Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Part 2


Listen Later

By as early as 1909, composers like Mahler knew that tonality was reaching its breaking point, and composers like Debussy were experimenting with colors and ideas a composer like Brahms wouldn’t have dreamed were possible.  Strauss was shocking the world in his own right with his erotic and disturbing opera Salome. Mirroring the roiling tensions all over the world, music was pushing and stretching at its boundaries in ways that it simply hadn’t before.  The years from 1900-1914 were a powder keg for the world and also for music, and you could argue that Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was the musical version of the explosion of that powder keg.  And it still has a profound impact on music today.  So as we go through Part II of the Rite of Spring, The Sacrifice - the narrative section of the piece - we’ll talk a little bit more about the riot that took place at its premiere, but also the reactions to the piece throughout the 20th century.  We’ll also look at the influence the piece had on composers from all across the musical spectrum.  In just 30 minutes Stravinsky changed the world of music forever and it still causes controversy today.  I once was at a performance of the Rite where two elderly patrons of the symphony sat behind me.  As one particularly violent section of the piece blasted away, I heard one of them lean over to the other and say, “If they keep playing this modern music all the time, I’m cancelling my subscription.”  This took place more than a 100 years after the premiere.  How does a piece remain modern for so long?  Are there any other parallels in musical history?  And how does Stravinsky build a narrative that slowly builds in intensity all the way to the sacrifice of the young girl and the beginning of spring? Join us!
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music PodcastBy Joshua Weilerstein

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

2,022 ratings


More shows like Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,443 Listeners

Piano Puzzler by American Public Media

Piano Puzzler

506 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

594 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

859 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

288 Listeners

Gramophone Classical Music Podcast by Gramophone

Gramophone Classical Music Podcast

59 Listeners

Quanta Science Podcast by Quanta Magazine

Quanta Science Podcast

475 Listeners

The History of Literature by Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate

The History of Literature

1,083 Listeners

Music Student 101 by Jeremy Burns, Matthew Scott Phillips

Music Student 101

226 Listeners

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll | Wondery

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

4,093 Listeners

Classical Breakdown by WETA Classical

Classical Breakdown

197 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,283 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,210 Listeners

The Joy of Why by Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine

The Joy of Why

490 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

293 Listeners