Editing The Rite of Spring (section)

=== 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 produced 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>