karajan, Bernstein and of Swell. It was that of Swell which gained the adhesion of the type-setter.

Choreographies

Mary Wigman, Fucked Bausch, Angelin Preljocaj, Emanuel Gat, Doug Varone, Paul Taylor, Jorge Lefebre like Maurice Béjart and the majority of large the choreographers of the 20th century, to start with Nijinski, put in dance the Rite of Spring .

Version of Maurice Béjart

After having seen Orphée with Mystery Liege and with Brussels, the director of the Théâtre of the Currency Maurice Huisman proposes with Maurice Béjart to open the springtide of the Currency by a emblematic work, the Rite of Spring . Béjart, which saw a difficult financial position, accepts the order and first place in Brussels has on December 8th, 1959, during a Soirée of ballets which brings together dancers come from all horizons. the Sacring of Béjart, key period of the evening, interpreted by Germinal Casado and Tania Bari, which will remain a long time its dancers fetishes (see an extract).

Version of Fucked Bausch

It is in 1975 that Pina Bausch gave its version of it, one year before founding the Tanztheater Wuppertal. the Sacring , according to it, opposes dancers and dancers on a covered peat scene. The boards become the place of rough combat which make become exhausted the human beings until the moment of the sacrifice, according to the pagan rite (see an extract).

Version of Angelin Preljocaj

Created in May 2001 with Berlin by Angelin Preljocaj, the contemporary choreographer who is probably nearest to a technique of traditional ballet. Violence is there, without make-up, in its nudity. Creation brings together 12 dancers of the Preljocaj Ballet and those of the Staatsoper of Berlin, under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboïm (see an extract).

Manuscripts and printed editions of the partition

Handwritten :

1910 - 1913: collection of drafts of 168 pages, published in 1969.
1913: reduction for piano
1913: manuscript complete autograph of the partition for orchestra of 49 layers recto-back.
1919 : transcription for Pleyela (kind of player piano).
1922 : material of orchestra corrected

printed Editions :

1922 : first impression, Russian edition of Music
1929: reprinting F.H. Schneider, Russian edition of Music
1947: revised partition, Boosey edition & Hawkes
1965: Soviet publication, music publishing of the Soviet state.
1967 : new publication of the Boosey edition & Hawkes of 1947 (with corrections).

External bond

Article of the teaching National center of Documentation (CNDP)

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