The Rite of Spring

by Igor Stravinsky

With this brilliant and uncompromising work — perhaps the most famous musical work of the twentieth century — Stravinsky changed the course of modern music forever. Discarding conventional harmonies for bizarrely dissonant chords, and uniform metrics for harshly jarring beat patterns, he created a sensational theater piece that, at the work's 1931 premier, caused the music world's most talked-about riot.
"Every law of musical syntax, every canon of harmony seems to have been violated, every limit of rhythmic perversity and eccentricity of orchestration exceeded in this tumultuous cataclysm of sound," says Grove's ; "yet with all its deliberate crudity and violence the 'Rite' is a clearly planned and perfectly controlled and coordinated piece of music [that] has long been accepted universally as a masterpiece and is in the repertory of every large symphony orchestra."
Reproduced here from an authoritative edition, the score is ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall. This affordable, durable, and portable volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.

Genres: Music, Scores, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music.

He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1946. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

He also published a number of books throughout his career, almost always with the aid of a collaborator, sometimes uncredited. In his 1936 autobiography, Chronicles of My Life, written with the help of Walter Nouvel, Stravinsky included his infamous statement that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."

Reviews

[Johannes]

Read while listening to Leonard Bernstein’s 1958 recording with New York Philharmonic.

[Raúl]

Una de las obras que me marcaron para siempre, y que me siguen atrayendo de una forma bestial (naturalmente).

[Neil]

My favorite symphonic work.