Writing The Rite

Putting together lessons on The Rite of Spring for the kids recently has gotten me really interested (OK, read "obsessed") with The Rite. Not just as a piece of music, as we will hear tomorrow at the concert, but as an event, a performance, a ballet, a turning point, a masterpiece . . . but most of all, as a work of art that has inspired many for the past 100 years.

Having access to Yale's vast collections is one of the benefits of working for the University, so I picked up a few tomes for light reading. In case you find yourself in the mood to learn more about The Rite of Spring, these should get you started:

• Avatar of Modernity: The Rite of Spring Reconsidered (2013) is an anthology of essays published just this year in celebration of the centenary of The Rite of Spring. It brings together experts from numerous fields with new scholarly writings. I think I am going to tackle this bad boy first!
• Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (2000) by Peter Hill "provides a comprehensive guide to the work, telling in vivid detail the story of its inception and composition, of the stormy rehearsals which lad to the scandalous premiere on 29 May 1913." I'll take the cover's word for it as I have not yet started reading this volume.
• Nijinsky's Crime Against Grace: Reconstruction Score of the Original Choreography for Le Sacre du Printemps (1996) presents Millicent Hodson's research into the original Nijinsky choreography, which was lost following the ballet's premier. Her research was used in 1987 to stage the ballet with the original choreography for the first time in more than 70 years. The preface of the book is a good scholarly essay in and of itself.
• Stravinsky in the Theatre (1949) has several chapters which discuss The Rite of Spring.
• Since I am sometimes a dork and enjoy looking at the music while listening to recordings, I also checked out the full orchestral score of The Rite of Spring. The version I have was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1997 based on the 1967 re-engraved edition of Stravinsky's 1947 revisions. (Say that 10 times fast!)

In the mean time, less than 24 hours until we hear The Rite of Spring live! Can you tell that I am excited?