100 years: Le Sacre du printemps!

riverflow

29 May 1913: the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps ("The Rite of Spring") caused a riot with the sophisticated Parisian elite!

Here's a doco with Michael Tilson Thomas:



[LINK]

...and here's the final scene performed by high school students:



[LINK]

Turn it up!!!!

poptart

I love Rite of Spring. It's hard to believe people were so offended they actually rioted, when these days it sounds like pretty much any action movie soundtrack.

Thanks for posting.

federica

Bonne Anniversaire - !!

riverflow

Another find: A BBC doco-dramatisation of the origins and the premiere -- appropriately called "Riot at the Rite":



[LINK]

riverflow

My desktop photo for the next couple days:



A sentimental moment: In 1992, in music theory class we gathered around the full score and followed along with a recording from start to finish. We were so exhausted by the time it was over, just following the score!

In terms of dissonance, Schoenberg was doing something very different and more abstract (to my ears), but the Rite is such a brutally visceral experience. My heart rate increases just listening to it!

Lazy_eye

I heard it again today and was a little surprised at how visceral it still sounds, even after a century. I can understand why it provoked a riot -- the primal energy it taps into must have been hugely disturbing for a 1913 audience.
Some parallels with Freud, maybe?