Summary Of Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring

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Before the turn of the 20th century, art and music have gone through radical evolutions to express the environment, politics, and beliefs of both the artist and the composer. After the rediscovering of creating art and music in the Renasassiance Period, each individual try to reinterpret and recreate work of arts from their prospective point of views. In the Impressionism era, art and music once again makes a radical evolution for others to view and listen. Among these individuals, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso would make such changes that even longtime fans of their works would find them both shocking and offensive during their time. In this paper, we will view specifically Stravinsky 's “Rite of Spring”
In this movement, they barrow visual forms from primitive societies (i.e. African, Micronesian, Native American) or non-Western (Asia) and integrate them into their art. This movement was inspired by such artist as Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. This was the case with Pablo Picasso, where he combined European prostitutes of cubism with African masks and Iberian features in his art piece. According to Joachim Pissarro, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, “...it was like an earthquake in the art world. It shook the foundation [that] everything that was accepted...was shattered.” (Museum of Modern Art) Picasso 's “Les Demoiselles d 'Avignon” was actually a painting response of his rival “Blue Nude” by Henri Matisse. These two artists have been fighting to be the best artist of the art movements. Public reaction to the art caught everyone by surprise, especially Matisse who finds that everyone marvels Picasso 's
Music goers were familiar with such performing works as Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky 's earlier works such as “Firebird” and “Petrushka”. But nobody wasn 't prepared for his latest work of “Rite of Spring” along in collaborating with ballet-master Vaslev Nijinsky. Stravinsky 's work was unique as it was based on a prehistoric/pagan past of Russian history involving human sacrifice and the “unconventional music, sharp and unnatural choreography...” (Green). Minutes after the performances, the audience started booing. The first performance literally caused a riot in the theater. Marie Rambert, one of Nijinsky 's performers states that during the early performance, Nijinsky said, “Whatever happens, the conductor must continue playing until we get on...” (MartialViz). Not one, but two young unorthodox professionals stood their stance in continuing their work to the end of the performance despite the audience being hostile towards them that

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