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Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps), Part II, excerpts Introduction The piece discussed in this paper is The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) by Igor Stravinsky. It is music written for ballet, which is sometimes performed in concert by an orchestra. It was first performed at the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees in Paris on May 29, 1913. The outrageous costumes, unusual choreography and bizarre story of Russian pagan sacrifice as well as the piece’s musical innovations that tested the patience of the audience to the fullest, made its premier scandalous. The impact on music ever since has been tremendous. The choreography that contributed to the infamous premier was created by Vaslav Nijinsky. The excerpts addressed in this paper include three scenes from Part II: Glorification of the Chosen One, Evocation of the Ancestors, and Ritual Action of the Ancestors. In the Rite of Spring, the composer declares a modernist style combining folk melodies from Russia, combinations of sound never heard before and hard-driving complex rhythms.
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