Stravinsky, Le Sacr e du Printemps

LAB-51: First Nights (Fall 2005)

TF: Evan MacCarthy

SCORE:

BOULEZ:

DESCRIPTION:

Opening

0:00

12

3:03

Bassoon solo in high register. Lento; rubato. Rhythmically free melody. Folk-like,
improvised character. Gradually denser texture
Return of solo bassoon

13

3:34

25

5:14

Repeated percussive chords in strings, bitonal; accents on various beats in the measure,
alternating with blocks of contrasting material
New melody introduced in the horn. Folk-like, smooth, narrow register.

3. Game of Abduction

37
46

6:47
7:45

Timpani and trumpet fanfare. Presto; agitated.

Opening fanfare returns in the winds, punctuated by the timpani. Forte.

4. Spring Rounds

48
49
53
54
56

8:09
8:35
10:20
11:08
11:25

Tranquillo; melody in the clarinets. Folk-like; soft. Flute trill on top.

Heavy string chords, regular beat. Later: melody in winds.
Tutti melody, fortissimo, loud percussion, heavy beats.
Short fast section. Agitated (vivo), alternating blocks of material.
Back to opening smooth melody, clarinet and flute, with trills.

5. Games of Rival Tribes

57
60

11:54
12:27

Molto allegro. Timpani and brass. Alternating blocks of material.

New melody in woodwinds; polytonal, especially at rehearsal 64: 13:23.

6. Procession of the Sage

67

13:44

Polytonal melody in tubas; overlapping rhythmic ostinati in other voices; gets very loud.

7. Adoration of the Earth

71

14:23

Low bassoons, quiet, lento. Harmonics chord in strings.

8. Dance of the Earth

72
75

14:43
15:10

Prestissimo, loud, fanfares and percussion.

Ascending scales in brass clarinet over string and brass figuration.

79
Just after 84

0:00
1:48

Largo, wavering chords in flutes. Strings enter with harmonmics; eerie sound.
Two muted trumpets, punctuated by strings. Then: woodwind arpeggios.

10. Mystic Circles of the Adolescents 91

93
97

4:07
4:28
5:14

Melody in divided strings, piano. Andante, polytonal.

Melody in flute, then clarinet; trills and tremolos in strings.
First tempo returns; melody in various groups of instruments.

11. Glorification of the Chosen One Before 104

117

7:08
8:21

Introduced by eleven drum beats. Fast, loud. Alternating blocks of material.

Opening loud material returns.

12. Evocation of the Ancestors

8:38

Timpani, menacing. Loud, shrill, homophonic chords in winds.

PART I:
1. Introduction

2. The Auguries of Spring/

Dances of the Adolescent Girls

PART II:
9. Introduction

121

13. Ritual Performance of the

Ancestors

129
134
139

9:17
10:58
11:57

Rhythmic ostinati, with tambourine. English horn enters, then repetitive melody in low flute.
Loud melody in brass, alternating with quiet sections.
Return of opening material, quiet pizzicato chords, woodwind melody.

14. Sacrificial Dance

142
149
174
201

12:43
13:15
15:15
17:15

Loud string and brass chords; frequent meter changes.

Contrasting section: quiet pizzicato in strings; loud brass enters.
Active timpani; increasing dynamics and intensity.
Percussive chords gradually build to a glissando in the flutes and final, hammered chord.

Brief synopsis of the plot: The ballet represents a fertility rite during which a girl is sacrificed. After a confusion of rustic pipes hailing the arrival of Spring, the
curtain rises to reveal a gathering of an ancient, Slavonic tribe at the bottom of a sacred hill. A village celebration is in progress: a witch tells the future, there is a
marriage by capture, round dances and games. A grand procession of the Oldest-wisest members of the village is followed by the more solemn rite of the
adoration of the earth in which the Sage devoutly kisses the hill, which has already begun to flower. In Part II, after a mysterious introduction, a dance of virgins
begins at the foot of the hill. One among them is selected to be the sacrifice and glorified by the tribe. Clad in a bearskin to show that the bear was mans ancestor,
she dances herself to death at the foot of the hill as the wised men dedicate her sacrifice to the god Yarillo.
First Performance:

Date of premiere: May 29, 1913

Igor Stravinsky: Composer
Pierre Monteux: Conductor

Dance troupe: Ballet Russes

Theater: Theatre des Champs-Elyses.
Vaslav Nijinsky: Choreographer
Nicholas Roerich: Set and costume designer.
Sergei Diaghilev: Impressario; director of the Ballets Russes; commissioned the piece.

Form in Le Sacre du Printemps: Stravinsky abandoned many traditional ideas about melodic development and formal coherence. Although some sections of the
Rite have recognizable formal schemesthe Sacrificial dance, no. 14, for instance, has an ABACA formmost do not follow such a classical structure.
Frequently, sections build in intensity and volume until jerking to an abrupt halt. Often the music progresses not by moving in an orderly fashion from one idea to
another but by shifting back and forth between a handful of evocative musical fragments. Individual sections often have strikingly different characters: some, such
as No. 9, are calm and reflective; others, such as No. 5, are hectic and violent. Stravinsky rejects notions of musical coherence in favor of an aesthetic emphasizing
the heterogeneous juxtaposition of opposites. However, certain melodies appear in more than one section: the main melodies of No. 4, for instance, are
foreshadowed in No. 2. The use of folk melodies (or at least melodies that sound folk-like) throughout the work also provides a kind of unity.
Rhythm in Le Sacre du Printemps: Stravinskys revolutionary use of rhythm adds to the tense, unsettled feeling of this work. Regular meters are often replaced by
fluctuating groupings and jarring accents. Short fragments repeat unpredictably. Stravinsky often uses unusual meters such as 5/8 and 7/8. He sometimes
combines two different metrical patterns at once, such as in No. 6, where the bass drum is in a 3-beat pattern against 4/4 in the other parts.
Terms:
Consonance: The effect produced by two or more notes sounded together or in immediate succession when the combination is judged to be stable or pleasant.
Dissonance: Antonym of consonance. Effect is judged to be unstable or unpleasant.
Ostinato: A short musical pattern (rhythmic, melodic, and/or harmonic) repeated persistently.
Pentatonic: Describes music based on the pentatonic scale, which has only five notes to the octave. Many melodies in Le Sacre are built from a five-note,
pentatonic scale, giving them a folk-like quality. Example: Very opening of the ballet.
Polychord: In a polychord, the pitches of two different chords are sounded simultaneously, producing a highly dissonant sonority. Ex. Opening of No. 2.
Polytonality: The simultaneous use of more than one key at the same time. Polytonality has been compared to cubist painting, in which objects are depicted
as seen from several perspectives simultaneously. Example: Rehearsal 60. [Bitonality: The simultaneous use of two keys at the same time.]
Polyrhythm: Two or more rhythmic patterns going on simultaneously