Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
The Rite of Spring (Le
sacre du printemps)
The Firebird (L'oiseau
de feu) (Suite No. 2, 1919)
Igor Stravinsky was the son of a distinguished bass soloist at the
Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, creator of important rôles in new operas by
Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was born, the third of four sons, at
Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland in the summer of 1882. In childhood his
ability in music did not seem exceptional, but he was able to study music
privately with Rimsky-Korsakov, who became a particularly important influence
after the death of the composer's imperious father in 1902. He completed a
degree in law in 1905, married in the following year and increasingly devoted
himself to music. His first significant success came when the impresario
Dyagilev, a distant relative on his mother's side of the family, commissioned
from him the ballet The Firebird, first performed in Paris in 1910. This
was followed by the very Russian Petrushka in 1911 for the Dyagilev
Ballets Russes, with which he was now closely associated, leading in 1913 to
the notorious first performance of The Rite of Spring, first staged,
like the preceding ballets, in Paris. Although collaboration with Dyagilev was
limited during the war, when Stravinsky lived principally in Switzerland, it
was resumed with the ballet Pulcinella, based on music attributed to
Pergolesi, and marking Stravinsky's association with neo-classicism. The end of
the association with Dyagilev was marked by what the impresario considered a
macabre present, the Cocteau collaboration Oedipus Rex.
Stravinsky has been compared to his near contemporary Picasso, the
painter who provided décor for Pulcinella and who through along career was to
show mastery of a number of contrasting styles. Stravinsky's earlier music was
essentially Russian in inspiration, followed by a style of composition derived
largely from the eighteenth century, interspersed with musical excursions in
other directions. His so-called neo-classicism coincided with the beginning of
a career that was now international. The initial enthusiasm for the Russian
revolution of 1917 that had led even Dyagilev to replace crown and sceptre in
The Firebird with a red flag, was soon succeeded by distaste for the new
régime and the decision not to return to Russia.
In 1939, with war imminent in Europe, Stravinsky moved to the United
States, where he had already enjoyed considerable success. The death of his
first wife allowed him to marry a woman with whom he had enjoyed a long earlier
association and the couple settled in Hollywood, where the climate seemed
congenial. Income from his compositions was at last safeguarded by his
association with Boosey and Hawkes in 1945, the year of his naturalisation as
an American citizen. The year 1951 saw the completion and first performance of
the English opera The Rake's Progress, based on Hogarth engravings with
a libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, a work that came at the final
height of the composer's neo-classicism. The last period of his life brought a
change to serialism, the technique of composition developed by Arnold
Schoenberg, a fellow-exile in California, with whom he had never chosen to
associate. In 1962 he made a triumphant return to Russia for a series of
concerts in celebration of his 80th birthday. Among his final compositions are
the Requiem Canticles of 1965-6 which follow his Requiem Introitus for
the death of the poet T.S. Eliot, but prefigure his own death, which took place
in New York in April, 1971. He was buried in the cemetery on the island of San
Michele in Venice, his grave near that of Dyagilev, whose percipience had
launched his career sixty years before.
The Rite of Spring, with choreography by Nijinsky was first staged at the
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris in May, 1913. The work had already caused
considerable trouble in Dyagilev's ballet company. Nijinsky, the principal male
dancer, in 1912 began to replace Fokin as choreographer, and with The Rite
of Spring he tackled a formidable task, to provide a new kind of dance for
a plot of primitive symbolism and energy, coupled with music of a very new
kind. Stravinsky alleged a degree of musical incompetence in Nijinsky, who
needed, he once claimed, to be taught the rudiments of the subject.
Nevertheless the dancer was able to match the music with something equally
original and startling. Neither music nor choreography proved in any way
acceptable to the general public on the occasion of the first performance,
although all had gone well enough in a preview before an invited audience of
cognoscenti. At the first public performance there was an uproar, as members of
the audience took sides for or against the piece. In spite of deafening and
violent objections from many, the dancers and musicians continued to the end,
although the music was inaudible. The result was, at least, a succès de
scandale. In later years the music of the ballet was to exercise a strong
influence over the course of twentieth century music, although Nijinsky's
original choreography proved less durable.
Drawing on pagan Russia as its source of inspiration, The Rite of
Spring opens with the Adoration of the Earth, the introduction to
which is marked by the evocative bassoon solo with which it starts and
finishes, leading without a break to the forceful rhythm of the Augurs of
Spring, Dances of the Young Girls (‘Les augures printaniers: Danses des
adolescentes’). The Ritual of Abduction (‘Jeu du rapt’) follows, with
two groups of girls, dressed in red, pursued in a simulated ritual of
abduction, by the young men. The Spring Rounds (‘Rondes printanières’)
are introduced by trills on flutes, with a simple Russian clarinet melody, the
dancers moving in circles. Now the Ritual of the Two Rival Tribes begins
(‘Jeux des cités rivales’), interrupted by the Procession of the Sage (‘Cortège
du sage’), as the tribal elders lead in their wise old high priest. He lies
prone on the ground, in adoration
of the earth (Adoration de la terre), after which the people celebrate
with the Dance of the Earth (‘Danse de la terre’).
The second part of The
Rite of Spring is The Sacrifice (‘Le sacrifice’). The mysterious
introduction evokes a twilight scene, desolate, and yet inhabited by strange
and primitive creatures. A dark hill-top is marked by sacred stones and totems.
From the Mystic Circles of Young Girls (‘Cercles mystérieux des
adolescentes’) one will be chosen as sacrificial victim, as they circle in
rhythmic motion, watched by the tribal elders. Once the victim is chosen, lost
in an ecstatic trance, her rôle is glorified in The Glorification of the
Chosen One (‘Glorification de l'élue’), a dance of fierce asymmetrical
rhythms. Fanfares herald the Evocation of the Ancestors (‘Evocation des
ancêtres’), and the elders, wearing animal-skins, celebrate the Ritual
Action of the Ancestors (‘Action rituelle des ancêtres’), moving forward to
the stark and exotic rhythms of the final Sacrificial Dance (‘Danse
sacrale’), as the victim joins in a ritual that must end in her own death.
The ballet The
Firebird (‘L'oiseau de feu’) was devised for Dyagilev by Fokin. Music was
originally commissioned from Lyadov, but delay on his part led to an invitation
to Stravinsky, who had already scored for Dyagilev two movements of Les
Sylphides for the 1909 Paris season. Décor was by Golovin, with costumes
for the Firebird, danced by Karsavina, and for the Tsarevna by Bakst.
Stravinsky started the music in November 1909 and completed it in orchestral
score by May, 1910, in time for its first staging at the Paris Opéra on 25th
June. He later arranged three concert suites from the ballet. The second of
these, written in 1919, uses a smaller orchestra than the extravagant original
ballet score.
Prince Ivan captures
the exotic Firebird in the magic garden of the ogre Kashchey. He releases her
when she gives him one of her feathers, to be used to summon her help in
moments of danger. Ivan falls in love with the beautiful Tsarevna, one of
thirteen princesses held prisoner by Kashchey, whom Prince Ivan finally defeats
with the help of the Firebird. In the second Suite the first dance of
the Firebird is followed by the dance of the Princesses, based on Russian
folk-songs. The dance of the ogre Kashchey and his subjects leads in the
ballet, to the Firebird Lullaby, and the Suite ends with the
rejoicing of the Finale, when the Prince and his Princess are united.