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Coincidentally, my family named one of my cats Stravinsky, and he was one of the weirdest freaking animals I’ve ever known. And then we named one Igor, and he was even weirder.

For us orchestra conductors, the Rite of Spring is one of the most challenging pieces in repertoire, a rite of passage, one could even say 🔥

Actually the riot was more about the dancing. This was really what choked at the time. The proof was that a little bit later (days or weeks)a concert with only the music was played and was actually appreciated (it was still weird but did not cause riots)

When you mentioned Debussy, I smiled, because some of his pieces truly feel like film score. Debussy is one of my favorite composers as well.

The riot was not caused by the music (as someone else here already pointed out); Rather, it was Vaslav Nijinsky's non-ballet "stomping" choreography that the audience raged about. Stravinsky had two very successful premieres of the Firebird and Petrushka in Paris just within 3 years prior to Rite, and the audience knew what to musically expect when attending the Rite premiere. Cool that there was an Einstein on the Beach shoutout, though.

Disney's Fantasia (the 1940's version) was my favorite movie since kindergarten and most of those pieces had a place in my heart long before I knew who wrote them or even that they weren't made for the film

I first heard "Rite of Spring' in the Disney film 'Fantasia' when I was 6-years-old. I remember it was played during the prehistoric scene showing dinosaurs and earthquakes!

Rite of Spring is my FAVORITE ballet of all time! The beats just slap so hard. I also love the Viola parts he wrote for us, especially in the Mystic Circles of the Young Girls where we have a sectional Solo. Absoleutky gorgeus.

"I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it" - Igor Stravinsky after the premiere of Rite of Spring, 1913. I love The Rite of Spring since I ever listened to it for the first time, and it was comparing several sections to John Williams' Star Wars' scores, there's a track from Star Wars called "Dune Sea" when C3PO is walking on Tatooine's Dune Sea which sounds pretty similar to introduction of Part 2 of the Rite: The Sacrifice, maybe that's why I love it so much, along with other composer which pieces sounds like film scores, including romantics like Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss, even The Planets by Holst (which George Lucas used as temp-tracks to give Williams an idea about how he wanted Star Wars to sound like), even the twelve tone music by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern which sounds like horror film music and it would be great to analyze that, it's 20th century music after all, cinema was already a thing in those days, many composers were inmigrating to the the United States to find jobs and even working in Hollywood. Also thanks for speaking about Einstein in the Beach, I remember watching it once I didn't knew I was viewing an opera.

13:45 I knew that King Crimson was inspired by Stravinsky but playing this on piano made me realize that this line shows up in Lark's Tongue in Aspic pt. 3. This is truly one of the most influential music pieces ever.

Also, Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin was immediately banned after its permiere because of its dark subject matter- the entire piece of music is about the usage of a female prostitute to entice men to steal their money, until one man (the mandarin) becomes obsessed with the woman, and basically he ends up dead at the end. But it conveys this story so well and some of it could pass as metal music..

One of my favourite quotes about Einstein on the Beach was from a reviewer who said something like “Sure, your mind wanders during the 5 hours, but it wanders in a world created by the music”. I bought the CD in the early 90s, and though I’ve only listened to it once all the way through, parts of it are burned into my brain. Minimalism doesn’t seem as shocking to me now, possibly because it’s had a big influence on electronic music, particularly Reich.

My favourite piene in the impressionist or odd, strange genre of music is John Cage's 4'33. Thats not a meme either, framing the background noises of the auditorium or wherever you're performing the piece, to me, is very interesting. It's not just silence, the audience is the performer, providing music for themselves

Please do a breakdown of the French impression era. Ravel and Debussy are some of the best. Writing nostalgic music without ever having heard it before

A classical saxophonist, I’ve always been drawn to more “modern” works as our instrument is newer and only had transcriptions of older works to go by and many composed pieces for the saxophone featured newer harmonies, rhythm and themes. Philip Glass’ Concerto for Saxophone Quartet is so awesome. I might note, I love listening to minimalist music as I knit 🧶. The repetition and slow development matches the art of knitting perfect. At least for myself 😅

Leonard Bernstein must have drawn a lot of inspiration from Rite of Spring. It seems pretty related to West Side Story.

I love Philip Glass so much. I'm happy you played Einstein on the Beach.

I happened to be privileged enough to hear the Rite of Spring in person this January in Amsterdam. Holy shit it was amazing. I've listened to it so many times but no HQ recording can compare to the real thing. It was an experience to remember.

Saint Saens was also in the audience for the premiere of Rite of Spring. When he heard the opening bassoon solo, he asked the man next to him “What instrument is that?”. The man said “That’s a bassoon sir.” Saint Saens then retorted “If that’s a Bassoon, then I’m a baboon!”

If I remember correctly, what caused the riot with the Rite of Spring actually didn't involve the music at all, but rather, was the choreography and costuming, since the Rite of Spring is a ballet, not simply a piece of music.

Could you talk about Lili Boulanger someday?

''and it's ironically providing the perfect soundtrack for all of the chaos'' i just LOVE this !!! thank you for being here on YT man !

My favorite part is the start of act two, The sacrifice. Which John Williams essentially used as the Dune sea music in A New Hope.

I remember as a 13-year-old kid just learning to play the violin and learning to play The Rite of Spring. I studied it, recorded it from Fantasia on a cassette tape, tried to find the sheet music, couldn't find the sheet music without emptying my piggy bank, created my own sheet music, bought two CDs, and then kept practicing. Even now with the actual sheet music, I can still barely play it.

In college we had to go to at least 10 concerts a year, and 4th year rep was modern like Reich and Glass. Music tech concerts too. Some of it was about pushing boundaries; some was about testing patience; breaking through the wall like the mentality of a marathon. Stockhausen's Mantra was a brilliant live experience. The music tech that accidentally played their piece at half speed was hilarious, he noticed it after 5 mins and restarted it. There was only one experience where I went in with an open mind and I was nothing but angry by the end. I really tried. I really wanted to be engaged. It's so interesting that Stravinsky was considered to be like that; it's beautiful!

I've come to really love the Rite of Spring! At least as an orchestral cello player, it was super intense to learn for the first time, but by the time you've performed it once or twice it's a thrilling, satisfying experience to nail all the crazy time signatures, stabs, and runs!

4:06 I will always know this as the piece that the DCI corps Carolina Crown used as their opener in 2013, the only year that they have won, and the only show ever to get a perfect score for music.

Talk about Alban berg’s opera Wozzeck, it has very strange harmonies and very cool cord progressions

I think you should check out Charles Ives, particularly Central Park in the Dark. It was composed a full seven years before The Rite of Spring, yet has a middle part that’s about as chaotic and insane as Stravinsky’s work. He was truly ahead of his time!

For another conjunction of "strange" orchestral music with movie soundtracks, try the pieces by Ligeti that Kubrick used on the iconic 2001 soundtrack.

I was literally raised on The Rite of Spring. As child it became sort of a lullaby as my father would often play a recording of Rite after I was put to bed and I would fall asleep to Stravinsky. BTW, I also love Steve Reich especially Music for 18 Musicians.

My son and I were there at le théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 29, 2013 at 8:00 pm, exactly 100 years later to the minute with Gergiev conducting the Mariinksy. The President of France was in the audience seated near Pierre Boulez about 50 feet away from us and Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer were in the front row and to the left. Daria Pavlenko was excellent as the terrified Chosen One. I kept thinking of the ghosts of the attendees in that famous riot around me, 100 years earlier. Musically I will never experience anything greater than this 40 minutes for the rest of my life.

Out of context but I find myself going back to the Hook 1991 soundtrack every now and then its just pure magic

This is one of my favorite videos of yours, and I watch all your stuff. The perspective you bring with your jazz experience and your movie score passion make this very insightful.

You could make a video on the "Skandalkonzert" in Vienna also in 1913 conducted by Arnold Schönberg (who later developed the 12-tone technique). The music in this concert was also very experimental, the audience couldn't handle it either and in the ensuing riot the concert organizer slapped one of the audience members. One attending critic later dubbed the slap "the most harmonious sound of the evening". Here's the wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandalkonzert

John Williams would be nowhere without Stravinsky and Holst. In Star Wars Episode IV, the early scene where the droids are in the desert on Tatooine, the music is almost directly lifted from the Rite of Spring, the Introduction to Act II.

Stravinsky?!?!? As In Igor Stravinsky?!? LET'S GO!!! Come On Charles You Can't Mention "The Rite Of Spring" Without Mentioning The "Firebird Suite" More Specifically "The Infernal Dance Of King Kashchei And His Subjects" By Igor Stravinsky. I've Been A Huge Fan Of That Tune Ever Since I Was In Middle School.🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

My favorite anecdote that's definitely apocryphal is that Saint-Saens was also in attendance, and during the bassoon solo he asked the person next to him "What instrument is that?". When the person next to him replied that it was a bassoon, he said "That's a bassoon? Then I'm a baboon!"

I did a research paper on The Rite of Spring in college. I read reviews from people in the audience and interviews with those who worked with the composer and the inner circle. Immediately after the performance. Stravinsky and crew went to a restaurant to sulk about a dismal reception and a few contemporary reports exist. I feel that is that it wasn’t a riot at all but an audience heckling an unexpected “ridiculous”spectacle with comically bad dancing (for which none of the choreography survived) silly costumes, and “terrible” dissonant music (that’s me reading between the lines). At some point Stravinsky and publicist began fostering the idea that the music caused a riot rather than a bored audience making their own entertainment. A lie travels around the world ten times in the time it takes the truth to get its pants on.

A few additional notes: The riot was caused by the choreography at least as much as by the music. After the first performance ended in a riot, every following performance did as well. Ar some point lots of people were coming not to see the ballet or listen to music, but to riot. As a woman spectator asked, "Excuse me, do you know when the riot starts?" Bella Bartok's ballet "The Miraculous Mandarin," first performed in 1926 in Cologne, also caused a riot.

You could add Beethoven's Grosse Fuge to this list. That piece is probably even more revolutionary and ahead of its time than the others listed here. 100 years before The Rite. Another reason Beethoven was the greatest. (He was completely deaf when he wrote it, btw)

I remember my band professor had us play excerpts of this in high school and it was infamous to the students because none of us wanted to play it and no one believed his story of the riot. Hearing the beginning solo still makes us shudder.

This is one of my favorite pieces of music period! I listen to different recordings of it all the time and something about it is just perfect to my mind

Rite of Spring was one of the pieces I had to learn for conducting as part of my Music Theory course. I remember the first time I heard it, it blew my mind cause of the time signature changes that are so frequent. Took me back, thank you for covering it!

Very good video ! I love the image of the new path to take for musical adventure. When I was a guitar teacher, I used to apply classical techniques I learned, but they always wanted to know why you can't put your neck hand's thumb on the neck. Now I see how guitar techniques have evolved, I think I'd teach quite differently.

I - a guitarist - once said Rite of Spring was my favourite piece of classical music. My friend - a classical pianist - answered: “of course you love Rite of Spring - it’s just a bunch of riffs.” And it is!

I am so glad you went to film music. The beauty of art influencing art. Great vid.

Great video! Williams was amazing in how he found go back and forth between lush romantic harmony and modernistic styles, with a little jazz thrown in. The Rite of Spring passage quoted at 13:13 is repeated almost exactly in the JAWS main theme! Williams also got his Stravinsky on quite boldly in The Dune Sea / Jaws Sandcrawler, and especially in Battle of Hoth (Imperial Walkers) from Empire, which is WILD.

On one hand, I love Rite of Spring. on the other... _Stravinsky why did you write the strings like that_

Oh man! I wasn't expecting you to cover Steve Reich. What a pleasant surprise - his musical works got me through many a long night of studying throughout high school and college.

Right of Spring is one of my favorite works!!!!!!! That uncomfortable "work" to understand the zone. The sonic dissonance and oddity do get into your brain and you transmogrify into the auditory bliss!!! Like Richard D James, and early Laurie Anderson.

wow - that piece from Stravinsky literally was hair raising experience with tears coming to my eyes; and i was listening to it with an ipad speaker. imagine being in the concert hall!

I don’t like to call it ‘turning your brain to mush’ that would imply a lack of function, I would prefer to call acclimating and therefore being more receptive

Einstein on the Beach was arranged for a Drum Corp show, E=mc2 in 2013 by Carolina Crown and won with a perfect score! I did not know where it originally came from but now it makes sense as to why it was so striking. Coincidentally the Blue Devils did Rite of Spring

Charles again looking at some music that I would not ordinarily choose to listen to. Thanks for expanding our musical horizons!

Appreciate this historical perspective. Not only is Stravinsky's influence apparent in film, the first segment played here at 5:55, reminds me of a french industrial band with this song from the nineties: The Young Gods: "Les Enfants" at the two minute, 20 second mark. To my ear it's clear Stravinsky inspired The Young Gods, and/or their collaborators *also the whole bombastic rising french horn theme and drums continues at the end for the big rise

I just want to see a cinematic rendition of Stravinsky, Ravel and Debussy : sitting side by side on the premiere, going full stink face like a bunch of bros at a concert as the polychords start to rumble ! x) Also : You absolutely need to make a "Listen..." video on the different version of One Winged Angel from FFVII over the years it's like the Rite of Spring on steroids !

I played this recently with my college orchestra, it was legit the most difficult piece I’ve played! Super fascinating though, thanks for the video!

FYI: I don't know how much is it known outside Italy, but we have a similar story from a theatre show In the early 20's Luigi Pirandello, a genius screenwriter who wrote a lot about society, masks and roles (not only in theater) premiered "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (Sei personaggi in cerca di autore). This show was really modern and bizarre for the time: through the plot the characters started talking with the author, in the seatings, and interacted with him talking about their story and what they wanted as characters for themselves. It is said that in the first years this was shown, people rioted, throw their papers and got really enraged with the "4th wall break" and the post-modernism of the show. It is one of the most beloved work of Pirandello, with "il fu mattia pascal", "uno, nessuno, centomila", "Enrico IV" and many more. If you cannot find and english version of the show or the book, there is a film modernization of the book called "happy family" from Gabriele Salvatores.

I first heard the rite of spring when I saw Pina Bausch's double bill contemporary dance piece, 'The Rite of Spring' and 'Cafe Muller'. Learning about the chaos that he caused is pretty amusing as Pina also created a lot of uproar with the dancing she choreographed to Stravinsky's music - the power of art is pretty poignant with this music for sure :)

Carolina Crown preformed excepts of Einstein on the Beach in 2013 and it was very interesting to preform, one of the hardest shows I’ve ever preformed but man it was wild and fun to be apart of. Ironically the Blue Devis preformed the ReRite of Spring the same year, it was such a cool take of the piece and by far my favorite show they have preformed.

I remember hearing this for the first time as a kid in Fantasia. Terrified me but I couldn’t stop listening to it. I recommend checking out some work by Masakatsu Takagi, specifically his album Kagayaki. Amazing pianist and his use of melody and harmony is gorgeous and unconventional

Very interesting video! It does sound very current, like a film score. I had never realized that. I would love a video on Schoenberg because I have a harder time getting into his music than this or Reich

I used to watch Disney's Fantasia over & over again when I was like a baby and the Rite of Spring section was always one of my favorite parts! Funny that what was so weird to audiences was just normal film music to my baby brain. Also I noticed that part you pointed out at 13:51 kinda reminds me of spooky cave levels in early video games.

A cool detail not mentioned in the video is the last chord of the piece spells out “dead” The ballet is about a young tribeswoman being sacrificed to the gods and dances herself to death in a ritual.

Love Stravinsky. A few years ago I got to see the Boston Pops playing The Firebird Suite at Tanglewood. Just blown away. As far as other music from that time period, how about any of Luigi Russolo's music? Or if you want more orchestral, Lili Boulanger's D’un suir triste? I recently saw the Yale Symphony do a great performance of that piece. My date and I were transfixed.

Currently studying this for A level and found it really difficult to grasp, but your explanations of the context of the piece as well as the musicality really helped me!

I was thinking “huh that sounds a LOT like an action film soundtrack!”

I’ve heard many people say Rite of Spring could be inspired by Scriabin’s Prometheus.

I first heard this when my mom took me to see Fantasia in 1990/1 and loved it so much. It’s so cacophonous and passionate. This and Mussorgsky started my enjoyment of Russian composers.

Thanks you talk about Stravinsky Waiting for this … this piece from my childhood is a mystery yet very simple at it core

One of my favorite compositions.

I can't thank you enough for you making this video!!!!

Omg, I learned about this in my music appreciation class!!

I went to the premiere of Steve Reich's Radio Rewrite, which is basically a reworking of two Radiohead songs. That was an awesome experience, Reich also went on stage to perform Clapping Music

one reminder of Rite of Spring is that much of it (ok, about half) is something the last few generations have heard as *children* because of Disney's Fantasia. I first saw it at age 4 in 1974 (and soon again in 1977), and segments of it were occasionally repeated on Wonderful World of Disney in the 70s, a Sunday evening tradition. There's something to be said for exposure to interesting/different music when a kid. You take it as 'normal' because it is there with everything else your parents have around them, side by side. There's nothing "wrong" with it because you had no basis of comparison to decide that something else was '"right". Now there are exceptions to that, of course, and some things will always feel more right than others just because of the innateness of the tonic-dominant relationship and harmonic series. But the young exposure is a factor even as much as how many action films since are inspired by it. I note that even Debussy's Faun, considered today one of the gentlest and most relaxing pieces, was greeted by the audience negatively given its extensive tritones and the total unfamiliarity with the whole-tone scale, at least according to Bernstein's Harvard Lectures.

Hey, this time my prog-rock-afficinado self can contribute to comments on Stravinsky's influence. The part at 6:58 reminds me of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, and several others evoke early Alan Parsons Project to me (typically Fall of the House of Usher). Thanks for the video and also for shouting out Philip Glass!

really cool video, love learning history. rite of spring immediately reminded me of the score from monster hunter world, bazelgeuse theme. so cool to hear the ancestral patterns of modern action and epic fantasy themes in my favourite pieces from games in this piece

Minimalist music is an inspiration for me. I like to hum my own melody while listening to these pieces. It’s like listening to a dream.

The Rite of Spring is actually my favourite piece of classical music and I know it by heart odd meters and all, and I'm not even a musician. If I remember correctly, as avant-garde as the music was, the audience was actually more taken aback by the choreography than by the music itself. In fact, the original choreography was only performed 8 times until it was reconstructed in the 80s. Also, even though there was undeniably an unruly behaviour during the première, the term riot is a huge exaggeration and it was first used in some reviews that came out several years after the première.

I bought the Reich record in the late 70s a few years after it came out. I discovered cannabis at the same time. Needless to say, I really liked it. I graduated to Stockhausen and Bitches Brew soon after. Needless to say when I discovered Stravinsky a few years later, I felt is was totally easy listening. Love it to this day. Just one thing : DON'T CALL IT BIZARRE. I'd rank Lawrence Welk as bizarre. Not Stravinsky. What sounds normal in Stravinsky today is that his music became foundational to cinematic scores.

I remeber listening to this brilliant music as a child, fascinated, with dark and disturbing visions dancing in my head... I loved it :D !! and I still do.

Fun video, I love every piece you have discussed in it...what a diverse collection of riot inducing music! Reich and Glass are an acquired taste for sure, but rewarding when you get past the barriers of expectation. Stravinsky's Rite has surely become less 'offensive ' since 1913 and like you said, film composers have helped to make that transition more smooth for our modern sensibilities...as for the historical aspect, I know Ravel is said to have been there with Les Apaches, but I have never heard that Debussy was in attendance at the riot premiere, but I have heard that Saint Saens was there and hated it...great video

11:42 - I would say that Star Wars was more inspired by Holtz' "The Planets".

This piece is my favourite work in the history of western classical music. The pinnacle of musical expression, and inspiration.

I recall a performance in the early 2000's by the NYP - Messiaen's "Éclairs sur l'Au- Delà" More and more people in the "expensive" seats (probably subscription holders) got up and left with every movement. IAs Rodney Dangerfield often said:: "Tough crowd. Tough crowd". Me? I touchingly enjoyed it! But then, I'm a Messiaen fan. Love 'The Rite' too! Thank you for exposing your viewers to it!

Yo idk about time period but check out anything by Gustav Mahler. Hes got some incredible harmony stuff going on especially in symphony 2

The rite gives me goosebumps. Makes me want to dance in an extatic trance in the woods

the part you try to break down is the best :D it's actually poly tonal, E-flat 7 over F-flat major, it's very nice

Will you ever go over atonal music? You’ve nailed the tip of the iceberg and I’m genuinely curious

I was so excited to hear you cover the the Rite of Spring infamous debut that I couldn't have clicked on this video any faster

Playing this (on timpani) was one of the scariest, yet rewarding, experiences of my life.

The Rite of Spring reminds me of West Side Story's Prologue and The Rumble

There's a whole episode that could be dedicated to Reich and phasing/phase music- using physical reel to reel tape I think. It's a huge component of his work.

I would love for you to critique Mahlers 5th symphony. The second movement, in particular has a lot of these chaotic qualities. And then there’s the third movement of his 9th symphony, which is music so complex, hard to imagine how it was conceived.

Love the excitement for Reich and Glass. Turtle Dreams by Meredith Monk is one of my personal favorites of the strange and long pieces.

My exposure to Stravinsky was thanks to the original Disney's Fantasia which put the story of evolution (until the death of the dinosaurs!) to the entire suite. However, I listened to it a lot on CD on it's own as a teen, then I got into metal in late teens and there a so many similarities in the feelings I get.

The Rite of Spring is my absolutely favourite piece of music!!! It was one of the ways I'm able to get my creativity going...

12:52 whispers "'oh man just look at the time changes here, they're all over the place" lol so funny