Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"

Throughout history, as each century transitioned into the next, the shift was marked by significant change in social and creative standards. Perhaps the biggest shift in societal and artistic expression was the change from the 19th to the 20th century. The 19th century, or the "Romantic" era, was categorized by a focus on the individual, a worship of nature, and an equal value of emotions and reason. 20th century modernism had a completely different outlook on life. The modern world was pessimistic, chaotic, and fluctuating. Rather than being restricted by cause and effect reasoning, modern thought was open and constantly changing. Stream of consciousness writing flourished; in this style, authors' dictated the character's inner monologue, which was often scattered and slightly chaotic. In art, cubism and surrealism took the stage. Cubism involved the presentation of multiple views in flattened, geometric ways and surrealism portrayed the unconscious mind in implausible images. In these three forms, expression became chaotic and disorderly, rather than conforming to the structure of previous centuries. Through his use of texture and melody, Stravinsky expresses 20th century aesthetics of modernism in "Rite of Spring."

Stravinsky uses the musicality of "Rite of Spring" to convey 20th century aesthetics. At 9:18, a single, extremely high, bassoon plays the melody of the piece. Then, the bassoon fades out and, at 9:30, Stravinsky adds texture to the piece: he layers finger plucked violins, which have the melody, and violins played with, what sounds like, a quivering bow. At 9:51, the violin melody that had been playing abruptly cuts out and is replaced with loud, staccato notes played by the string and horn sections. Another sudden change occurs at 9:59, when these staccato notes are replaced by quick notes on the bassoons. This quickly switches back to the same short notes of the horn and string section at 10:03. At 10:07, a piccolo plays over the horn and strings' staccato notes, quickly followed by trumpets at 10:09. Between 10:09 and 10:28, the section with the melody changes rapidly, as does the melody. The trumpets, strings, and piccolos layer over each other, creating texture with the various melodies they are playing.

Stravinsky uses fragmentation, juxtaposition, and stratification, 20th century modernist aesthetics, in "Rite of Spring." The quick transition between the various textures and melodies of 9:38 and 9:50, then 9:50 and 9:59, and 10:03 and 10:07, demonstrates fragmentation within the piece. Then, at 10:09, when the piccolos and trumpets play different melodies simultaneously as the strings play the downbeat, Stravinsky is using stratification. As the texture of the piece becomes more diverse and the melody bounces around between 10:09 and 10:28, the different parts begin juxtaposing each other, since each is playing a separate melody, and it remains stratified as the different layers play different, slightly dissonant, parts. At this point, the piece is chaotic, similar to the modern view of life as chaos. Throughout this section of "Rite of Spring," the fragmentation, stratification, and juxtaposition demonstrate the modernist outlook that life is constantly changing and fluctuating. These three concepts are closely related to stream of consciousness writing, the inner monologue of a person rapidly bounces from one thought to another, similar to how the instruments in this song bounce from one melody to another. In cubism as well, various, opposing views are presented simultaneously and, in "Rite of Spring," stratification portrays diversified melodies simultaneously.

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