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{{short description|1913 ballet by Igor Stravinsky}}
{{other uses|Rite of Spring (disambiguation)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox ballet
| name           = {{lang|fr|Le Sacre du printemps}}<br />The Rite of Spring
| native_name    = {{langx|ru|Весна священная|Vesna svyashchennaya|Sacred Spring|link=no}}
| image          = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
| caption        = Concept design from [[Sergei Diaghilev|Diaghilev]]'s 1913 production
| composer       = [[Igor Stravinsky]]
| based_on       = [[Paganism|Pagan]] myths
| premiere       = {{Start date|1913|05|29|df=y}}
| place          = [[Théâtre des Champs-Élysées]]<br />Paris
| ballet_company = [[Ballets Russes]]
| choreographer  = [[Vaslav Nijinsky]]
| designer       = [[Nicholas Roerich]]
}}

'''''The Rite of Spring'''''{{refn|group=n|{{langx|ru|Весна священная|Vesna svyashchennaya|sacred spring}}. Full name: ''The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts'' ({{langx|fr|Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux parties}})}} ({{langx|fr|'''Le Sacre du printemps'''|link=no}}) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer [[Igor Stravinsky]]. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]] company; the original choreography was by [[Vaslav Nijinsky]] with stage designs and costumes by [[Nicholas Roerich]]. When first performed at the [[Théâtre des Champs-Élysées]] on 29 May 1913, the [[avant-garde]] nature of the music and choreography [[List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience response|caused a sensation]]. Many have called the first-night reaction a "riot" or "near-riot", though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a decade later.<ref>Levitz, pp. 146–178</ref> Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.

Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. ''Le Sacre du printemps'' was the third such major project, after the acclaimed ''[[The Firebird|Firebird]]'' (1910) and ''[[Petrushka (ballet)|Petrushka]]'' (1911).{{refn|group=n|Though ''The Firebird'' was their first major project, Stravinsky's first collaboration with Diaghilev was creating new [[orchestration]]s for two pieces in a 1909 version of ''[[Les Sylphides]]''.}} The concept behind ''The Rite of Spring'', developed by Roerich from Stravinsky's outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts"; the scenario depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. After a mixed critical reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by [[Léonide Massine]] replaced Nijinsky's original, which saw only eight performances.<ref>Everdell, pp. 323, 331–333</ref> Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading choreographers, gaining the work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed lost, was reconstructed by the [[Joffrey Ballet]] in Los Angeles.

Stravinsky's score contains many novel features for its time, including experiments in [[tonality]], [[metre (music)|metre]], rhythm, [[Accent (music)|stress]] and [[consonance and dissonance|dissonance]]. Analysts have noted in the score a significant grounding in [[Russian traditional music|Russian folk music]], a relationship Stravinsky tended to deny. Regarded as among the first [[modernism (music)|modernist]] works, the music influenced many of the 20th century's leading composers and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire.

== Background ==
[[Igor Stravinsky]] was the son of [[Fyodor Stravinsky]], the principal [[bass (voice type)|bass]] singer at the [[Mariinsky Theatre|Imperial Opera]], Saint Petersburg, and Anna, née Kholodovskaya, a competent amateur singer and pianist from an old-established Russian family. Fyodor's association with many of the leading figures in Russian music, including [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]], [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]] and [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], meant that Igor grew up in an intensely musical home.<ref>Walsh 2012, §&nbsp;1: Background and early years, 1882–1905</ref> In 1901 Stravinsky began to study law at [[Saint Petersburg State University|Saint Petersburg University]] while taking private lessons in harmony and [[counterpoint]]. Stravinsky worked under the guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov, having impressed him with some of his early compositional efforts. By the time of his mentor's death in 1908, Stravinsky had produced several works, among them a [[Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor (Stravinsky)|Piano Sonata in F{{music|sharp}} minor]] (1903–04), a [[Symphony in E-flat (Stravinsky)|Symphony in E{{music|flat}} major]] (1907), which he catalogued as "Opus 1", and a short orchestral piece, ''[[Feu d'artifice]]'' ("Fireworks", composed in 1908).<ref>Walsh 2012, §&nbsp;2: Towards ''The Firebird'', 1902–09</ref><ref>Walsh 2012, §&nbsp;11: Posthumous reputation and legacy: Works</ref>

[[File:Igor Stravinsky as drawn by Pablo Picasso 31 Dec 1920 - Gallica.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Stravinsky, sketched by [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], 1920]]
In 1909 ''Feu d'artifice'' was performed at a concert in Saint Petersburg. Among those in the audience was the impresario [[Sergei Diaghilev]], who at that time was planning to introduce Russian music and art to western audiences.<ref name= Hartog52>White 1961, pp. 52–53</ref> Like Stravinsky, Diaghilev had initially studied law, but had gravitated via journalism into the theatrical world.<ref>{{cite book|chapter= Diaghilev, Serge|url-access = subscription | publisher=OUP Oxford|url= https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-2603 |title= The Oxford Dictionary of Music Online edition|year= 2012| isbn=978-0-19-957810-8 | last1=Kennedy | first1= Michael | last2= Kennedy | first2=Joyce }}</ref> In 1907 he began his theatrical career by presenting five concerts in Paris; in the following year he introduced Mussorgsky's opera ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]''. In 1909, still in Paris, he launched the [[Ballets Russes]], initially with Borodin's [[Polovtsian Dances]] from ''[[Prince Igor]]'' and Rimsky-Korsakov's ''[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade]]''. To present these works Diaghilev recruited the choreographer [[Michel Fokine]], the designer [[Léon Bakst]] and the dancer [[Vaslav Nijinsky]]. Diaghilev's intention, however, was to produce new works in a distinctively 20th-century style, and he was looking for fresh compositional talent.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Griffiths|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Griffiths (writer)|title=Diaghilev (Dyagilev), Sergey Pavlovich|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08450 |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000008450|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|access-date=24 April 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Having heard ''Feu d'artifice'' he approached Stravinsky, initially with a request for help in orchestrating music by [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]] to create new arrangements for the ballet ''[[Les Sylphides]]''. Stravinsky worked on the opening [[Nocturnes, Op. 32 (Chopin) |Nocturne in A-flat major]] and the closing [[Grande valse brillante in E-flat major (Chopin)|Grande valse brillante]]; his reward was a much bigger commission, to write the music for a new ballet, ''[[The Firebird]]'' (''L'oiseau de feu'') for the 1910 season.<ref name=Hartog52 />

Stravinsky worked through the winter of 1909–10, in close association with Fokine who was choreographing ''The Firebird''. During this period Stravinsky made the acquaintance of Nijinsky who, although not dancing in the ballet, was a keen observer of its development. Stravinsky was uncomplimentary when recording his first impressions of the dancer, observing that he seemed immature and gauche for his age (he was 21). On the other hand, Stravinsky found Diaghilev an inspiration, "the very essence of a great personality".<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 24–28</ref> ''The Firebird'' was premiered on 25 June 1910, with [[Tamara Karsavina]] in the main role, and was a great public success.<ref>Walsh 2012, §&nbsp;3: The early Diaghilev ballets, 1910–14</ref> This ensured that the Diaghilev–Stravinsky collaboration would continue, in the first instance with ''[[Petrushka (ballet)|Petrushka]]'' (1911) and then ''The Rite of Spring''.<ref name=Hartog52 />

== Synopsis and structure ==
In a note to the conductor [[Serge Koussevitzky]] in February 1914, Stravinsky described ''Le Sacre du printemps'' as "a musical-choreographic work, [representing] pagan Russia&nbsp;... unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of Spring". In his analysis of ''The Rite'', Pieter van den Toorn writes that the work lacks a specific plot or narrative, and should be considered as a succession of choreographed episodes.<ref name=VdT26>Van den Toorn, pp. 26–27</ref>

The French titles are given in the form as written in the four-part piano score published in 1913. There have been numerous variants of the English translations; those shown are from the 1967 edition of the score.<ref name=VdT26 />

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: 0;"
|-
|+Synopsis and structure
|-
! width="250" | Episode
! width="250" | English translation
! width="300" | Synopsis{{refn|group=n|Except as indicated by a specific citation, the synopsis information is taken from Stravinsky's February 1914 note to Koussevitsky.<ref name=VdT26 />}}
|-
! colspan="4" style="background:#DCDCDC;" | Part I: ''L'Adoration de la Terre'' (Adoration of the Earth)<ref name=VdT26 />
|-
| align="center" | ''Introduction''
| align="center" | Introduction
|Before the curtain rises, an orchestral introduction resembles, according to Stravinsky, "a swarm of spring pipes [''[[Dentsivka|dudki]]'']"<ref>Taruskin 1996, p. 874</ref>
|-
| align="center" | ''Les Augures printaniers''
| align="center" | Augurs of Spring
| The celebration of spring begins in the hills. An old woman enters and begins to foretell the future.
|-
| align="center" | ''Jeu du rapt''
| align="center" | Ritual of Abduction
|Young girls arrive from the river, in single file. They begin the "Dance of the Abduction".
|-
| align="center" | ''Rondes printanières''
| align="center" | Spring Rounds
| The young girls dance the ''[[Khorovod]]'', the "Spring Rounds".
|-
| align="center" | ''Jeux des cités rivales''
| align="center" | Ritual of the Rival Tribes
| The people divide into two groups in opposition to each other, and begin the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes".
|-
| align="center" | ''Cortège du sage'': ''Le Sage''
| align="center" | Procession of the Sage: The Sage
| A holy procession leads to the entry of the wise elders, headed by the Sage who brings the games to a pause and blesses the earth.{{refn|group=n|In many early editions of the score, the closing section of this episode, in which the Sage blesses the earth, is separated into its own piece, either called "Embrasse de la terre" (The Kiss of the Earth), or "Le sage" (The Sage).}}
|-
| align="center" | ''Danse de la terre''
| align="center" | Dance of the Earth
| The people break into a passionate dance, sanctifying and becoming one with the earth.
|-
! colspan="3" style="background:#DCDCDC;" | Part II: ''Le Sacrifice'' (The Sacrifice)<ref name=VdT26 />
|-
| align="center" | ''Introduction''
| align="center" | Introduction
|
|-
| align="center" | ''Cercles mystérieux des adolescentes''
| align="center" | Mystic Circles of the Young Girls
| The young girls engage in mysterious games, walking in circles.
|-
| align="center" | ''Glorification de l'élue''
| align="center" | Glorification of the Chosen One
| One of the young girls is selected by fate, being twice caught in the perpetual circle, and is honoured as the "Chosen One" with a forceful dance.
|-
| align="center" | ''Évocation des ancêtres''
| align="center" | Evocation of the Ancestors
| In a brief dance, the young girls invoke the ancestors.
|-
| align="center" | ''Action rituelle des ancêtres''
| align="center" | Ritual Action of the Ancestors
| The Chosen One is entrusted to the care of the old wise men.
|-
| align="center" | ''Danse sacrale (L'Élue)''
| align="center" | Sacrificial Dance
| The Chosen One dances to death in the presence of the old men, in the great "Sacrificial Dance".
|}

== Creation ==
=== Conception ===
[[File:Bakst Diaghilev.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Sergei Diaghilev]], director of the ''[[Ballets Russes]]'' from 1909 to 1929, as painted by [[Léon Bakst]]]]
Lawrence Morton, in a study of the origins of ''The Rite'', records that in 1907–08 Stravinsky set to music two poems from [[Sergey Gorodetsky]]'s collection ''Yar''. Another poem in the anthology, which Stravinsky did not set but is likely to have read, is "Yarila" which, Morton observes, contains many of the basic elements from which ''The Rite of Spring'' developed, including pagan rites, sage elders, and the propitiatory sacrifice of a young maiden: "The likeness is too close to be coincidental".<ref>{{cite journal|last= Morton|first= Lawrence|title= Footnotes to Stravinsky Studies: ''Le Sacre du printemps''|url= http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6072712|journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]|series=New Series|issue= 128|date= March 1979|pages=9–16|doi= 10.1017/S0040298200030539|s2cid= 145085291|url-access= subscription}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>Hill, pp, 102–104</ref> Stravinsky himself gave contradictory accounts of the genesis of ''The Rite''. In a 1920 article he stressed that the musical ideas had come first, that the pagan setting had been suggested by the music rather than the other way round.<ref>Hill, p. 3</ref> However, in his 1936 autobiography he described the origin of the work thus: "One day [in 1910], when I was finishing the last pages of ''L'Oiseau de Feu'' in Saint Petersburg, I had a fleeting vision&nbsp;... I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of Spring. Such was the theme of the ''Sacre du printemps''."<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 31</ref>

By May 1910 Stravinsky was discussing his idea with [[Nicholas Roerich]], the foremost Russian expert on folk art and ancient rituals. Roerich had a reputation as an artist and mystic, and had provided the stage designs for Diaghilev's 1909 production of the ''Polovtsian Dances''.<ref name=H4 /> The pair quickly agreed on a working title, "The Great Sacrifice" (Russian: ''Velikaia zhertva'');<ref name=VdT2>Van den Toorn, p. 2</ref> Diaghilev gave his blessing to the work, although the collaboration was put on hold for a year while Stravinsky was occupied with his second major commission for Diaghilev, the ballet ''Petrushka''.<ref name=H4>Hill, pp. 4–8</ref>

In July 1911 Stravinsky visited Talashkino, near [[Smolensk]], where Roerich was staying with the [[Princess Maria Tenisheva]], a noted patron of the arts and a sponsor of Diaghilev's magazine ''[[Mir iskusstva|World of Art]]''. Here, over several days, Stravinsky and Roerich finalised the structure of the ballet.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 35–36</ref> [[Thomas Forrest Kelly|Thomas F. Kelly]], in his history of the ''Rite'' premiere, suggests that the two-part pagan scenario that emerged was primarily devised by Roerich.<ref>Kelly, p. 297</ref> Stravinsky later explained to Nikolai Findeyzen, the editor of the ''Russian Musical Gazette'', that the first part of the work would be called "The Kiss of the Earth", and would consist of games and ritual dances interrupted by a procession of [[Wise old man|sages]], culminating in a frenzied dance as the people embraced the spring. Part Two, "The Sacrifice", would have a darker aspect; secret night games of maidens, leading to the choice of one for sacrifice and her eventual dance to the death before the sages.<ref name=H4 /> The original working title was changed to "Holy Spring" (Russian:'' Vesna sviashchennaia''), but the work became generally known by the French translation ''Le Sacre du printemps'', or its English equivalent ''The Rite of Spring'', with the subtitle "Pictures of Pagan Russia".<ref name=VdT2 /><ref name="Grout and Palisca, p. 713">Grout and Palisca, p. 713</ref>

=== Composition ===
[[File:The Rite of Spring manuscript.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|First page from the handwritten score of ''Le Sacre du printemps'']]
Stravinsky's sketchbooks show that after returning to his home at [[Ustyluh|Ustilug]] in Ukraine in September 1911, he worked on two movements, the "Augurs of Spring" and the "Spring Rounds".<ref name=VdT24>Van den Toorn, p. 24</ref> In October he left Ustilug for [[Clarens, Switzerland|Clarens]] in Switzerland, where in a tiny and sparsely-furnished room—an {{convert|8|by|8|ft|m|adj=on}} closet, with only a muted upright piano, a table and two chairs<ref name="Stravinsky and Craft 1981, p. 143">Stravinsky and Craft 1981, p. 143</ref>—he worked throughout the 1911–12 winter on the score.<ref name=H13>Hill, p. 13</ref> By March 1912, according to the sketchbook chronology, Stravinsky had completed Part I and had drafted much of Part II.<ref name=VdT24 /> He also prepared a two-hand piano version, subsequently lost,<ref name=H13 /> which he may have used to demonstrate the work to Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes conductor [[Pierre Monteux]] in April 1912.<ref>Van den Toorn, p. 35</ref> He also made a four-hand piano arrangement which became the first published version of ''Le Sacre''; he and the composer [[Claude Debussy]] played the first half of this together, in June 1912.<ref name=H13 />

Following Diaghilev's decision to delay the premiere until 1913, Stravinsky put ''The Rite'' aside during the summer of 1912.<ref>Van den Toorn, p. 34</ref> He enjoyed the Paris season, and accompanied Diaghilev to the [[Bayreuth Festival]] to attend a performance of ''[[Parsifal]]''.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 37–39</ref> Stravinsky resumed work on ''The Rite'' in the autumn; the sketchbooks indicate that he had finished the outline of the final sacrificial dance on 17 November 1912.<ref name=VdT24 /> During the remaining months of winter he worked on the full orchestral score, which he signed and dated as "completed in Clarens, March 8, 1913".<ref name=VDT36 /> He showed the manuscript to [[Maurice Ravel]], who was enthusiastic and predicted, in a letter to a friend, that the first performance of ''Le Sacre'' would be as important as the 1902 premiere of Debussy's ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]''.<ref>Orenstein, p. 66</ref> After the orchestral rehearsals began in late March, Monteux drew the composer's attention to several passages which were causing problems: inaudible horns, a flute solo drowned out by brass and strings, and multiple problems with the balance among instruments in the brass section during [[fortissimo]] episodes.<ref name=VDT36>Van den Toorn, pp. 36–38</ref> Stravinsky amended these passages, and as late as April was still revising and rewriting the final bars of the "Sacrificial Dance". Revision of the score did not end with the version prepared for the 1913 premiere; rather, Stravinsky continued to make changes for the next 30 years or more. According to Van den Toorn, "[n]o other work of Stravinsky's underwent such a series of post-premiere revisions".<ref name=VdT39>Van den Toorn, pp. 39–42</ref>

Stravinsky acknowledged that the work's opening bassoon melody was derived from an anthology of Lithuanian folk songs,<ref>Taruskin 1980, p. 502</ref> but maintained that this was his only borrowing from such sources;<ref name=VdT10>Van den Toorn, p. 10</ref> if other elements sounded like aboriginal folk music, he said, it was due to "some unconscious 'folk' memory".<ref name=VdT12>Van den Toorn, p. 12</ref> However, Morton has identified several more melodies in Part I as having their origins in the Lithuanian collection.<ref>Taruskin 1980, p. 510</ref><ref name=Hvii>Hill, pp. vii–viii</ref> More recently [[Richard Taruskin]] discovered in the score an adapted tune from one of Rimsky-Korsakov's "One Hundred Russian National Songs".<ref name=VdT12 /><ref>Taruskin 1980, p. 513</ref> Taruskin notes the paradox whereby ''The Rite'', generally acknowledged as the most revolutionary of the composer's early works, is in fact rooted in the traditions of Russian music.<ref>Taruskin 1980, p. 543</ref>

=== Realisation ===
[[File:Vaslav-nijinsky-in-le-pavillon-d-armide-1911.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Nijinsky in 1911, depicted by [[John Singer Sargent]] in costume for his role in [[Nikolai Tcherepnin]]'s ballet ''Le Pavillon d'Armide'']]
Taruskin has listed a number of sources that Roerich consulted when creating his designs. Among these are the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'', a 12th-century compendium of early pagan customs, and [[Alexander Afanasyev]]'s study of peasant folklore and pagan prehistory.<ref name=Vdt14>Van den Toorn, pp. 14–15</ref> The Princess Tenisheva's collection of costumes was an early source of inspiration.<ref name=H4 /> When the designs were complete, Stravinsky expressed delight and declared them "a real miracle".<ref name=Vdt14 />

Stravinsky's relationship with his other main collaborator, Nijinsky, was more complicated. Diaghilev had decided that
Nijinsky's genius as a dancer would translate into the role of choreographer and ballet master; he was not dissuaded when Nijinsky's first attempt at choreography, Debussy's ''[[Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)|L'après-midi d'un faune]]'', caused controversy and near-scandal because of the dancer's novel stylised movements and his overtly sexual gesture at the work's end.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 36</ref><ref>Kelly, p. 263</ref> It is apparent from contemporary correspondence that, at least initially, Stravinsky viewed Nijinsky's talents as a choreographer with approval; a letter he sent to Findeyzen praises the dancer's "passionate zeal and complete self-effacement".<ref name=H109>Hill, p. 109</ref> However, in his 1936 memoirs Stravinsky writes that the decision to employ Nijinsky in this role filled him with apprehension; although he admired Nijinsky as a dancer he had no confidence in him as a choreographer: "the poor boy knew nothing of music. He could neither read it nor play any instrument".<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 40–41</ref>{{refn|group=n|Nijinsky's sister Bronislava Nijinska later insisted that her brother could play a number of instruments, including the [[balalaika]], the clarinet and the piano.<ref name=K273 />}} Later still, Stravinsky would ridicule Nijinsky's dancing maidens as "knock-kneed and long-braided Lolitas".<ref name="Stravinsky and Craft 1981, p. 143"/>

Stravinsky's autobiographical account refers to many "painful incidents" between the choreographer and the dancers during the rehearsal period.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 42</ref> By the beginning of 1913, when Nijinsky was badly behind schedule, Stravinsky was warned by Diaghilev that "unless you come here immediately&nbsp;... the ''Sacre'' will not take place". The problems were slowly overcome, and when the final rehearsals were held in May 1913, the dancers appeared to have mastered the work's difficulties. Even the Ballets Russes's sceptical stage director, Serge Grigoriev, was full of praise for the originality and dynamism of Nijinsky's choreography.<ref>Grigoriev, p. 84</ref>

The conductor Pierre Monteux had worked with Diaghilev since 1911 and had been in charge of the orchestra at the premiere of ''Petrushka''. Monteux's first reaction to ''The Rite'', after hearing Stravinsky play a piano version, was to leave the room and find a quiet corner. He drew Diaghilev aside and said he would never conduct music like that; Diaghilev managed to change his mind.<ref name=reid>Reid, p. 145</ref> Although he would perform his duties with conscientious professionalism, he never came to enjoy the work; nearly fifty years after the premiere he told enquirers that he detested it.<ref>Kelly, pp. 273–274</ref> In old age he said to Sir [[Thomas Beecham]]'s biographer Charles Reid: "I did not like ''Le Sacre'' then. I have conducted it fifty times since. I do not like it now".<ref name=reid/> On 30 March Monteux informed Stravinsky of modifications he thought were necessary to the score, all of which the composer implemented.<ref>Hill, p. 29</ref> The orchestra, drawn mainly from the [[Concerts Colonne]] in Paris, comprised 99 players, much larger than normally employed at the theatre, and had difficulty fitting into the orchestra pit.<ref name="Kelly, p. 280">Kelly, p. 280</ref>

After the first part of the ballet received two full orchestral rehearsals in March, Monteux and the company departed to perform in Monte Carlo. Rehearsals resumed when they returned; the unusually large number of rehearsals—seventeen solely orchestral and five with the dancers—were fit into the fortnight before the opening, after Stravinsky's arrival in Paris on 13 May.<ref name="Walsh 202">Walsh 1999, p. 202</ref> The music contained so many unusual note combinations that Monteux had to ask the musicians to stop interrupting when they thought they had found mistakes in the score, saying he would tell them if something was played incorrectly. According to Doris Monteux, "The musicians thought it absolutely crazy".<ref name="Walsh 202" /> At one point—a climactic brass fortissimo—the orchestra broke into nervous laughter at the sound, causing Stravinsky to intervene angrily.<ref name=kw>Kelly, p. 281, Walsh 1999, p. 203</ref>{{refn|group=n|[[Thomas Forrest Kelly|Kelly]] and [[Stephen Walsh (writer)|Walsh]] both cite Henri Girard, a member of the double-bass section.<ref name=kw/> According to Truman Bullard, the section referred to is at the conclusion of the "Spring Rounds".<ref>Bullard, pp. 97–98</ref>}}

The role of the sacrificial victim was to have been danced by Nijinsky's sister, [[Bronislava Nijinska]]; when she became pregnant during rehearsals, she was replaced by the then relatively unknown Maria Piltz.<ref name=K273>Kelly, pp. 273–277</ref>

== Performance history and reception ==
=== Premiere ===
[[File:RiteofSpringDancers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Dancers in Nicholas Roerich's original costumes. From left, Julitska, [[Marie Rambert]], Jejerska, Boni, Boniecka, Faithful]]
Paris's [[Théâtre des Champs-Élysées]] was a new structure, which had opened on 2 April 1913 with a programme celebrating the works of many of the leading composers of the day. The theatre's manager, [[Gabriel Astruc]], was determined to house the 1913 Ballets Russes season, and paid Diaghilev the large sum of 25,000 francs per performance, double what he had paid the previous year.<ref>Kelly p. 276</ref> The programme for 29 May 1913, as well as the Stravinsky premiere, included ''Les Sylphides'', [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]]'s ''[[Le Spectre de la Rose]]'' and Borodin's ''Polovtsian Dances''.<ref name=K284>Kelly, pp. 284–285</ref> Ticket sales for the evening, ticket prices being doubled for a premiere, amounted to 35,000 francs.<ref>Kelly, pp. 305, 315: Gustav Linor, ''[[Comœdia]]'' 30 May 1913, reported 38,000, while a later review in ''Comœdia'' on 5 June reported 35,000</ref> A dress rehearsal was held in the presence of members of the press and assorted invited guests. According to Stravinsky, all went peacefully.<ref name=S46 /> However, the critic of ''[[L'Écho de Paris]]'', [[Adolphe Boschot]], foresaw possible trouble; he wondered how the public would receive the work, and suggested that they might react badly if they thought they were being mocked.<ref name=K282>Kelly, p. 282</ref>

On the evening of 29 May, Gustav Linor reported, "Never&nbsp;... has the hall been so full, or so resplendent; the stairways and the corridors were crowded with spectators eager to see and to hear".<ref>Kelly, p. 304, quoting Gustav Linor writing in ''[[Comœdia]]'', 30 May 1913, ''At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées: Le Sacre du printemps''</ref> The evening began with ''Les Sylphides'', in which Nijinsky and Karsavina danced the main roles.<ref name=K284 /> ''Le Sacre'' followed. Some eyewitnesses and commentators said that the disturbances in the audience began during the Introduction, and grew noisier when the curtain rose on the stamping dancers in "Augurs of Spring". But Taruskin asserts, "it was not Stravinsky's music that did the shocking. It was the ugly earthbound lurching and stomping devised by Vaslav Nijinsky."<ref>{{cite web |last=Taruskin |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Taruskin |date=14 September 2012 |title=Shocker Cools into a 'Rite' of Passage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/arts/music/rite-of-spring-cools-into-a-rite-of-passage.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905134424/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/arts/music/rite-of-spring-cools-into-a-rite-of-passage.html |archive-date=2022-09-05 |access-date=28 November 2014 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> [[Marie Rambert]], who was working as an assistant to Nijinsky, recalled later that it was soon impossible to hear the music on the stage.<ref name=H28>Hill, pp. 28–30</ref> In his autobiography, Stravinsky writes that the derisive laughter that greeted the first bars of the Introduction disgusted him, and that he left the auditorium to watch the rest of the performance from the stage wings. The demonstrations, he says, grew into "a terrific uproar" which, along with the on-stage noises, drowned out the voice of Nijinsky who was shouting the step numbers to the dancers.<ref name=S46>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 46–47</ref> Two years after the premiere the journalist and photographer [[Carl Van Vechten]] claimed in his book ''Music After the Great War'' that the person behind him became carried away with excitement, and "began to beat rhythmically on top of my head with his fists".<ref name=White177 /> In 1916, in a letter not published until 2013, Van Vechten admitted he had actually attended the second night, among other changes of fact.<ref>''The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten'', edited by Edward Burns, Columbia University Press, 2013, pp. 850–851</ref>

[[File:Russian Ballet in Paris - New York Times 1913-06-08.png|thumb|right|''[[The New York Times]]'' reported the sensational premiere, nine days after the event.<ref>''[[The New York Times]]'' (8 June 1913). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/06/08/100627576.pdf "Parisians Hiss New Ballet"]. Retrieved 4 November 2014.</ref>]]
At that time, a Parisian ballet audience typically consisted of two diverse groups: the wealthy and fashionable set, who would be expecting to see a traditional performance with beautiful music, and a [[Bohemianism|"Bohemian"]] group who, the poet-philosopher [[Jean Cocteau]] asserted, would "acclaim, right or wrong, anything that is new because of their hatred of the boxes".<ref>Ross, p. 74</ref> Monteux believed that the trouble began when the two factions began attacking each other, but their mutual anger was soon diverted towards the orchestra: "Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued to play on". Around forty of the worst offenders were ejected—possibly with the intervention of the police, although this is uncorroborated. Through all the disturbances the performance continued without interruption. The unrest receded significantly during Part II, and by some accounts Maria Piltz's rendering of the final "Sacrificial Dance" was watched in reasonable silence. At the end there were several curtain calls for the dancers, for Monteux and the orchestra, and for Stravinsky and Nijinsky before the evening's programme continued.<ref name=K292>Kelly, pp. 292–294</ref>

Among the more hostile press reviews was that of ''[[Le Figaro]]''{{'}}s critic [[Henri Quittard]], who called the work "a laborious and puerile barbarity" and added "We are sorry to see an artist such as M. Stravinsky involve himself in this disconcerting adventure".<ref>Kelly p. 307, quoting [[Henri Quittard|Quittard]]'s report in ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 31 May 1913</ref> On the other hand, Gustav Linor, writing in the leading theatrical magazine ''[[Comœdia]]'', thought the performance was superb, especially that of Maria Piltz; the disturbances, while deplorable, were merely "a rowdy debate" between two ill-mannered factions.<ref name=K304>Kelly pp. 304–305, quoting Linor's report in ''[[Comœdia]]'', 30 May 1913</ref> Emile Raudin, of ''Les Marges'', who had barely heard the music, wrote: "Couldn't we ask M. Astruc&nbsp;... to set aside one performance for well-intentioned spectators?&nbsp;... We could at least propose to evict the female element".<ref name=K292 /> The composer [[Alfredo Casella]] thought that the demonstrations were aimed at Nijinsky's choreography rather than at the music,<ref>Kelly, pp. 327–328, translated from [[Alfredo Casella|Casella, Alfredo]]: ''Strawinski''. La Scuola, Brescia 1961. {{OCLC|12830261}}</ref> a view shared by the critic [[Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi]], who wrote: "The idea was excellent, but was not successfully carried out". Calvocoressi failed to observe any direct hostility to the composer—unlike, he said, the premiere of Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' in 1902.<ref>Calvocoressi, pp. 244–245</ref> Of later reports that the veteran composer [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] had stormed out of the premiere, Stravinsky observed that this was impossible; Saint-Saëns did not attend.<ref>Kelly, p. 283</ref>{{refn|group=n|Monteux's biographer records that Saint-Saëns walked out of the Paris premiere of the concert version of ''The Rite'', which Monteux conducted in April 1914; Saint-Saëns opined that Stravinsky was "mad".<ref>Canarina, p. 47</ref>}} Stravinsky also rejected Cocteau's story that, after the performance, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Diaghilev and Cocteau himself took a cab to the [[Bois de Boulogne]] where a tearful Diaghilev recited poems by [[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]]. Stravinsky merely recalled a celebratory dinner with Diaghilev and Nijinsky, at which the impresario expressed his entire satisfaction with the outcome.<ref>Stravinsky and Craft 1959, pp. 47–48</ref> To Maximilien Steinberg, a former fellow-pupil under Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky wrote that Nijinsky's choreography had been "incomparable: with the exception of a few places, everything was as I wanted it".<ref name=H109 />

=== Initial run and early revivals ===
The premiere was followed by five further performances of ''Le Sacre du printemps'' at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the last on 13 June. Although these occasions were relatively peaceful, something of the mood of the first night remained; the composer [[Giacomo Puccini]], who attended the second performance on 2 June,<ref>Kelly, p. 294</ref><ref>Hill, p. 116</ref> described the choreography as ridiculous and the music cacophonous—"the work of a madman. The public hissed, laughed—and applauded".<ref>Adami, p. 251</ref> Stravinsky, confined to his bed by typhoid fever,<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 49</ref> did not join the company when it went to London for four performances at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Diaghilev London Walk|date= 28 June 2011|url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/diaghilev-london-walk/|publisher=[[Victoria and Albert Museum]]|access-date= 27 August 2012}}</ref> Reviewing the London production, ''[[The Times]]'' critic was impressed how different elements of the work came together to form a coherent whole, but was less enthusiastic about the music itself, opining that Stravinsky had entirely sacrificed melody and harmony for rhythm: "If M. Stravinsky had wished to be really primitive, he would have been wise to&nbsp;... score his ballet for nothing but drums".<ref>{{cite news|title= The Fusion of Music and Dancing|newspaper= The Times|date= 26 July 1913|page=8}}</ref> The ballet historian Cyril Beaumont commented on the "slow, uncouth movements" of the dancers, finding these "in complete opposition to the traditions of classical ballet".<ref name=White177>White 1966, pp. 177–178</ref>

[[File:Massine, Leonide (1895-1979) - 1914 - Ritratto da Leon Bakst.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Léonide Massine]], who choreographed the 1920 revival]]
After the opening Paris run and the London performances, events conspired to prevent further stagings of the ballet. Nijinsky's choreography, which [[Thomas Forrest Kelly|Kelly]] describes as "so striking, so outrageous, so frail as to its preservation", did not appear again until attempts were made to reconstruct it in the 1980s.<ref name=K292 /> On 19 September 1913 Nijinsky married [[Romola de Pulszky]] while the Ballets Russes was on tour without Diaghilev in South America. When Diaghilev found out he was distraught and furious that his lover had married, and dismissed Nijinsky. Diaghilev was then obliged to re-hire Fokine, who had resigned in 1912 because Nijinsky had been asked to choreograph ''Faune''. Fokine made it a condition of his re-employment that none of Nijinsky's choreography would be performed.<ref>Buckle, p. 268</ref> In a letter to the art critic and historian [[Alexandre Benois]], Stravinsky wrote, "[T]he possibility has gone for some time of seeing anything valuable in the field of dance and, still more important, of again seeing this offspring of mine".<ref>Walsh 1999, p. 219, quoting letter to Benois of 20 September/3 October 1913</ref>

With the disruption following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 and the dispersal of many artistes, Diaghilev was ready to re-engage Nijinsky as both dancer and choreographer, but Nijinsky had been placed under house arrest in Hungary as an enemy Russian citizen. Diaghilev negotiated his release in 1916 for a tour in the United States, but the dancer's mental health steadily declined and he took no further part in professional ballet after 1917.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Acocella |title=Secrets of Nijinsky |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1999/01/14/secrets-of-nijinsky/ |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=14 January 1999 |volume=46 |issue=1 |access-date=18 February 2025 |url-access=registration |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210510061339/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1999/01/14/secrets-of-nijinsky/ |archive-date=2021-05-10 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1920, when Diaghilev decided to revive ''The Rite'', he found that no one now remembered the choreography.<ref>Buckle, p. 366</ref> After spending most of the war years in Switzerland, and becoming a permanent exile from his homeland after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]], Stravinsky resumed his partnership with Diaghilev when the war ended. In December 1920 [[Ernest Ansermet]] conducted a new production in Paris, choreographed by [[Léonide Massine]], with the [[Nicholas Roerich]] designs retained; the lead dancer was [[Lydia Sokolova]].<ref name=White177 /> In his memoirs, Stravinsky is equivocal about the Massine production; the young choreographer, he writes, showed "unquestionable talent", but there was something "forced and artificial" in his choreography, which lacked the necessary organic relationship with the music.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 92–93</ref> Sokolova, in her later account, recalled some of the tensions surrounding the production, with Stravinsky, "wearing an expression that would have frightened a hundred Chosen Virgins, pranc[ing] up and down the centre aisle" while Ansermet rehearsed the orchestra.<ref name=H86>Hill, pp. 86–89</ref>

=== Later choreographies ===
The ballet was first shown in the United States on 11 April 1930, when Massine's 1920 version was performed by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] in Philadelphia under [[Leopold Stokowski]], with [[Martha Graham]] dancing the role of the Chosen One.<ref name=Juillard>{{cite web|last= Berman|first= Greta|title= Painting in the Key of Color: The Art of Nicholas Roerich|url= http://www.juilliard.edu/journal/painting-key-color-art-nicholas-roerich|work=Juilliard Journal Online|publisher=[[Juilliard School]]|date= May 2008|access-date= 27 May 2013}}</ref> The production moved to New York, where Massine was relieved to find the audiences receptive, a sign, he thought, that New Yorkers were finally beginning to take ballet seriously.<ref name=J233>Johnson, pp. 233–234</ref> The first American-designed production, in 1937, was that of the [[modern dance]] exponent [[Lester Horton]], whose version replaced the original pagan Russian setting with a [[American frontier|Wild West]] background and the use of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] dances.<ref name=J233 />
[[File:Moscow Bolshoi Theatre 2011.JPG|thumb|left|The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where the 1965 production of ''The Rite'' was described by a critic as "Soviet propaganda at its best"]]

In 1944 Massine began a new collaboration with Roerich, who before his death in 1947 completed a number of sketches for a new production which Massine brought to fruition at [[La Scala]] in Milan in 1948.<ref name=Juillard /> This heralded a number of significant post-war European productions. [[Mary Wigman]] in Berlin (1957) followed Horton in highlighting the erotic aspects of virgin sacrifice, as did [[Maurice Béjart]] in Brussels (1959). Béjart's representation replaced the culminating sacrifice with a depiction of what the critic Robert Johnson describes as "ceremonial coitus".<ref name=J233 /> The [[Royal Ballet]]'s [[The Rite of Spring (MacMillan)|1962 production]], choreographed by [[Kenneth MacMillan]] and designed by [[Sidney Nolan]], was first performed on 3 May and was a critical triumph. It has remained in the company's repertoire for more than 50 years; after its revival in May 2011 ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''{{'}}s critic Mark Monahan called it one of the Royal Ballet's greatest achievements.<ref>{{cite web|last= Monahan|first= Mark| title= Covent Garden and Salisbury Playhouse, review|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/8546035/Covent-Garden-and-Salisbury-Playhouse-review.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/8546035/Covent-Garden-and-Salisbury-Playhouse-review.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date= 30 May 2011|access-date= 18 August 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Moscow first saw ''The Rite'' in 1965, in a version choreographed for the [[Bolshoi Ballet]] by [[Natalia Kasatkina]] and [[Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer)|Vladimir Vasiliev]]. This production was shown in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] four years later, at the [[Mikhailovsky Theatre|Maly Opera Theatre]],<ref name=Balletmag>{{cite magazine|first= Elena|last= Solominskaya|title= The Ballet Time|url= http://www.russianballet.ru/eng/archives/jan-feb03/covers2.htm|magazine= Ballet magazine|date= January–February 2003|access-date= 18 August 2012|archive-date= 25 June 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130625225322/http://www.russianballet.ru/eng/archives/jan-feb03/covers2.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> and introduced a storyline that provided the Chosen One with a lover who wreaks vengeance on the elders after the sacrifice. Johnson describes the production as "a product of state atheism&nbsp;... Soviet propaganda at its best".<ref name=J233 />

{{anchor|Pina Bausch}}
[[File:CPinaBausch MAE 339978-9.tif|thumb|upright=1.3|Tanztheater Wuppertal in [[Pina Bausch]]'s production]]
In 1975 modern dance choreographer [[Pina Bausch]], who transformed the Ballett der Wuppertaler Bühnen to [[Tanztheater Wuppertal]], caused a stir in the dance world with her stark depiction, played out on an earth-covered stage, in which the Chosen One is sacrificed to gratify the misogyny of the surrounding men.<ref name=Jennings/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jun/30/pina-bausch-dies-dancer|title=Pina Bausch, German choreographer and dancer, dies|work=[[The Guardian]]|last=Wiegland|first=Chris|date=30 June 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last= Wakin|first= Daniel J.|title= Pina Bausch, German Choreographer, Dies at 68|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html?_r=1|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= 30 June 2009|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> At the end, according to ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s [[Luke Jennings]], "the cast is sweat-streaked, filthy and audibly panting".<ref name=Jennings>{{cite news|last=Jennings|first=Luke|author-link=Luke Jennings|title=Obituary: Pina Bausch|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jul/01/pina-bausch-obituary-dance|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=1 July 2009|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> Part of this dance appears in the film ''[[Pina (film)|Pina]]''.<ref name=J233 /> Bausch's version had also been danced by two ballet companies, the [[Paris Opera Ballet]] and [[English National Ballet]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://dancetabs.com/2016/01/paris-opera-ballet-polyphonia-alea-sands-le-sacre-du-printemps-paris/|title=Paris Opera Ballet – Polyphonia, Alea Sands, ''Le Sacre du printemps'' – Paris|work=DanceTabs|last=Parry|first=Jann|date=3 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/le-sacre-du-printemps-rite-spring-english-national-ballet-sadler-s-wells-review-a7655886.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/le-sacre-du-printemps-rite-spring-english-national-ballet-sadler-s-wells-review-a7655886.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=''Le Sacre du printemps'', Sadler's Wells, London, review: This is the best staging of ''Le Sacre'' I know|work=[[The Independent]]|last=Anderson|first=Zo|date=29 March 2017}}</ref> In America, in 1980, [[Paul Taylor (choreographer)|Paul Taylor]] used Stravinsky's four-hand piano version of the score as the background for a scenario based on child murder and gangster film images.<ref name=J233 /> In February 1984 Martha Graham, in her 90th year, resumed her association with ''The Rite'' by choreographing a new production at [[New York State Theater]].<ref>Johnson, pp. 235–236</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' critic declared the performance "a triumph&nbsp;... totally elemental, as primal in expression of basic emotion as any tribal ceremony, as hauntingly staged in its deliberate bleakness as it is rich in implication".<ref>{{cite news|last=Kisselgoff|first=Anna|author-link=Anna Kisselgoff|title=The Dance: ''Rite'', by Martha Graham|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/29/arts/the-dance-rite-by-martha-graham.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 February 1984|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

On 30 September 1987, the [[Joffrey Ballet]] performed in Los Angeles ''The Rite'' based on a reconstruction of Nijinsky's 1913 choreography, until then thought lost beyond recall. The performance resulted from years of research, primarily by Millicent Hodson, who pieced the choreography together from the original prompt books, contemporary sketches and photographs, and the recollections of Marie Rambert and other survivors.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fink|first=Robert|title=''The Rite of Spring'' and the Forging of a Modern Style |journal= [[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]|volume=52|issue=2|date=Summer 1999|page=299|jstor=832000|doi=10.1525/jams.1999.52.2.03a00030}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Hodson's version has since been performed by the [[Mariinsky Ballet|Kirov Ballet]], at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]] in 2003 and later that year at Covent Garden.<ref>{{cite web |title= The Joffrey Ballet Resurrects The Rite of Spring|url= http://www.nea.gov/about/40th/joffrey.html|publisher=[[National Endowment for the Arts]]|access-date= 18 August 2012 |url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120915235314/http://www.nea.gov/about/40th/joffrey.html|archive-date= 15 September 2012|df= dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-link=Maev Kennedy|last=Kennedy|first=Maev|title=Kirov revive Nijinsky's wonder|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/aug/05/arts.artsnews|work=[[The Guardian]] |date= 5 August 2003|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> In its 2012–13 season the Joffrey Ballet gave centennial performances at numerous venues, including the [[University of Texas]], the [[University of Massachusetts]], and with the [[Cleveland Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://texasperformingarts.org/season/joffrey-ballet-rite-of-spring |title= The Joffrey Ballet: The Rite of Spring|publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]]|access-date= |work = Texas Performing Arts|df= dmy-all|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130305095111/http://www.texasperformingarts.org/season/joffrey-ballet-rite-of-spring|archive-date= 5 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/03/joffrey_ballet_performing_rite.html|title= Joffrey Ballet to perform Rite of Spring and other works at UMass Fine Arts Center|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts]]|date= 10 March 2013|access-date= 24 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2013/08/cleveland_orchestra_joffrey_ba.html|title= Cleveland Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet striving for authenticity in upcoming ''Rite''|newspaper=[[The Plain Dealer]]|date= 11 August 2013|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

The music publishers [[Boosey & Hawkes]] have estimated that since its premiere, the ballet has been the subject of at least 150 productions, many of which have become classics and have been performed worldwide.<ref name=BH /> Among the more radical interpretations is [[Glen Tetley]]'s 1974 version, in which the Chosen One is a young male.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rite of Spring |url=http://www.pnb.org/AboutPNB/Repertory/TheRiteofSpring.aspx |publisher=[[Pacific Northwest Ballet]] |access-date=17 August 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319004727/http://www.pnb.org/AboutPNB/Repertory/TheRiteofSpring.aspx |archive-date=19 March 2012 }}</ref> More recently there have been solo dance versions devised by [[Molissa Fenley]]<ref>[[Anna Kisselgoff|Kisselgoff, Anna]]. "In 'State of Darkness', a Dancer's Rite of Passage", ''[[The New York Times]]'', 8 October 1988.</ref><ref>D'Aoust, Renée E. "Lowenberg at Pacific Northwest Ballet & School", The Dance Insider. July 2007.</ref> and [[Javier de Frutos]] and a punk rock interpretation from [[Michael Clark (dancer)|Michael Clark]].<ref name=BH>{{cite web|title=Stravinsky: towards The Rite of Spring's centenary |url=http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-towards-The-Rite-of-Spring-s-centenary/12217|publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]]|date=March 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026212747/http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-towards-The-Rite-of-Spring-s-centenary/12217 |archive-date=26 October 2011 }}</ref> The 2004 film ''[[Rhythm Is It!]]'' documents a project by conductor [[Simon Rattle]] with the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] and choreographer [[Royston Maldoom]] to stage a performance of the ballet with a cast of 250 children recruited from Berlin's public schools, from 25 countries.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://german-documentaries.de/en_EN/films/rhythm-is-it.6817 | title=''Rhythm is it!''| website = german-documentaries.de | date = | access-date = 7 August 2020 }}</ref>  In ''Rites'' (2008), by [[The Australian Ballet]] in conjunction with [[Bangarra Dance Theatre]], Aboriginal perceptions of the elements of earth, air, fire and water are featured.<ref>{{cite web|title= Aboriginal ballet hits Paris stage | url = http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-09-30/aboriginal-ballet-hits-paris-stage/527590|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date= 3 October 2008|access-date= 17 August 2012}}</ref>

=== Concert performances ===
On 18 February 1914 ''The Rite'' received its first concert performance (the music without the ballet), in Saint Petersburg under [[Serge Koussevitzky]].<ref>Hill, p. 8</ref> On 5 April that year, Stravinsky experienced for himself the popular success of ''Le Sacre'' as a concert work, at the Casino de Paris. After the performance, again under Monteux, the composer was carried in triumph from the hall on the shoulders of his admirers.<ref name=Vdt6>Van den Toorn, p. 6</ref> ''The Rite'' had its first British concert performance on 7 June 1921, at the [[Queen's Hall]] in London under [[Eugene Aynsley Goossens|Eugene Goossens]]. Its American premiere occurred on 3 March 1922, when Stokowski included it in a Philadelphia Orchestra programme.<ref>Smith, p. 94</ref> Goossens was also responsible for introducing ''The Rite'' to Australia on 23 August 1946 at the Sydney Town Hall, as guest conductor of the [[Sydney Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Australian Composition 1945–1959|url= http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/guides/1945-1959|first = Clinton |last=Green|publisher=[[Australian Music Centre]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |title=Sydney To Hear 'Rite of Spring{{'-}} |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29765069/996073 |date=22 August 1946 |page=5 |via=[[Trove]]}}</ref>

Stravinsky first conducted the work in 1926, in a concert given by the [[Concertgebouw Orchestra]] in Amsterdam;<ref name=VdT39 /><ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 129</ref> two years later he brought it to the [[Salle Pleyel]] in Paris for two performances under his baton. Of these occasions he later wrote that "thanks to the experience I had gained with all kinds of orchestras&nbsp;... I had reached a point where I could obtain exactly what I wanted, as I wanted it".<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 137</ref> Commentators have broadly agreed that the work has had a greater impact in the concert hall than it has on the stage; many of Stravinsky's revisions to the music were made with the concert hall rather than the theatre in mind.<ref>{{cite web|last=Freed|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Freed|title=The Rite of Spring: About the work|url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/2841|publisher=[[The Kennedy Center]]|date=20 November 2004|access-date=16 December 2019}}</ref> The work has become a staple in the repertoires of all the leading orchestras, and has been cited by [[Leonard Bernstein]] as "the most important piece of music of the 20th century".<ref name=Bernstein>{{cite news|last=Willsher|first=Kim|title=Rite that caused riots: celebrating 100 years of ''The Rite of Spring''|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/may/27/rite-of-spring-100-years-stravinsky|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 May 2013|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

In 1963, 50 years after the premiere, Monteux (then aged 88) agreed to conduct a commemorative performance at London's [[Royal Albert Hall]]. According to [[Isaiah Berlin]], a close friend of the composer, Stravinsky informed him that he had no intention of hearing his music being "murdered by that frightful butcher". Instead he arranged tickets for that particular evening's performance of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s opera ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]]. Under pressure from his friends, Stravinsky was persuaded to leave the opera after the first act. He arrived at the Albert Hall just as the performance of ''The Rite'' was ending;{{refn|group=n|In a different account of the incident, the music historian [[Richard Morrison (music critic)|Richard Morrison]] writes that Stravinsky arrived at the end of the first part, rather than at the end of the piece.<ref>Morrison, pp. 137–138</ref>}} composer and conductor shared a warm embrace in front of the unaware, wildly cheering audience.<ref>Hill, p. 102</ref> Monteux's biographer John Canarina provides a different slant on this occasion, recording that by the end of the evening Stravinsky had asserted that "Monteux, almost alone among conductors, never cheapened ''Rite'' or looked for his own glory in it, and he continued to play it all his life with the greatest fidelity".<ref>Canarina, p. 301</ref>

== Music ==
=== General character ===
Commentators have often described ''The Rite''{{'}}s music in vivid terms; Paul Rosenfeld, in 1920, wrote of it "pound[ing] with the rhythm of engines, whirls and spirals like screws and fly-wheels, grinds and shrieks like laboring metal".<ref>Rosenfeld, p. 202</ref> In a more recent analysis, ''The New York Times'' critic [[Donal Henahan]] refers to "great crunching, snarling chords from the brass and thundering thumps from the timpani".<ref>{{cite news|author-link= Donal Henahan|last= Henahan|first= Donal|title= Philharmonic: Incarnations of Spring|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/23/arts/philharmonic-incarnations-of-spring.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= 23 March 1984|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> The composer [[Julius Harrison]] acknowledged the uniqueness of the work negatively: it demonstrated Stravinsky's "abhorrence of everything for which music has stood these many centuries&nbsp;... all human endeavour and progress are being swept aside to make room for hideous sounds".<ref>Harrison, p. 168</ref>

In ''The Firebird'', Stravinsky had begun to experiment with [[Polytonality|bitonality]] (the use of two different keys simultaneously). He took this technique further in ''Petrushka'', but reserved its full effect for ''The Rite'' where, as the analyst E.W. White explains, he "pushed [it] to its logical conclusion".<ref>White 1961, p. 59</ref> White also observes the music's complex metrical character, with combinations of [[Duple meter|duple]] and [[Triple meter|triple]] time in which a strong irregular beat is emphasised by powerful percussion.<ref>White 1961, p. 61</ref> The music critic [[Alex Ross (music critic)|Alex Ross]] has described the irregular process whereby Stravinsky adapted and absorbed traditional Russian folk material into the score. He "proceeded to pulverize them into motivic bits, pile them up in layers, and reassemble them in cubistic collages and montages".<ref>Ross, p. 90</ref>

The duration of the work is about 35 minutes.

=== Instrumentation ===
The score calls for a large orchestra consisting of the following instruments:<ref>{{cite book |last=Stravinsky |first=Igor |title=The Rite of Spring |publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]] |year=1967 |type=score}}</ref>

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
'''[[Woodwind]]s'''
:1 [[piccolo]]
:3 [[flute]]s (third doubling second piccolo)
:1 [[alto flute]]
:4 [[oboe]]s (fourth doubling second cor anglais)
:1 [[cor anglais]]
:3 [[soprano clarinet|clarinets]] in B{{music|flat}} and A (third doubling second bass clarinet)
:1 [[E-flat clarinet|clarinet in E{{music|flat}}]] and D
:1 [[bass clarinet]]
:4 [[bassoon]]s (fourth doubling second contrabassoon)
:1 [[contrabassoon]]

'''[[Brass instrument|Brass]]'''
:8 [[French horn|horns]] (seventh and eighth doubling tenor [[Wagner tuba]]s)<ref>Del Mar, p. 266</ref>
:1 [[piccolo trumpet]] in D
:4 [[trumpets]] in C (fourth doubling [[bass trumpet]] in E{{music|flat}})
:3 [[trombone]]s
:2 bass [[tuba]]s
{{col-break}}

'''[[Percussion]]'''
:5 [[timpani]] (requiring two players)
:[[bass drum]]
:[[tam-tam]]
:[[Triangle (musical instrument)|triangle]]
:[[tambourine]]
:[[cymbal]]s
:[[Crotales|antique cymbals]] in A{{music|flat}} and B{{music|flat}}
:[[güiro]]
'''[[String section|Strings]]'''
:[[violin]]s I, II
:[[viola]]s
:[[cello]]s
:[[double bass]]es

{{col-end}}
Despite the large orchestra, much of the score is written chamber-fashion, with individual instruments and small groups having distinct roles.<ref name="Kelly, p. 280" />

=== Part I: The Adoration of the Earth ===
{{Block indent|<score sound="1"> \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"bassoon" \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Lento" 4 = 50 \stemDown c4\fermata(_"solo ad lib." \grace { b16[( c] } b g e b' \times 2/3 { a8)\fermata } } </score>}}
The opening melody is played by a solo bassoon in a very high register, which renders the instrument almost unidentifiable;<ref>Kelly, p. 259</ref> gradually other woodwind instruments are sounded and are eventually joined by strings.<ref name=Berger /> The sound builds up before stopping suddenly, Hill says, "just as it is bursting ecstatically into bloom". There is then a reiteration of the opening bassoon solo, now played a semitone lower.<ref name=Hill62>Hill, pp. 62–63</ref>
{{Block indent|<score sound="1"> { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin" \clef treble \key ees \major \time 2/4 \tempo "Tempo giusto" 2 = 50 <ees des bes g>8\downbow[ <ees des bes g>\downbow <ees des bes g>\downbow <ees des bes g>\downbow] } \new Staff \relative c { 
 \override DynamicText.X-offset = #-4 
 \override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #3.5
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"cello" \clef bass \key ees \major \time 2/4 <fes ces aes fes>8^\f\downbow[ <fes ces aes fes>\downbow <fes ces aes fes>\downbow <fes ces aes fes>\downbow] } >> } </score>}}

The first dance, "Augurs of Spring", is characterised by a repetitive stamping chord in the horns and strings, based on E{{music|flat}} dominant 7 superimposed on an F{{music|flat}} major [[Triad (music)|triad]], {{em|i.e.}} F{{music|flat}}, A{{music|flat}}, and C{{music|flat}}{{refn|group=n|This is [[Enharmonic equivalence|enharmonically equivalent]] to an E major triad, {{em|i.e.}} E, G{{music|sharp}}, and B; however, the score clearly notates it as an F{{music|flat}} major triad.}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stravinsky |first=Igor |title=The Rite of Spring |publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]] |year=1997 |type=score |page=10}}</ref><ref>Van den Toorn, p. 138</ref> White suggests that this bitonal combination, which Stravinsky considered the focal point of the entire work, was devised on the piano, since the constituent chords are comfortable fits for the hands on a keyboard.<ref>White 1961, p. 57</ref> The rhythm of the stamping is disturbed by Stravinsky's constant shifting of the [[Accent (music)|accent]], on and off the beat,<ref name=Ross75>Ross, p. 75</ref> before the dance ends in a collapse, as if from exhaustion.<ref name=Berger /> Alex Ross<ref name=Ross75 /> has summed up the pattern (italics = rhythmic accents) as follows:
<poem style="text-align: center;">
one two three four five six seven eight
one ''two'' three ''four'' five six seven eight
one ''two'' three four ''five'' six seven eight
''one'' two three four five ''six'' seven eight</poem>

According to Roger Nichols "At first sight there seems no pattern in the distribution of accents to the stamping chords. Taking the initial quaver of bar 1 as a natural accent we have for the first outburst the following groups of quavers: 9, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 3. However, these apparently random numbers make sense when split into two groups:
<poem style="text-align: center;">
9 6 4 3
2 3 5</poem>

Clearly the top line is decreasing, the bottom line increasing, and by respectively decreasing and increasing amounts ...Whether Stravinsky worked them out like this we shall probably never know. But the way two different rhythmic 'orders' interfere with each other to produce apparent chaos is... a typically Stravinskyan notion."<ref>{{cite book |last=Nichols|first=Roger|title=Stravinsky|publisher=The Open University Press|location=Milton Keynes|year=1978|page=7}}</ref>

The "Ritual of Abduction" which follows is described by Hill as "the most terrifying of musical hunts".<ref>Hill, p. 67</ref> It concludes in a series of flute trills that usher in the "Spring Rounds", in which a slow and laborious theme gradually rises to a dissonant fortissimo, a "ghastly caricature" of the episode's main tune.<ref name=Berger>{{cite video
 | people = [[Arthur Berger (composer)|Berger, Arthur]] (liner notes)
 | title = ''Stravinsky'': The Rite of Spring. ''Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra''
 | medium = Vinyl LP
 | publisher = Oriole Records Ltd: Mercury Classics
 | location = London
 | date = 1949
 | access-date=19 March 2021
| url = https://www.discogs.com/Stravinsky-Antal-Dorati-Conducting-The-Minneapolis-Symphony-Orchestra-The-Rite-Of-Spring-Le-Sacre-Du/release/1718845/image/SW1hZ2U6MzAyNDMyNw==}}</ref>
{{Block indent|<score sound="1"> \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"trombone" \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Molto allegro" 4 = 166 gis2. g4 | gis2. g4 | gis2. fis4 | gis ais cis ais } </score>}}
Brass and percussion predominate as the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" begins. A tune emerges on tenor and bass tubas, leading after much repetition to the entry of the Sage's procession.<ref name=Berger /> The music then comes to a virtual halt, "bleached free of colour" (Hill),<ref>Hill, p. 70</ref> as the Sage blesses the earth. The "Dance of the Earth" then begins, bringing Part I to a close in a series of phrases of the utmost vigour which are abruptly terminated in what Hill describes as a "blunt, brutal amputation".<ref name=H72>Hill, pp. 72–73</ref>

=== Part II: The Sacrifice ===
{{Block indent|<score sound="1"> \relative c'''' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin" \clef treble \numericTimeSignature \time 4/4 \tempo "Largo" 4 = 48 a4~\flageolet( a8\flageolet g\flageolet) a4(\flageolet e8\flageolet d\flageolet) | \time 2/4 g4(\flageolet e)\flageolet } </score>}}
[[File:Sacrificialdance.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Sketches of Maria Piltz performing the sacrificial dance]]
Part II has a greater cohesion than its predecessor. Hill describes the music as following an arc stretching from the beginning of the Introduction to the conclusion of the final dance.<ref name=H72 /> Woodwind and muted trumpets are prominent throughout the Introduction, which ends with a number of rising cadences on strings and flutes. The transition into the "Mystic Circles" is almost imperceptible; the main theme of the section has been prefigured in the Introduction. A loud repeated chord, which Berger likens to a call to order, announces the moment for choosing the sacrificial victim. The "Glorification of the Chosen One" is brief and violent; in the "Evocation of the Ancestors" that follows, short phrases are interspersed with drum rolls. The "Ritual Action of the Ancestors" begins quietly, but slowly builds to a series of climaxes before subsiding suddenly into the quiet phrases that began the episode.<ref name=Berger />
{{Block indent|
<onlyinclude>{{#ifeq:{{{transcludesection|sacrificialdancescore}}}|sacrificialdancescore|
<score sound="1"> { \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin" \clef treble \tempo 8 = 126 \override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #4 \time 3/16 r16 <d c a fis d>-! r16\fermata | \time 2/16 r <d c a fis d>-! \time 3/16 r <d c a fis d>8-! | r16 <d c a fis d>8-! | \time 2/8 <d c a fis>16-! <e c bes g>->-![ <cis b aes f>-! <c a fis ees>-!] } \new Staff \relative c { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"cello" \clef bass \time 3/16 d,16-! <bes'' ees,>^\f-! r\fermata | \time 2/16 <d,, d,>-! <bes'' ees,>-! | \time 3/16 d16-! <ees cis>8-! | r16 <ees cis>8-! | \time 2/8 d16^\sf-! <ees cis>-!->[ <d c>-! <d c>-!] } >> } </score>
}}</onlyinclude>
}}

The final transition introduces the "Sacrificial Dance". This is written as a more disciplined ritual than the extravagant dance that ended Part I, though it contains some wild moments, with the large percussion section of the orchestra given full voice. Stravinsky had difficulties with this section, especially with the final bars that conclude the work. The abrupt ending displeased several critics, one of whom wrote that the music "suddenly falls over on its side". Stravinsky himself referred to the final chord disparagingly as "a noise", but in his various attempts to amend or rewrite the section, was unable to produce a more acceptable solution.<ref name=H86 />

== Influence and adaptations ==
The music historian [[Donald Jay Grout]] has written: "''The Sacre'' is undoubtedly the most famous composition of the early 20th century&nbsp;... it had the effect of an explosion that so scattered the elements of musical language that they could never again be put together as before".<ref name="Grout and Palisca, p. 713" /> The academic and critic Jan Smaczny, echoing Bernstein, calls it one of the 20th century's most influential compositions, providing "endless stimulation for performers and listeners".<ref name=Bernstein /><ref name= Smac>{{cite video
 | people = Smaczny, Jan (liner notes) | title = ''Stravinsky'': The Rite of Spring. ''David Atherton conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales''
 | medium = Compact Disc | publisher = [[BBC Music Magazine]] BBC MM135 | location = London | date = 1995
 }}</ref> Taruskin writes that "one of the marks of The Rite's unique status is the number of books that have been devoted to it—certainly a greater number than have been devoted to any other ballet, possibly to any other individual musical composition&nbsp;..."<ref>Taruskin 2013, pp. 417–418</ref> According to [[Thomas Forrest Kelly|Kelly]] the 1913 premiere might be considered "the most important single moment in the history of 20th-century music", and its repercussions continue to reverberate in the 21st century.<ref name=K258>Kelly, p. 258</ref> Ross has described ''The Rite'' as a prophetic work, presaging the "second avant-garde" era in classical composition—music of the body rather than of the mind, in which "[m]elodies would follow the patterns of speech; rhythms would match the energy of dance&nbsp;... sonorities would have the hardness of life as it is really lived".<ref>Ross, p. 76</ref> The work is regarded as among the first examples of [[modernism (music)|modernism in music]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schwarm |first=Betsy |date=8 May 2020 |title=The Rite of Spring |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|location=Chicago |access-date=5 April 2021 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Rite-of-Spring }}</ref>

Among 20th-century composers most influenced by ''The Rite'' is Stravinsky's near contemporary, [[Edgard Varèse]], who had attended the 1913 premiere. Varèse, according to Ross, was particularly drawn to the "cruel harmonies and stimulating rhythms" of ''The Rite'', which he employed to full effect in his concert work ''[[Amériques]]'' (1921), scored for a massive orchestra with added sound effects including a lion's roar and a wailing siren.<ref>Ross, p. 137</ref><ref>{{cite web|last= May|first= Thomas|title= Varèse: Amériques|url= http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/ameriques-edgard-varese|publisher= The Los Angeles Philharmonic|access-date= 19 August 2012|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121202075517/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/ameriques-edgard-varese|archive-date= 2 December 2012|df= dmy-all}}</ref> [[Aaron Copland]], to whom Stravinsky was a particular inspiration in the former's student days, considered ''The Rite'' a masterpiece that had created "the decade of the displaced accent and the polytonal chord".<ref>{{cite video
 | people = Gammond, Peter (liner notes)
 | title = ''Stravinsky'': The Rite of Spring. ''Simon Rattle conducting the National Youth Orchestra''
 | medium = Compact Disc
 | publisher = Academy Sound and Vision Ltd QS 8031
 | location = London
 | date = 1988
 }}</ref> Copland adopted Stravinsky's technique of composing in small sections which he then shuffled and rearranged, rather than working through from beginning to end.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Pollack|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Pollack|title=Copland, Aaron|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06422|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000006422|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|access-date=24 April 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Ross cites the music of Copland's ballet ''[[Billy the Kid (ballet)|Billy the Kid]]'' as coming directly from the "Spring Rounds" section of ''The Rite''.<ref>Ross, p. 275</ref> For [[Olivier Messiaen]] ''The Rite'' was of special significance; he constantly analysed and expounded on the work, which gave him an enduring model for rhythmic drive and assembly of material.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Griffiths|first=Paul|author-link=Paul Griffiths (writer)|title=Messiaen, Olivier (Eugène Prosper Charles)|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18497|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018497|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2001|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|access-date=24 April 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Stravinsky was sceptical about over-intellectual analysis of the work. "The man has found reasons for every note and that the clarinet line in page 3 is the inverted counterpoint of the horn in page 19. I never thought about that", he allegedly replied to [[Michel Legrand]] when asked about [[Pierre Boulez]]'s take on the matter.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/11/09/eps/1478646323_147864.html |title=Michel Legrand: 'I despise contemporary music' |work=[[El País]] |date=9 November 2016 |access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

After the premiere the writer [[Léon Vallas]] opined that Stravinsky had written music 30 years ahead of its time, suitable to be heard in 1940. Coincidentally, it was in that year that [[Walt Disney]] released ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', an animated feature film using music from ''The Rite'' and other classical compositions, conducted by Stokowski.<ref name=K258 /> The ''Rite'' segment of the film depicted the Earth's prehistory, with the creation of life, leading to the extinction of the [[dinosaur]]s as the finale. Among those impressed by the film was [[Gunther Schuller]], later a composer, conductor and jazz scholar. The ''Rite of Spring'' sequence, he says, overwhelmed him and determined his future career in music: "I hope [Stravinsky] appreciated that hundreds—perhaps thousands—of musicians were turned onto ''The Rite of Spring''&nbsp;... through ''Fantasia'', musicians who might otherwise never have heard the work, or at least not until many years later".<ref>{{cite news|last=Teachout|first=Terry|author-link=Terry Teachout|title=Why ''Fantasia'' Mattered—Just Ask Gunther Schuller|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204644504576653263235079674?mod=googlenews_wsj%3Cbr%20/%3E|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|date=28 October 2011|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> In later life Stravinsky claimed distaste for the adaptation, though as Ross remarks, he said nothing critical at the time; according to Ross, the composer [[Paul Hindemith]] observed that "Igor appears to love it".<ref>Ross, pp. 297–298</ref>

== Recordings ==
{{Main|The Rite of Spring discography{{!}}''The Rite of Spring'' discography}}
Before the first gramophone disc recordings of ''The Rite'' were issued in 1929, Stravinsky had helped to produce a [[pianola]] version of the work for the London branch of the [[Aeolian Company]].<ref>Catalogue of Music for the 'Pianola' & 'Pianola' Piano, The Aeolian Company Ltd, London, July 1924, p. 88.</ref> He also created a much more comprehensive arrangement for the Pleyela, manufactured by the French piano company [[Pleyel et Cie|Pleyel]], with whom he signed two contracts in April and May 1921, under which many of his early works were reproduced on this medium.<ref>White 1979, pp. 619–620</ref><ref>Original contracts at the Paul Sacher-Stiftung, Basel, microfilm nos. 390018 to 390021.</ref> The Pleyela version of ''The Rite of Spring'' was issued in 1921; the British pianolist Rex Lawson first recorded the work in this form in 1990.<ref name=H162>Hill, pp. 162–164</ref>

In 1929 Stravinsky and Monteux vied with each other to conduct the first orchestral gramophone recording of ''The Rite''. While Stravinsky led [[Walther Straram|L'Orchestre des Concerts Straram]] in a recording for the Columbia label, at the same time Monteux was recording it for the HMV label. Stokowski's version followed in 1930. Stravinsky made two more recordings, in 1940 and 1960.<ref name=H162 /><ref>Hill, pp. 118–119</ref> According to the critic [[Edward Greenfield]], Stravinsky was not technically a great conductor but, Greenfield says, in the 1960 recording with the [[Columbia Symphony Orchestra]] the composer inspired a performance with "extraordinary thrust and resilience".<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Edward Greenfield|last=Greenfield|first=Edward|title=Distinctive movements in the rites of rivals|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=20 May 1988|page=34}}</ref> In conversations with [[Robert Craft]], Stravinsky reviewed several recordings of ''The Rite'' made in the 1960s. He thought [[Herbert von Karajan]]'s 1963 recording with the [[Berlin Philharmonic]], was good, but "the performance is&nbsp;... too polished, a pet savage rather than a real one". Stravinsky thought that [[Pierre Boulez]], with the [[Orchestre National de France]] (1963), was "less good than I had hoped&nbsp;... very bad tempi and some tasteless alterations". He praised a 1962 recording by The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for making the music sound Russian, "which is just right", but Stravinsky's concluding judgement was that none of these three performances was worth preserving.<ref>Stravinsky and Craft 1982, pp. 88–89</ref><!--NEEDED? PLEASE DISCUSS ON TALK PAGE However, he especially was fond of Bernstein's 1958 interpretation, having purportedly said only "Wow!" after hearing it for the first time.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ormseth |first1=Vaughn |title=New All the Time |url=https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2013/05/29/stravinsky-bernstein-la-sacre-du-printeps-rite-of-spring |website=www.yourclassical.org |access-date=29 August 2021}}</ref>-->

As of 2013 there were well over 100 different recordings of ''The Rite'' commercially available, and many more held in library sound archives. It has become one of the most recorded of all 20th century musical works.<ref name=H162 /><ref>{{cite web|title= Stravinsky: ''The Rite of Spring'' (''Le Sacre du printemps'')|url= http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/53903/Igor-Feodorovich-Stravinsky-The-Rite-of-Spring|publisher= Presto Classical|access-date= 27 August 2012}}</ref>

== Editions ==
[[File:PianoReductionRiteofSpring1913.jpg|thumb|Cover of the 1913 four-hand piano reduction of ''Le Sacre du printemps'', the first published version of the work]]
The first published score was the four-hand piano arrangement ([[Editions Russes#Names of imprints|Edition Russe de Musique]], RV196), dated 1913. Publication of the full orchestral score was prevented by the outbreak of war in August 1914. After the revival of the work in 1920 Stravinsky, who had not heard the music for seven years, made numerous revisions to the score, which was finally published in 1921 (Edition Russe de Musique, RV 197/197b. large and pocket scores).<ref name=VdT39 /><ref name=Craft />

In 1922 Ansermet, who was preparing to perform the work in Berlin, sent to Stravinsky a list of errors he had found in the published score.<ref name=Craft /> In 1926, as part of his preparation for that year's performance with the [[Concertgebouw Orchestra]], Stravinsky rewrote the "Evocation of the Ancestors" section and made substantial changes to the "Sacrificial Dance". The extent of these revisions, together with Ansermet's recommendations, convinced Stravinsky that a new edition was necessary, and this appeared in large and pocket form in 1929. It did not, however, incorporate all of Ansermet's amendments and, confusingly, bore the date and RV code of the 1921 edition, making the new edition hard to identify.<ref name=VdT39 />

Stravinsky continued to revise the work, and in 1943 rewrote the "Sacrificial Dance". In 1948 [[Boosey & Hawkes]] issued a corrected version of the 1929 score (B&H 16333), although Stravinsky's substantial 1943 amendment of the "Sacrificial Dance" was not incorporated into the new version and remained unperformed, to the composer's disappointment. He considered it "much easier to play&nbsp;... and superior in balance and sonority" to the earlier versions.<ref name=Craft>{{cite journal|author-link=Robert Craft|last=Craft|first=Robert|title=''Le Sacre du printemps'': The Revisions|journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]|series=New Series|issue=122|date=September 1977|pages=2–8|doi=10.1017/S004029820002934X|jstor=945096|s2cid=145656784 }} {{subscription required}}</ref> A less musical motive for the revisions and corrected editions was copyright law. The composer had left Galaxy Music Corporation (agents for Editions Russe de la Musique, the original publisher) for Associated Music Publishers at the time, and orchestras would be reluctant to pay a second rental charge from two publishers to match the full work and the revised Sacrificial Dance; moreover, the revised dance could only be published in America. The 1948 score provided copyright protection to the work in America, where it had lapsed, but Boosey (who acquired the Editions Russe catalogue) did not have the rights to the revised finale.<ref>Walsh 1999, pp. 151–152</ref>

The 1929 score as revised in 1948 forms the basis of most modern performances of ''The Rite.'' Boosey & Hawkes reissued their 1948 edition in 1965, and produced a newly engraved edition (B&H 19441) in 1967. The firm also issued an unmodified reprint of the 1913 piano reduction in 1952 (B&H 17271) and a revised piano version, incorporating the 1929 revisions, in 1967.<ref name=VdT39 />

The [[Paul Sacher Foundation]], in association with Boosey & Hawkes, announced in May 2013, as part of ''The Rite''{{'}}s centenary celebrations, their intention to publish the 1913 autograph score, as used in early performances. After being kept in Russia for decades, the autograph score was acquired by Boosey & Hawkes in 1947. The firm presented the score to Stravinsky in 1962, on his 80th birthday. After the composer's death in 1971 the manuscript was acquired by the Paul Sacher Foundation. As well as the autograph score, they have published the manuscript piano four-hands score.<ref>Van den Toorn, p. 36 (note 30)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-Rite-of-Spring-centenary-publications-announced/100069 |title=Stravinsky: Rite of Spring centenary publications announced |publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]]|access-date=3 April 2013 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407111544/http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-Rite-of-Spring-centenary-publications-announced/100069 |archive-date=7 April 2013 }}</ref>

In 2000, [[Edwin F. Kalmus|Kalmus]] Music Publishers brought out an edition where former Philadelphia Orchestra librarian Clint Nieweg made over 21,000 corrections to the score and parts. Since then a published errata list added some 310 more corrections. Then in 2021, Serenissima Music published a newer Nieweg edition, incorporating 2,200 more corrections based on Stravinsky's autograph manuscript score, superseding the older 2000 edition.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emsmusic.com/product_p/emsg204237.htm | title=STRAVINSKY, Igor (1882-1971) - Rite of Spring (complete) (Nieweg/Chang, 2021) (Critical Performing Edition). SERENISSIMA MUSIC | publisher=EMS Music |access-date=26 March 2024}}</ref>

== Notes and references ==
===Notes===
{{reflist|group=n|colwidth=45em}}

===Citations===
{{reflist|20em}}

===Sources===
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
* {{cite book |last=Adami|first=Giuseppe|translator=Ena Makin|title=Giacomo Puccini: Letters|publisher=Harrap|location=London|year=1974|isbn=978-0-245-52422-6|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Buckle|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Buckle|year=1979|title=Diaghilev|isbn=978-0-297-77506-5|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|location=London|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Bullard |first=Truman |title=The first performance of Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps |publisher=Ann Arbor University (microfilm copy) |location= Ann Arbor, Michigan |year=1971|oclc= 937514|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi |last=Calvocoressi |first= Michel-Dimitri|title= Music and Ballet |publisher=Faber & Faber |location=London |year=1934 |oclc=3375044|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Canarina |first=John |year=2003 |title=Pierre Monteux, Maître |location=Pompton Plains, New Jersey |publisher=Amadeus Press |isbn=978-1-57467-082-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/pierremonteuxmai00cana |ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Del Mar|first=Norman|author-link=Norman Del Mar|title=Anatomy of the Orchestra|publisher=Faber & Faber|location=London|year=1981|isbn=978-0-571-11552-5|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|last=Everdell|first=William R.|author-link=William Everdell|title=[[The First Moderns]]: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth-Century Thought|date=15 February 2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-22484-8|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Grigoriev |first=Serge |title=The Diaghilev Ballet 1909–1929 |publisher=Constable |year=1952 |location=London |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Grout |first1=Donald Jay|author-link=Donald Jay Grout|last2=Palisca|first2=Claude V.|author-link2=Claude V. Palisca|title=A History of Western Music |edition=3rd |year=1981 |location=London and Melbourne |publisher=J. M. Dent & Sons |isbn=978-0-460-04546-9|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Julius|author-link=Julius Harrison |chapter=The Orchestra and Orchestral Music |editor-last= Bacharach |editor-first= A. L.|title=The Musical Companion |year=1934 |location=London |publisher=Victor Gollancz |oclc= 991797|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last= Hill |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Hill (pianist) |year=2000 |title=Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-62714-6|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Robert |title=Sacred Scandals |journal=[[Dance Chronicle]]|volume=15 |issue=2|year=1992 |pages=227–236 |jstor=1567675 |doi=10.1080/01472529208569095|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Kelly|first=Thomas Forrest|author-link=Thomas Forrest Kelly|year=2000|title=First Nights: Five Musical Premieres|location=New Haven|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07774-2|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Morrison |first=Richard|author-link=Richard Morrison (music critic) |year=2004 |title=Orchestra |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |isbn=978-0-571-21584-3|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Neff|editor-first=Severine|editor-last2=Carr|editor-first2=Maureen|editor-last3=Horlacher|editor-first3=Gretchen|editor-last4=Reef|editor-first4=John|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2005z70|title=The Rite of Spring at 100 |year=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt2005z70|isbn=978-0-253-02735-1|ref=none}}
** Levitz, Tamara. "Racism at the Rite". In Neff et al. (2013), pp. 146–178.<!-- {{harvc|last=Levitz|first=Tamara|year=2013|chapter=Racism at the Rite|pages=146–178|in1=Neff|in2=Carr||in3=Horlacher|in4=Reef}} -->
** [[Richard Taruskin|Taruskin, Richard]]. "Resisting The Rite". In Neff et al. (2013), pp. 417–446.<!-- {{harvc|last=Taruskin|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Taruskin|year=2013|chapter=Resisting ''The Rite''|pages=417–446|in1=Neff|in2=Carr|in3=Horlacher|in4=Reef}} -->
* {{cite book |last=Orenstein |first=Arbie |title=Ravel: Man and Musician |url=https://archive.org/details/ravelmanmusician0000oren |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-231-03902-4|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Reid |first=Charles |title=Thomas Beecham: An Independent Biography |publisher=[[V. Gollancz]] |location=London |year=1961 |oclc=1016272508|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Rosenfeld |first=Paul |title=Musical Portraits: Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19557/19557-h/19557-h.htm#Mahler |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Howe |location=New York |year=1920 |oclc=854294|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Ross (music critic)|title=The Rest Is Noise|title-link=The Rest Is Noise|publisher=Fourth Estate |location=London |year=2008 |isbn= 978-1-84115-475-6|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=William Ander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mt4RB5JO4qYC&pg=PA94 |title=The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski |year=1996 |location=Cranbury, New Jersey |publisher=Association of University Presses |isbn=978-0-8386-3362-5|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Igor Stravinsky |last=Stravinsky |first=Igor |year=1962 |title=An Autobiography |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton |oclc=2872436|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Stravinsky |first1=Igor |last2=Craft |first2=Robert |author-link2=Robert Craft |title=Conversations with Igor Stravinsky |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00stra |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |year=1959 |oclc=896750|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Stravinsky |first1=Igor |last2=Craft |first2=Robert |title=Expositions and Developments |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2weWzRoq3roC |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |year=1981 |orig-year=1959 |isbn=978-0-520-04403-6|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1= Stravinsky|first1= Igor |last2=Craft |first2=Robert |title=Dialogues |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_13CPSTh1oAC |publisher= University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |year=1982 |orig-year=1961 |isbn=978-0-520-04650-4|ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |author-link=Richard Taruskin |last=Taruskin |first=Richard |title=Russian Folk Melodies in The Rite of Spring |journal=[[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]|volume=33 |issue=3 |date=Autumn 1980 |pages=501–534 |jstor=831304 |doi=10.1525/jams.1980.33.3.03a00040|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Taruskin |first=Richard<!-- |author-link=Richard Taruskin -->|title= Stravinsky and the Russian Tradition ''(Vol. I)''|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NfCNSdnpr1IC |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-07099-8|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Van den Toorn |first= Pieter C. |year=1987 |title=Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring: The Beginnings of a Musical Language |url=http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft967nb647/ |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-05958-0|ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Walsh (writer)|title=Stravinsky: A Creative Spring|publisher=Jonathan Cape|year=1999|location=London|isbn=978-0-224-06021-9|ref=none}}
* {{cite encyclopedia|last=Walsh|first=Stephen<!--|author-link=Stephen Walsh (writer)-->|title=Stravinsky, Igor|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.52818|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2012|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |ref=none}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite book |last=White |first=Eric Walter |chapter=Stravinsky |editor-last=Hartog |editor-first=Howard |title=European Music in the Twentieth Century |year=1961 |location=London |publisher=Pelican Books |oclc=263537162|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last =White |first=Eric Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rZVRysD6FJsC&pg=PA177 |title=Stravinsky the Composer and his Works |edition=Original |year=1966 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |oclc=283025|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=White |first=Eric Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfbGqVIru9oC&pg=PA619 |title=Stravinsky the Composer and his Works |edition=2nd |year=1979 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-03985-8|ref=none}}
{{div col end}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Hodson |first=Millicent |year=1996 |title=Nijinsky's Crime Against Grace: Reconstruction of the Original Choreography for Le Sacre du printemps |publisher=Pendragon Press|ref=none}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Le Sacre du printemps}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk0pvLkm7lk&lc=Ugw9Tot3Fomv579p5uN4AaABAg&ab_channel=lawrencedunn/ ''Le Sacre du Printemps''], Stravinsky's autograph manuscript
* [http://traffic.libsyn.com/gardnermuseum/stravinsky_rite_of_Spring_biss_denk.mp3 Performance of Stravinsky's four-hand piano arrangement of ''The Rite of Spring''] by [[Jonathan Biss]] and [[Jeremy Denk]] from the [[Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum]] in MP3 format
* {{IMSLP|work=The Rite of Spring, K015 (Stravinsky, Igor)|cname=''The Rite of Spring''}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/12/rite-of-spring-stravinsky ''The Rite of Spring'': 'The work of a madman'] by [[Tom Service]], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 13 February 2013
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012xtwf BBC Proms 2011 Stravinsky's ''Rite of Spring'']

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