The Reviews for the Premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring —
An Example of the Importance of Primary Sources… as well as their limitations
Intro
To know the veracity of any topic, debate or research, primary sources are essential for distinguishing the truth from hearsay or biased news. Even then, the use of primary sources must be viewed with due diligence and critical observations as even primary sources can be tainted with subjective views and biases on the part of the author.
In this blog post, I’ll be discussing the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to illustrate the importance of primary sources as well the need to evaluate for any possible bias in primary sources.
First, what is a Primary Source?
I consider a primary source as information that “comes straight from the horse’s mouth” so to speak. In other words, a person was present at an event and can describe what happened. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) describes a primary source as “a firsthand or eyewitness account of information by an individual close to the topic. Examples of primary sources include autobiographies, personal correspondence (e.g., diary entries, letters), government documents, works of art and literature, statistics and data, and newspaper articles written by reporters close to the source.”
Alternatively, secondary sources would involve information that is not first-hand knowledge. These sources are obviously not as reliable as a primary source. Secondary sources could potentially be viewed as “hearsay”. We all know of the fun game of repeating a few lines of a story down a row of people. By the time you reach the last participant, the story is most likely very different from the original!
I would further posit that primary sources can be subdivided into hard primary sources and soft primary sources. Hard primary sources are those that would be difficult to dispute such as a photo of an event or a concert program. Soft primary sources would be first-hand information that may possibly be biased… as is the case with the reviews of the premiere of the Rite of Spring.
The Premier of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring — was there a riot??
I must admit that I chose this topic for a blog post as I had actually thought that there was a riot or brawl at the premiere of the Rite of Spring. When our “Music of the Twentieth Century” history class began discussions on the Rite of Spring, I was astonished to discover that I had bought into this historical non-truth! This epiphany certainly reinforced the value of delving further in to what history has reported as truth and doing one’s own review of primary sources. Even with primary sources, it can be difficult to discover what is true and what is biased reporting.
The scholarly research of Thomas Kelly and Tamara Levitz
Before proceeding further, I must mention the tremendous research completed already on the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Thomas Kelly’s First Nights: Five Musical Premiers (2000) and Tamara Levitz’s chapter “Racism at The Rite” in the book, The Rite of Spring at 100 (2017), provide a wealth of information on what really occurred at that premiere night, May 29, 1913 in the auditorium of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in grand ol’ Paris.
Both authors discuss the various reviews and reports on the premiere performance. Levitz states that “…not a single eyewitness described at that time or later as a riot.” (p. 150). Likewise, Kelly relays in his book that while there was much shouting and yelling between various factions in the audience, “Everybody agrees, however, that the performance did not stop, though the noise was at times deafening.” (p. 292). In fact, Kelly further goes on to say that “At the close of the thirty-four-minute ballet, applause as well as shouting broke out. Indeed, there were four or five curtain calls — including a well-deserved one for Monteux and his band — before the evening continued.” (p. 293).
It seems clear to me that if a performance is seen through to completion, there are curtain calls to compliment the performers and the “evening continued,” there could not possibly have been a “riot.” Shouting and yelling, yes; but no riot, in the true sense of the word. The concert continued with works by Weber and Borodin (Kelly, p. 301).
So how did this myth about the Rite of Spring premiere occur?
I will refer back to the example of a story being told to one individual who shares the story with another and so on down the line. The story changes over time and myths become “reality.” Kelly includes a review in his book that is a wonderful example! The review starts off like this: “Right from the first day, this new work that the Russian ballet troupe has just presented in Paris was baptized the Massacre du Printemps. Massacre, first because one could hear only a little bit of it, because the protests that accompanied M. Igor Stravinsky’s ballet were so loud.” (p. 316). At no time in this review did the author mean “massacre” in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it was an intended play on words of the French title for the Rite of Spring: Le sacre du printemps!
But this is how the truth then becomes twisted. Here is a portion of the 1940 New York Philharmonic program note for the Rite of Spring:
Now, not only do we have rumors of a “riot” but also a “massacre”!
Let me provide one more example of how the truth becomes skewed. You’ll notice the NY Times article at the beginning of this blog post makes no mention of a “riot”. The title does mention “hostile demonstrations”… what exactly does the author mean? Further review of the article reveals this:
The perpetuation of the myth
Unfortunately, the myths surrounding the premiere of the Rite of Spring continued throughout the years. Here is a 1964 New York Philharmonic concert program:
Even as recently as 2012, the New York Philharmonic program notes were still using the word, “riot”:
By 2016, the program notes now turn to primary source documents and a more accurate depiction of the premiere of the Rite of Spring:
“Thus was history made…”
What more fitting way to conclude this blog post than with the last line of the above concert program note: “Thus was history made.” Yes, indeed. From the evening of the premiere of the Rite of Spring, much “history was made” but not exactly the truthful history!
I am so thankful for the discussions that we have had in our “Music of the Twentieth Century” history class. This topic in particular, the myths surrounding the premiere of the Rite of Spring, emphasized the importance of researching and reviewing primary sources. One must also critique primary sources carefully as words and content can be misrepresented, biases can be present. As the old saying goes, “consider your source”!
