Rite of Spring

by Igor Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring was commissioned as an orchestral work for a ballet and premiered in Paris in 1913. Differing views of both the music and choreography led to a riot by the audience. The piece is divided into two parts: "The Adoration of the Earth" and "The Exalted Sacrifice." Stravinsky's piece has many defining characteristics, such as its polytonalities, polyrhythms, ostinato layers, and dissonance. This piano reduction for one piano, four hands was written by Stravinsky.

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 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."