Editing The Rite of Spring (section)

== 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}} {{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>