When Igor Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) premiered during the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, its avant-garde music and jarring choreography scandalized audiences. Today it is considered one of the most influential musical works of the twentieth century. In this volume, the ballet finally receives the full critical attention it deserves, as distinguished music and dance scholars discuss the meaning of the work and its far-reaching influence on world music, performance, and culture. Essays explore four key facets of the ballet: its choreography and movement; the cultural and historical contexts of its performance and reception in France; its structure and use of innovative rhythmic and tonal features; and the reception of the work in Russian music history and theory.

List of Audio-Visual MaterialsForeword: A Total Art-Work: Memorable Resonances and Reverberations in The Rite / Stephen WalshAcknowledgmentsNote on TransliterationIntroductory Essay: Stravinsky's Russia: The Politics of Cultural Ferment / Donald J. RaleighPart One: Dancing Le Sacre Across the Century1. A Century of Rites: The Making of an Avant-Garde Tradition / Lynn Garafola2. The Rite of Spring as a Dance: Recent Re-Visions / Stephanie Jordan3. Re-Sourcing Nijinsky: The Rite of Spring and Yvonne Rainer's RoS Indexical / Gabriele Brandstetter4. Death by Dancing in Nijinsky's Rite / Millicent HodsonPart Two: Le Sacre and Stravinsky in France5. Le Sacre du Printemps: A Ballet for Paris / Annegret Fauser6. Styling Le Sacre: The Rite's Role in French Fashion / Mary E. Davis7. The Rite of Spring, National Narratives, and Estrangement / Brigid Cohen8. Formalizing a "Purely Acoustic" Musical Objectivity: Another Look at a 1915 Interview with Stravinsky / William Robin9. Racism at The Rite / Tamara LevitzPart Three: Observations on Le Sacre in Russia10. Commentary and Observations on Le Sacre in Russia: An Overview / Kevin Bartig11. Stravinsky, Roerich, and Old Slavic Rituals in The Rite of Spring / Tatiana Baranova Monighetti12. Orchestral Sketches of Le Sacre du Printemps in the National Library of Russia / Natalia Braginskaya13. Yuri Nikolaevich Kholopov: His Analytical Comments on The Rite of Spring / Grigory Lyzhov14. Leonard Bernstein's 1959 Triumph in the Soviet Union / Olga Manulkina15. The Rite of Spring in Russia / Svetlana Savenko16. "I Penetrated the Mystery of the Spring Lapidary Rhythms:" Baroque Topoi in The Rite of Spring / Elena Vereshchagina17. "The Great Sacrifice:" Contextualizing the Dream / Tatiana Vereshchagina18. An Interview with Composer Vladimir Tarnopolski / Edited and with an Introductory Note by Christy Keele and John ReefPart Four: The Sounds of Le Sacre19. The Physicality of The Rite: Remarks on the Forces of Meter and Their Disruption / Pieter C. van den Toorn20. How Not to Hear Le Sacre du Printemps? Schoenberg's Theories, Leibowitz's Recording / Severine Neff21. Rethinking Blocks and Superimposition: Form in the "Ritual of the Two Rival Tribes" / Gretchen Horlacher22. Stravinsky at the Crossroads after The Rite: "Jeu de rossignol mécanique" [Performance of the Mechanical Nightingale] (1 August 1913) / Maureen A. Carr23. Dissonant Bells: The Rite's "Sacrificial Dance" 1913/2013 / Marianne Kielian-Gilbert24. Revisiting The Rite in Stravinsky's Later Serial Music / Lynne Rogers25. Dionysos Monometrikos / Stephen WalshPlenary Essay: Resisting The Rite / Richard TaruskinBibliography / Compiled by Letitia Glozer, Sara Hoffee, and John ReefList of ContributorsIndex