Posted on by tjphilbrick

Top 25 #12 – The Rite of Spring

Hello all,

We continue our series on the Top 25 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music with Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”

The “Rite of Spring” was a complete scandal when it was first performed. Stravinsky wrote it as the score for a French ballet in 1929, and the audience was horrified by Stravinsky’s disregard for conventional harmonic structures. When combined with Russian Ballet director Serge Diaghilev’s jolting choreography, the dissonant sounds of Stravinsky’s music were anything but “spring”-like. However, this notoriety ended up serving “The Rite of Spring” well. It is now performed just as often in orchestral settings as it is in ballet settings. The music has come to define an era of music.

“The Rite of Spring” is based on a representation of Russian rituals and culture that Stravinsky had been wanting to compose for many years. The themes are simple and dark, depicting furious storms and violent struggles. Stravinsky described it as “a musical-choreographic work . . . unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of Spring.” There is no specific storyline that unifies “The Rite of Spring,” just a serious of separately choreographed scenes that represent moments in time.

Enjoy!

T

Posted on by tjphilbrick

Top 25 #4 – Blue, Blue, Blue

Hello all,

This fourth installment in our Top 25 series is the Blue Danube Waltz by Austrian composer Johann Strauss.

You’re more likely to hear the Blue Danube Waltz on New Year’s Day than on October 5th, but it has to be on this countdown because is one of the most popular and well-loved pieces ever written. As a result of this waltz’s success, Strauss was nicknamed “The Waltz King.”

However, the New Year’s Day tradition in which the Vienna Philharmonic performs this waltz to listeners around the globe belies the less-than-pleasant circumstances of its writing. Strauss essentially wrote the waltz to cheer up his country. Austria had just been defeated by Prussia in the Seven Weeks’ War and was in the midst of a post-war economic downturn. He based it on a Karl Beck poem that included the line “By the Danube, the beautiful blue Danube,” and made it his mission to lift the spirits of Austria with a upbeat and memorable waltz.

There are five distinct themes in this waltz. The delightful video for today’s music does a fantastic job of displaying these five themes through ballet.

Enjoy!

T