Paris: Jewels and Duels
After spending last weekend in Paris and the rest of this week catching up on things, I wanted to write down some thoughts I had whilst away. It’s hard to visit somewhere like Paris and not be absorbed in cultural history of the city.
Although I find much of my influence comes from paintings, sculptures, and literature, I also know that a lot of my early interests in media composing stems from roots within the impressionistic styles and techniques of Debussy and Chopin.
I was in Paris during what was to become the forth - and worst - week of protesting in the french capital in recent decades. Thousands marched in what was dubbed the ‘yellow vest’ movement, or the ‘gilets jaunes’, to protest the rising cost of fuel tax in the country. However, as weeks progressed the protests were eventually embedded with ultra-violent protestors, taking the protests to the next level.
Fortunately, I was able to avoid most of the drama, but it did get me thinking about riots and public uproar in a musical context. I could spend an ungodly amount of time detailing contemporary artists and the tabloid controversies that tend to follow commercial celebrities, but I will discuss just one. Arguably the most affecting performance in musical history: Igor Stravinsky’s premiere of The Rite of Spring.
Most people will be familiar with the Rite of Spring, many of whom may know of it’s disastrous premiere on 29th May, 1913. But for those of you who don’t here’s the jist:
At the lavish Theatre des Champs-Élysées, The Rite of Spring was to premiere in Spring of 1923. A collaboration between the director of Ballet Russes, Serge Diaghilev and Stravinsky, long-term close friends, they both previously worked on Les Sylphides together. Diaghilev would call upon various Russian composers to orchestrate a variety of Chopin's compositions for piano.
Following his successful run of Petrushka, which combined both modernist collage and elements Russian folklore - the choreography for The Rite of Spring was again performed and designed by Vaslac Nijinsky. A rising star, he was already under scrutiny for his brazenly sexualised interpretation of Debussy’s L’Apres-midi d’un Fauna, another pillar of 20th century music, however this was soon to be overshadowed.
Picture: Original sheet music from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Despite a slew of contradicting eye-witness accounts from the night, there seems to be somewhat of a general trend towards the attitude of the protests is that there may have been some intention behind the controversy. Some saying that the audience began heckling as soon as the composer entered.
So what actually caused all the commotion? The Rite of Spring had already been tipped as a controversial performance, however the sheer brutality and primitivity of the dance combined with the jarring, some-what angular accompanying music shattered peoples pre-existing expectations.
It was very much a test to the audience’s patience. From the first strike of a chord, the music is dissonant, unpredictable and jagged. The instantly recognisable main theme, performed on a bassoon at the highest of it’s register is a stressed, tethered sound. Something alien to the socialite members of the audience, and even more unconventional as an opening. The rhythmically off-beat pulsating constantly pushes the piece on. The main theme remains mostly absent of a structured melody, shifting the emphasis on to the irregular rhythm and texture.
The bizarre story centres around pagan sacrifice, embedded in a flurry of outrageous costumes and unnatural choreography, which was deemed as shocking at the time and was quite unlike many other performances of the time.
From here on, things began to get out of control. After shouting had been heard in the gallery, there was ongoing murmurs in the audience and soon after jokes made at the expense of the performance. Boos and hisses from the seating caused even more problems for the musicians, who reportedly struggled to hear each other play.
Backstage however, Nijinsky barked orders at the dancers while Diaghilev was attempting to prevent further rioting by flashing the house lights on and off. Pierre Monteux, the conductor of the premiere, was reportedly told by one of his performers that,
'Many a gentleman’s shiny top hat or soft fedora was ignominiously pulled down by an opponent over his eyes and ears, and canes were brandished like menacing implements of combat all over the theatre.'
Sounds like absolute anarchy, doesn’t it? Although musicologists report that actual eyewitness reports are slim, and contradictory in some cases, it seems likely the amount of dissonance and sheer perversion of rhythm, is what set the audience off.
For the future of 20th Century music, the Rite of Spring was a step away from the previous romantic era into a medium that remained void of displaying human expression by instilling primitive, abnormal movement and sound. Or, as Stravinsky put’s it,
‘there are simply no regions for sole searching in the Rite of Spring’
Starkly contrasting his previous work, Petrushka, which was seen as consisting of more emotional, human elements the brazen attempts at shocking the audience and instilling discomfort were not in vain.
The Rite of Spring defies every paradigm of stateliness, however, this kind of behaviour was gravely foreshadowed as the brutal barbarism of World War One loomed on the horizon. It was the catalytic push into 20th century music that the impressionist/romantic era needed and brought about an explosive new approach to musical formation and structure. New techniques even had to be developed to make Stravinsky’s score playable, the overall grandiosity of which is undeniable. Interweaved into the fabric of the piece, the heavy harmonic structure moves slowly, magnifying the grand sense of energy. Again, something that was a foreign approach to the overall structure of the piece.
Bordering on chaotic, fragments of harmony and rhythmic normality can be found. But it is the rhythmical superpositions that went beyond what had been heard at the time. In conjunction with the visceral energy and huge orchestration - it was truly a sight to behold, and would go on to greatly influence the likes of Bartok, Reich and Schoenberg. The future of musical structure, texture, costume, dance, rhythm and atonalism were centrically effected by the Rite of Spring and it’s premiere in 1923.
You can watch Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring here.
SD