Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. (Book Reviews).

Berry, David Carson

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. By Peter Hill. (Cambridge Music Handbooks.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. [x, 170 p. ISBN 0-521-62221-2 (cloth); 0-521-62714-1 (pbk.). $42.95 (cloth); $15.95 (pbk.).]

With this volume, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, that landmark of modernism, at last finds its way into the Cambridge Music Handbooks series, which up to now has featured well over a dozen works from the twentieth century. With so much about the work already in print, perhaps the prospect of contributing something fresh-- or even of cogently distilling the existing literature--daunted many writers. Finally stepping up to the task is Peter Hill, editor of The Messiaen Companion (London: Faber and Faber, 1995). Throughout, Hill pays particular attention to the work's dramatic aspects; as he states, "however effective [it is] as a concert item, the form in which it is best known, the Rite was conceived and composed as a ballet" (p. viii). Still, he approaches it from numerous historical and analytical angles, providing a relatively comprehensive manual to the work (and perhaps the lengthiest monograph in the series).

The chapters are grouped into three parts; the first, entitled "Prelude," addresses "the Rite's inception, composition and the steps towards the first performance" (p. viii). In chapter 1, Hill ponders Stravinsky's conflicting accounts of the work's genesis, which vary from claiming that a dramatic scenario evolved first and "was not accompanied by concrete musical ideas" (p. 3, quoted from Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Expositions and Developments [London: Faber and Faber, 1959], 140) to asserting that "the [dramatic] idea came from the music and not the music from the idea" (ibid., quoted from Stravinsky in the Theatre, ed. Minna Lederman [New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1949], 24). Hill substantiates the former view through a focus on Stravinsky's collaborator, Nikolai Roerich, an artist and anthropologist who was "Russia's leading expert in folk art and ancient ritual" (p. 4). A consideration of Roerich's contributions, as the primary author of the plot as well as designer of sets and costumes, is a welcome component, given that some surveys have granted him less attention than he warrants. Chapter 2 is devoted to a study of the musical sketches for the Rite, fortunately available to all in the form of a 1969 facsimile (The Rite of Spring: Sketches, 1911-1913 [London: Boosey & Hawkes]). Hill offers many insights into Stravinsky's compositional procedures, with conjectures tied to details of the plot and the documented compositional chronology. His interpretation of changes made to the ending of the ballet are of particular interest. In chapter 3, he surveys the Rite's rehearsals and first performance. Its riotous premiere is, of course, described; but here the author also considers notable auditions of the work-in-progress, including the composer's initial performances of the score, on the piano, for various colleagues.

The second part, entitled "The Music," encompasses the two longest chapters. In chapter 4, Hill surveys basic components of the music, with sections accorded melody, harmony, and rhythm. In the first, a primary focus is the folk tunes that Stravinsky covertly adapted. (He confessed to using only one, but five such tunes were later documented.) The author also analyzes the intervallic interrelatedness of the principal melodies. In the section on harmony, he rehearses Stravinsky's uses of octatonic collections, a familiar subject in music-theoretic literature. He argues, however, that "Stravinsky was not working with systematic reference" to these collections (p. 49). Thus, he also focuses more generally on the use of harmonic dissonance. Regarding rhythm, Hill tends to describe interesting passages without engaging in systematic categorization, although his discussions do stem from two basic rhythmic types: those in which "metre is in perpetual flux" and those in which "the pulse is rigidly unvarying" (p. 52). Having addressed the music broadly, he then devotes chapter 5 to a detailed, diachronic commentary on the entire score. This is no mere play-by-play gloss; instead, Hill's observations are steeped in an understanding of how the work evolved and how its sections complement the scenario and are integrated into the whole.

The final part of the monograph, entitled "Aftermath," examines the Rite's history and reception since its 1913 premiere. First offered, in chapter 6, is an anthology of brief texts by various writers. These span several decades, beginning with an article issued on the day of the premiere, attributed (disputatiously) to Stravinsky himself. In chapter 7, Hill reviews Stravinsky's interaction with and reaction to his principal collaborators, Roerich and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. Hill's primary agenda is to explain the composer's repudiation "of his original ideas for the Rite" (i.e., that the work developed from a dramatic scenario, not as absolute music) and to "piece together something of the true picture which Stravinsky ... seems to have been at pains to conceal" (p. ix). Along the way, the author attempts to rationalize Stravinsky's devolving treatment of Nijinsky, which went from polite to hostile across the decades. In chapter 8, Hill surveys over a dozen recordings of the Rite, including three by t he composer, plus a 1921 piano roll transcribed under his supervision. A principal focus is how conductors have coordinated the tempos of various sections of the score. One of Hill's notable conclusions is that a 1929 Parisian recording, by Pierre Monteux, is "almost certainly the most authentic guide to Stravinsky's earliest intentions" (p. 137) and likely "a credible record of what the public [first] heard in 1913" (p. 122). Finally, chapter 9 unites several of the book's themes in a brief conclusion.

One may find other sources that lavish more detail on any given subject, but as a singular "handbook" to the work, Hill's contribution is very successful. Occasionally, his focus on the Rite's dramatic attributes--his desire to show that, despite Stravinsky's "mid-career assertion of the autonomous nature of music, [his] musical output remained essentially theatrical" (p. viii)--is a bit overemphasized. Yet, his research and ratiocinations will be appreciated by all who are intrigued by Stravinsky's early masterpiece.