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"Rigoroso (♪ = 126)": "The Rite of Spring" and the Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
Author(s): Robert Fink
Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 299
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"Rigoroso(h = 126)": TheRite of Spring and
the Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
ROBERT FINK
re we readyto starttalkingaboutan "authentic"
Rite ofSpring?In the
world of dance, such a Rite-talked about for over twenty years-was
achieved a decade ago. Of course, for dance historians TheRite of
is
Spring not Igor Stravinsky'sconcert evergreen,but the steps and stage action ofVaslav Nijinsky'sballet as danced in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees
on 29 May 1913. The "lost"originalstaging of the Rite has been the subject
of perhaps the most extensive and careful historicalreconstruction ever attempted in the world of classicaldance;dance historianMillicentHodson and
her husband Kenneth Archer together spent well over two decades tracking
down remnantsof Nicholas Roerich'ssets and costumes, and the even more
fleeting tracesof Nijinsky'schoreography.'Hodson and Archercollected the
existing physical evidence, interviewed surviving members of the Ballets
russes, and assembledunpublished eyewitness sketches and descriptions.By
1987 they had succeeded in reconstructingalmost all of Roerich'sdecor and
about 80 percent of Nijinsky'smovements. When the JoffreyBallet began to
stage the reconstructed Nijinsky Rite to general astonishment and mixed
1. Hodson has recentlypublishedher reconstruction;see MillicentHodson, Nijinsky'sCrime
Against Grace:ReconstructionScoreof the Original Choreography
for "LeSacre du Printemps"
(Stuyvesant,N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 1996). For details of the searchsee also Millicent Hodson,
"Nijinsky'sChoreographicMethod: Visual Sources from Roerich for Le Sacre du Printemps,"
Dance ResearchJournal 18, no. 2 (1986-87): 7-16; Millicent Hodson, "Puzzles choreographiques: Reconstitution du Sacre de Nijinsky," in Le Sacre du Printemps de Nijinsky, ed.
Etienne Souriau et al. (Paris: Editions Cicero, 1990), 45-74; and Joan Acocella and Lynn
Garafola,"Rites of Spring," Ballet Review 20, no. 2 (1992). For a dissenting view, see Robert
Craft,"TheRite at Seventy-Five,"in his Stravinsky(New York:St. Martin's, 1992), 233-48. This
negative review of the 1987 Joffreyproduction alleges flaws in Hodson's choreographicreconstruction of the 1913 Rite, backing up its argument by reproducing in facsimilethe complex
choreographicannotationsin Stravinsky'scopy of the four-handpiano score (a source not available to Hodson, since it was in Craft'spersonalpossessionuntil recently).But to jump from those
notes to the conclusion that "Stravinskyhad composed the choreographyat the same time as the
music" (p. 243) seems to stretchthe documentaryevidencetoo far.
[ JournaloftheAmericanMusicological
Society1999, vol. 52, no. 2]
? 1999 by the AmericanMusicologicalSociety.Allrightsreserved.0003-0139/99/5202-0003$2.00
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Journal of the American Musicological Society
reviews, the revisionistimpact of this achievement on the historiographyof
modern dance was made clear.2
When Modern Music Becomes Early Music
Restaging Nijinsky'sRite was a triumph of what musicologistswould recognize as historicallyinformed performance:sets, costumes, and choreography
were as close to those of the 1913 premiereas decadesof painstakingscholarship could guarantee.But the 1987 performancesalso showed that Hodson,
Archer,and the Joffreyhad a strangecollectiveblind spot-or, more precisely,
a deaf ear-when it came to reconstructingthe sonic aspectsof that premiere
with similarcare. Nowhere in Hodson's accounts of her long search for the
"authentic"Rite does she demonstratethe slightestconcern for establishinga
definitivetext for the music that accompaniedNijinsky'schoreography;nor
does she seem awarethat a present-dayconductor might interpretsuch a text
quite differentlythan PierreMonteux did in 1913. After all, the music of the
Rite, though mostly unheard that fateful night, had at least been written
down, and the score was later published, revised, and performed numerous
times by the composer before his death in 1971. One might easilyassumethat
Stravinsky'smusic, unlike the scenery and choreographyof his unfortunate
collaborators,had been unproblematicallypreserved.It is evident from broadcast performancesof the Joffreyproduction that the conductor was simply
allowed to use his standardscore of the Rite, and that he performed it in a
standard,late twentieth-centurymanner.
But in fact, as the painstakingdetective work of Louis Cyr has shown, the
score that Monteux used in 1913, which I will discussin some detail below,
differs considerablyfrom the standardtexts in use today. One would hardly
want the many corrected misprintsreimposed, nor would it matter much to
the overall spectacleif the conductor went back to Stravinsky'soriginal barrings of the score's most complex rhythmicpassages.Even the fact that the
1913 autographfull score used at the premierepreservessome discardedand strikinglydifferent-orchestrations of key moments in the Rite might
well be of interestonly to musicologicalpurists.3
2. The reconstructionwas broadcastin 1989 as "The Searchfor Nijinsky'sRite of Spring,"
produced by Judy Kinbergand Thomas Grimm for WNET/New York.This broadcasthas not
been made commerciallyavailable.
3. The key source study of the Rite, still unsurpassed,is Louis Cyr, "LeSacredu printempsPetite histoire d'un grande partition,"in Stravinsky:Etudeset temoignages,ed. FrancoisLesure
(Paris:EditionsJean-ClaudeLattes, 1982), 89-148. For a shorteraccount of some of the variants
see Cyr, "WritingTheRite Right," in ConfrontingStravinsky:
Man, Musician,and Modernist,ed.
JannPasler(Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1986), 157-73. Of course,
the rebarringsare of paramountinterest to the theorist of rhythmicstructure(see Pieter C. van
den Toorn, "StravinskyRe-barred,"Music Analysis 7 [1988]: 165-95). As for the changes in
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
301
On the other hand, going back to the originalperformingmaterialswould
have helped answerthe one basicmusicalquestion that seems absolutelycritical if one is to recaptureNijinsky'schoreographicconception, so inextricably
tied to the Rite's complex patternsof beats:What tempos did the conductor
take that night? Did he adhere to the metronome marksthat we know from
laterprintedscores?Perhapseven more crucial,to what extent did he indulge
in expressivemodificationsof those tempos? That no one worried about any
of these questions is clearfrom the brisk,unyieldingtempos of the 1987 performances,a path of least resistancethrough late twentieth-centuryorchestral
routine that often destroyedthe effect of the Joffrey'smeticulous reconstructions.
One can hardlyfault Hodson for assumingthat the issue of vintage-1913
tempos was moot. After all, she had the score. Recreatingthe detailsof a particular performance of a famous musical work enshrined in a printed text
seems-at least at first glance-a completely different type of problem than
reimagining a "lost" ballet from scraps of costume, sketchbook drawings,
and fleeting memory traces.Hodson had severalauthoritativeprintededitions
of Stravinsky'sRite in which the composer consistently specified the same,
precisemetronome markingsfor each dance. She also had the composer's famous and oft-repeateddictum that a performerhad absolutelyno liberty to
make tempo modificationsin his music for expressiveor theatricaleffect-a
stance backed up by his "authoritative"1960 recording of the work, a sonic
document of unyielding,metronomic precision.Case closed.
And so it would have been, if the composer had had his way. Of course, if
Stravinskyhad truly had his way, Nijinsky'schoreographyfor the Rite would
by now be nothing more than a melancholy footnote. Ironically,the fast,
light, and bouncy playing that accompaniedthis reconstructionof the Rite
as ballet comes out of a performing tradition-explicitly sanctioned by the
composer-that takes as its startingpoint the erasureof the very choreography Hodson was trying to recaptureand then colludes in the conversion of
the Rite into "absolutemusic."Stravinsky,though he recantedvery late in life,
spent the better part of fiftyyearsloudly proclaimingthat Nijinsky'sRite was
the work of a talented but fatallyinexperiencedchoreographer,that it vitiated
much of his originalscenic inspirationfor the piece, and that, in any case, he
preferredit "as a concert piece." As earlyas 1914, he was cannilyconvincing
Monteux to reprogramthe Rite at the Salle Pleyel by arguing that "Le Sacre
was more symphonic,more of a concert piece, than Petroushka."4
By 1920, he
orchestration,most immediatelystrikingto the earwould be the restorationof the complex alternation ofpizzicatos and arco stringchords that dominated Stravinsky'soriginalconception of the
"Danse sacrale." Cyr compares the various versions in "Writing The Rite Right," 165-73.
4. Igor Stravinskyand Robert Craft,Ecpositionsand Developments(London: Faberand Faber,
1962), 144.
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Journal of the American Musicological Society
was claimingin the press that his firstinspirationfor the Rite had not been a
vision, but a "purelymusical"theme; it was the brutal characterof the hammered chords opening the "Auguresprintanieres"that led him to the vision
of the "Great Sacrifice,"and not the other way around. The Rite was thus
"not an anecdotal,but an architectonicwork."5In the Autobiographyof 1936
and in his conversations with Robert Craft during the 1950s and 1960s,
Stravinskykept up the refrain:TheRite of Springis not a representationalballet. It is a sonorous and scenic object, an abstract piece of musico-spatial
geometry.
Surely no one believes this anymore. RichardTaruskindistilled his hundreds of pages of researchon the genesis and reception of the Rite into a devastatingcruise missile of an argumentwhose portmanteautitle says it all: "A
Myth of the Twentieth Century: TheRite of Spring,the Traditionof the New,
and 'Music Itself."' He claims that the Stravinsky-ledcharge to revamp the
Rite into a piece of modernistsymphonicabstractionis alwaysaboutforgetting
somethingunpleasant:in Stravinsky'scase, the humiliatingfailureof the Rite as
ethnographicballet and the eclipse of his music by the notoriety of Nijinsky's
dance; for the rest of us, the actual content of the ballet's proto-fascistscenario, containing "the darkeraspects of primitivism-biologism, sacrificeof
the individualto the community,absence of compassion,submissionto compulsion, allwithin a context defined by Russianor Slavicnationalfolklore."6
Egged on by Stravinskyhimself, music theoristshave thus placed a cordon
sanitaire of extreme formalistdiscoursearound the subject matter so powerfully and disturbinglypresentedin the Rite. But it is conductorswho truly do
Stravinsky'swhitewashing:"One senses the same sort of evasionin recent performancesof the Rite-one might even say,in its contemporaryperformance
practice-where emphasisis placed on fleet precisionand on an athleticvirtuosity that defies or ignores the crushing strain the music was meant to
evoke."7That fleet precisionwas on conspicuousdisplayin the pit during the
1987 Joffreyreconstruction,as the music busily and athleticallycanceled out
5. Michel Georges-Michel, "Les Deux Sacres du printemps," Comoedia (11 December
1920); quoted in Truman Bullard, "The First Performanceof Igor Stravinsky'sSacredu printemps"(Ph.D. diss., Universityof Rochester,1971), 1:3.
6. RichardTaruskin,"A Myth of the Twentieth Century: TheRite of Spring,the Traditionof
the New, and 'Music Itself,"' Modernism/Modernity
2, no. 1 (1995): 21. Taruskinis reactinghere
to much recent discoursein music theory,in particularthe work of Pieter C. van den Toor, who,
even aftersurveyingthe massof historicalevidencethat shows Stravinskycollaboratingon a multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk,
dismisses the balletic Rite as irrelevantto what really counts, formal
analysis.See the firstchapter,"Point of Order,"of his monograph on the work, Stravinskyand the
"Riteof Spring":TheBeginningsof a MusicalLanguage (Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Universityof
CaliforniaPress, 1987). On the Rite as "totalwork of art," see Jann Pasler,"Musicand Spectacle
in Petrushkaand TheRite of Spring,"in ConfrontingStravinsky,ed. Pasler,53-81.
7. Taruskin,"A Myth of the Twentieth Century,"21.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
303
any significancethat the enactment of ritualhuman sacrificeon stage might
stillhave had.8
Presumably,then, the sound of the orchestraaccompanyingNijinsky'sRite
was quite differentfrom the contemporaryperformancepracticewe are used
to. Do we want to go backto that sound-even if Stravinskyemphaticallydid
not? The case of Nijinsky v. Stravinskyposes in uniquely bald form a more
generalquestion of historicalreconstruction:Is what we are "restoring"a materialphenomenon ("the way it actuallysounded") or an ideal one ("whatthe
composer actuallywanted")?There can be no comforting fantasyhere that we
can harmonize what we know about the conditions for which the Rite was
composed and what we know of the composer'sintentions for the Rite's realization. (The composer's intention was clearlythat we try to forget those first
ballet performancesever happened.) This is a major problem, for the fundamental assumption of most twentieth-century musicological reconstruction
is that the material and ideal truth of a work in performance are one and
the same-and that, in fact, the only reliable guideposts to the composer's
intentions are the materialfacts of contemporary (preferablythe very first)
performances.9
8. One might fruitfullyinflect (or infect!) Taruskin'smoralcautionarytale with the more generalpoststructuralistfatalismof JacquesAttali.Attali's Noise:ThePoliticalEconomyofMusic(trans.
BrianMassumi[Minneapolis:Universityof Minnesota Press, 1985]) takesas its premisethat music aroseas a way of controllingnoise, that noise is a sign of violence, and that music is thus on the
deepest sociologicallevel a simulacrumof ritualhuman sacrifice.(The relevanceto the scenarioof
Le Sacreduprintempsis total, although, amazingly,Attalinever mentions the piece.) Attaliidentifies three "codes" of music: sacrificing,representing,and repeating;the Rite sits preciselyin the
transitionbetween the lasttwo. The dissonanceof the Rite is a reversionto noise, and the scenario
explicitlyrepresentsritualmurderon stage. This signalsthe collapseof the code of representation
(the code of tonality) in which the sound of harmony attempted to representthe channeling of
ritualviolence into the harmonioussocialrelationsimagined by post-Enlightenmentpoliticalphilosophy.The next code is repetition:the spectaclecollapsesnot into barbarism,but into the dull,
commodified, meaninglessroutines of mass production. Attaliwould not be surprisedthat in the
twentieth century the Rite was strippedof its violent spectacleand allowed to proliferatethrough
multiple, repetitive,and ultimatelyfacelessrecordings.That is what the society of repetitiondoes.
And the fact that the Rite was retroactivelyinscribedwithin the discourseof "theoreticalmusic"?
As he points out in a truly mordant portraitof postwar high modernist compositionalideology,
"An elite, bureaucraticmusic desiresto be universal,[and] in order to be universal,it diminishes
its specificity,reduces the syntax of its codes. It does not create meaning ... [for] the absenceof
meaning is thenecessaryconditionfor thelegitimacyof a technocracy's
power"(pp. 112-13). We can
assume that this "absence of meaning" is the defining trait of the empty polemical construct
Taruskinanathematizesas "the music itself."
9. This was, predictablyenough, Stravinsky'sown position. See his comments on Bach's St.
Matthew Passionin chapter6 of the Poetics,where "its firstperformancein Bach's lifetime"and
"the composer's wishes" are unproblematicallyassumed to be identical (Stravinsky,Poeticsof
Music in the Form of Six Lessons,trans. Arthur Knodel and Ingolf Dahl [New York:Vintage,
1956], 135).
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Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
In fact, this essay will argue forthrightly the material against the ideal.
Attention to the actualsound of the firstperformancesof the Rite will prove
an effective antidote to the kind of sanitized, sterilized performances the
composer demanded and even disseminatedhimself. This does not imply a
maniacalpositivism,with overwhelmingaudiencenoise piped into the concert
hall and wrong notes reintroducedfor effect (though a little more "crushing
strain"might do wonders); nor does it make the untenable claim that the
piece can ever have the effect on late twentieth-century ears that it did in
1913-14. What we are attemptingto understandis how the Rite as compositional breakthroughinteractswith an independentlyevolving history of performance. Exhaustiveresearchhas laid to rest the absurdclaim that the Rite
was created ex nihilo (Stravinskyin 1962: "Verylittle immediate traditionlies
behind Le Sacredu printemps").10
We are even less likelyto find that it was recreatedin the Theatredes Champs-Elyseesout of nothing but the composer's
intentions. The Nijinsky-StravinskyRite, which received only seven performances (four in Paris,three in London), never had time to createits own performing tradition.(ObviouslyStravinskyworked indefatigablyto createa new
modernist traditionof performancefor "his" Rite of Spring-thus the "forging" of my title, which we will trace below-but that was a differentwork,
more abstractand symphonic.) At its premiere,regardlessof the composer's
intentions, the Rite balletwould have to be insertedinto an existing tradition,
one quite at odds with modernistideas of the "authentic"performance.
Stravinskymight well have wanted the same brisk, rigid performancesof
the Rite at its premierethat he demanded in the 1930s and demonstratedin
the 1960s, but in 1913 he was hardlythe conductor-celebrity-oraclehe later
became. Early conductors like Pierre Monteux routinely disregarded
Stravinsky'stempo indicationsand metronome marks,going so far as to cross
them out and write new ones directlyonto his autograph.They persistently
"romanticized"the Rite, at least with regard to long-range tempo relations:
they took large sections of the music mostly slower, but sometimes much
faster, than the written tempos; they also planned and executed unwritten
tempo modificationsfor dramatic(and perhapschoreographic)effect, in what
probablywas direct contradictionof Stravinsky'swishes. Even the composer
himself has left documents-in particulara set of Pleyelapiano rolls punched
under his direct supervision in 1921-that seem to enshrine tempos and
tempo shiftsthat do not appearin any printedscore.
Before we can reallysee Nijinsky'sRite, we must reconstructthat of Pierre
Monteux, lost as irrevocablyas Nijinsky'schoreographyand subsumed into
10. Stravinskyand Craft, Expositionsand Developments,147. The researchis, of course, the
massiveachievementof RichardTaruskin.This essayis at every moment indebted to that work;
my review-essayon Taruskin'sStravinskyand the Russian Traditions:A Biographyof the Works
Through"Mavra"(Berkeleyand Los Angeles: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1996) appearedin
4, no. 3 (1997): 147-54.
Modernism/Modernity
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
305
the only Rite that turned out to matter, Stravinsky's.We are used to late
twentieth-century Rites, executed with careful fidelity to what is, for most
conductors, a late twentieth-centurytext. (Stravinskywas still revisingperformance directionsin the work as late as 1967.) Monteux's 1913 interpretation,
though it possessesthe material"authenticity"of the firstperformance,might
well sound quite strange if resurrected for contemporary ears. As strange,
perhaps,as "authentic"Bach once did.
The birth-trauma of historical performance
The question is startlingand yet somehow inevitable:Are we readyto treatthe
Rite, still the great masterpieceof modernmusic, as if it were early music?
Hodson had no reason to ask this in 1987. The great controversythen was
whether the early music ethos might apply to the canonical masterworksof
the nineteenth century; musicologists and critics were hotly debating the
propriety of Roger Norrington's readings of Beethoven on what were still
unblushinglycalled "authenticperiod instruments."Ten yearslater, afterhistorically informed Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner, and even Debussy, we wait
with bemusement-and some trepidation-for Early Music to rendezvous
with Modern Music. Many agree that it is preciselyover Stravinsky'smost famous ballet score that they will shake hands. Paul Griffithshas gone so far as
to announce in the New YorkTimes,"The erstwhileearlymusic movement is
on the threshold of the twentieth century: soon we may expect thoroughly
documented interpretationsof TheRite of Springor of earlyCage."l1
The extension of "authentic"performance practice to modernist music
does seem historically(and commercially)inevitable,and TheRite of Springis
a particularlytempting target. But before plunging into the documentaryand
recorded evidence, we might do well to get our ideological bearings.I would
argue that attempting to look at the Rite through the lens of historically
informed performancemeans stepping behind the looking glass into an aesthetic space rife with contradictionand paradox. The visionaryclaim of the
earlymusic movement-that there is such a thing as "authenticity"in musical
performance,and that it can be found through a simple congruence of linked
imperatives(knowing the historical record, respecting the composer's will,
and invigoratingcontemporarymusic making)-turns out to be untenable.
Whatfeels"authentic"will not be historicallyaccurate;conversely,the practice
that accords with historicaldocumentation will contravenemodern assumptions about the relation between composer and performer that underpin
the very notion of "authenticity"in performance. An "authentic" performance of the Rite may well be at the same time troublingly different from
the way it was originallydone and, even worse, disappointinglyidenticalto the
11. Griffiths,"For EarlyMusic, It's About Face! ForwardMarch!"New YorkTimes,11 June
1997.
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Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
way everybody is alreadydoing it. The reason?The different perspectiveon
canonicalmusic that historicalperformancehas come to representdisappears
when it encounters early modernism, for the historicalperformance movement itself is one of the consequences,intended or not, of modernismin music. In tackling TheRite of Spring,EarlyMusic is revisitingthe traumaticscene
of its own birth.
The claim that authenticityin performancecannot be understood except in
relationto the modernist "break"is the common thread that binds the three
key attempts to theorize the earlymusic movement historicallythat have appearedsince the early1980s, those of LaurenceDreyfus,Robert Morgan, and
RichardTaruskin.
The sense of traumacomes through most clearlywhen DreyfusbitterlyupdatesAdorno's critiqueof the pre-warearlymusic movement and its crowd of
"resentmentlisteners."Both critics see historicalperformanceas a reflexive
shying awayfrom the open wound of modernistexpressionism.The searchfor
"authenticity"is no more than regressioninto a fantasizedpresubjectivePast:
To maintainequilibrium
in a mythicalkingdomof the past,repletewithcourtly
valuesand(palpably)
harmoniousrelations,EarlyMusicpaida price:it forcibly
everysignof the present.
repressed
... To the sameextent... that"modernmusic"circa1890-1914 exposed
the rawnerveof socialdisharmony
in the formof the neuroticutterance,Early
Music redressedthe imbalanceby repressingthe nightmarishpresentand
mountinga grandrestorationof the gloriouspast.Whereasthe Mainstream
hadsaid"no"to modernism,EarlyMusicforgotit wastraumatized.'2
Robert Morgan sees the turn-of-the-centurybreakin almost diametrically
opposite terms: the earlymusic movement was, he argues, not a recoil from
the modernistpresent, a merging back into the false consciousnessof organic
tradition,but a pragmaticreactionto modernism'simplacabledenialof all tradition. Being Modern meant accepting a total break with history, and the
price for the immense freedom gained was equally immense anxiety about
engaging the newly distanced past. Authenticity came not from a fantasized
identificationwith "our" past, but in a detached (modern) investigation of
what everyone now saw as "not ours": multiple independent traditions,
equallyclose and yet all equallydistant.Morgan sees this modernistobjectivity
and detachmentleading to a strangelypostmodern collapseof meaning. Like
the cynic in the proverb,we appearto know the price of every traditionand
the value of none: "One might even say that we no longer have a culture of
our own at all. By way of compensation, we attempt to assimilateeveryone
12. LaurenceDreyfus, "EarlyMusic Defended Against Its Devotees: A Theory of Historical
Performancein the Twentieth Century,"Musical Quarterly69 (1983): 305. Dreyfus's title (as
well as large sections of his argument) is indebted to Adorno's 1951 essay in Merkur,"Bach
Defended Against His Devotees." See Adorno, Prisms,trans. SamuelWeber and ShierryWeber
(Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981), 133-46. On the "resentment listener," see Adorno's Introductionto theSociologyof Music,trans.E. B. Ashton (New York:Continuum, 1976), 9-12.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
307
else's, including the fragmentaryremainsof our own, creatingin the processa
sort of all-world,all-time,culturalbazaarwhere one trafficsfreely."13
Thus far the earlymusic movement emerges as either,a neurotic failureto
deal with the modernist breakor a pragmaticattempt to make the best of it.
(The choice depends on whose modernismis under discussion.Dreyfus takes
Schoenberg as the forbidding avatarof modernism-as-trauma,while Morgan
sees Stravinskyas the paradigmaticmodern-deracinated, cosmopolitan, espousing a detached view of history and traditionas freely circulatingcultural
capital.)In either case, the triumphof modernism in composition at the turn
of the twentieth century leads to a strategicretreatin performance:a long,
bad-faithsearch through the musical Past for the authenticitylacking in the
musical Present. Now, having ransackedall of Western music history, early
music has turned around (hence the title of Griffith'sNew TorkTimesarticle:
"For Early Music, It's About Face! Forward March!") and stands at the
thresholdof the very music that launchedit on its Long March.
For Dreyfus and Morgan, the phrase "authenticmodernist performance"
thus contains an unacknowledged (and ethically dangerous) contradiction.
According to RichardTaruskin,on the other hand, it is simply redundant.
The crux of Taruskin'sextended considerationof the relationof the historical
performancemovement to modernism, his 1988 article"The Pastnessof the
Present and the Presence of the Past,"is that behind this seeming oxymoron
are two names for the same thing: "We have come at last to the nub and
essence of authentisticperformance,as I see it. It is modern performance."'4
Like Morgan, Taruskinsees modernism as programmaticallydetached and
objective. Surveyingthe culturalground, he adds worship of scientificrationalityand materialism(Ezra Pound); a valorizationof the impersonalover the
subjective(T. S. Eliot, Ortega y Gasset);a visceralloathing of romanticsentimentality (Pound, T. E. Hulme); and, most crucially,a turn away from the
revolutionary"flux" of nineteenth-centuryvitalism to an art that was fixed,
hieratic, and geometric (Wilhelm Worringer,Hulme, Pound, Yeats, et al.).
Igor Stravinskyis at the center of this icy constellation.In an extended and virtuosic argument, Taruskinsurveys Stravinsky'spronouncements on musical
composition and musicalperformance,his compositions themselves,and even
the rarerecordeddocumentationof the composer'sown performancesof earlier music-and finds a modernistaestheticideology and performancestyleindistinguishablefrom the so-called historical authenticity of the early music
movement (that is why he consistently calls its position the "authentistic"
one).
The rage against flux and impermanence,the same refuge in fixity and necessity, the same fear of melting into air. I would go so far as to suggest that all
13. Robert P. Morgan, "Tradition,Anxiety,and the CurrentMusicalScene," in Authenticity
and EarlyMusic,ed. Nicholas Kenyon (Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress, 1988), 67.
14. In Authenticityand EarlyMusic,ed. Nicholas Kenyon (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress,
1988), 152.
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Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
trulymodernmusicalperformance
(andof coursethatincludesthe authentistic
the
treats
music
variety)essentially
performedas if it were composed-or at
leastperformed-byStravinsky.15
Taruskin'stake on the modernist breakis by far the most useful for reconsidering the performancepracticeof the Rite, especiallythe criticalquestion
of tempo. Eschewing twentieth-century exceptionalism,he presents us not
with an irrevocableauthenticity-destroyingsplit between Past and Present,
but with a contrast between two equally authentic performing traditions,
the nineteenth-centuryvitalistand the modern geometric, each with its own
distinctidea of how to manage musicaltime.
Geometric performing practice brings with it a self-consciouslyobjective
stylisticideology based on metronomic, unyielding tempos and a horror of
expressiverubato. To use the terms of Stravinsky'sPoeticsof Music, the ideal
modernistperformeris an executorwho voluntarilysubmergeshis or her personalityand adds nothing to the composer'sintentions. The executor ignores
spurious emotional or "spiritual"promptings, keeps the scenic or programmatic element firmly in its place, and remains aloof from all hermeneutics,
preferringto base performancedecisions on purely musical, purely material
considerations.Form is everything, and any mannerismin performancethat
tends to distort formalstructuremust be ruthlesslypurged. Most criticallyfor
structure,one must adherestrictlyto the score, and most especiallyto its carefully notated tempos; temporalrigiditygives the impressionof an ideal music
ruled by what Stravinsky-or rather Pierre Souvtchinsky,ghostwriting for
Stravinskyand cribbingshamelesslyhimselffrom Henri Bergson-called "ontological"or "clock"time. Once schooled in this style by assiduouspracticein
contemporarymusic, the conscientious executor would naturallyapply this
scientific,impersonal,objectiveperformancetechnique to earliermusic as well.
(And, as Taruskinwryly points out, scholarshave been happy to manufacture
plenty of factitious"historicalevidence"for the desiredfast,rigid tempos.)16
The Romantic interpreter,on the other hand, was thought to interposethe
strivingfor personalexpressionor theatricaleffect between composer and listener. Secure within a living tradition of performance, interpretersscorned
15. Taruskin,"The Pastnessof the Present,"166.
16. Thus Stravinsky'spraisefor ErnestAnsermetin the Autobiography:
"Ansermet'smerit lies
preciselyin his abilityto revealthe relationshipbetween the music of today and that of the past
by purelymusicalmethods. Knowing, as he does to perfection, the musicallanguage of our own
times, and, on the other hand, playing a large number of old, classicalscores, he soon perceived
that the authorsof all periodswere confronted by the solutions of problemswhich were, above all,
specificallymusical"(Stravinsky,An Autobiography[New York,M and J Steuer, 1958]; reprintof
anonymous 1936 English translationof Chroniquesde ma vie, 2 vols. [Paris, 1935-36], 76). See
also Taruskin,"The Pastness of the Present," as well as Stravinsky,Autobiography,74-75 and
150-51; and Stravinsky,Poeticsof Music, 125-42. Stravinskydefines ontological time in the
Poetics,31-33; Taruskin'stake on the historicalevidence for geometric tempo relations can be
sampledat "The Pastnessof the Present,"167-69.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
309
mere fidelityto the text and insteadstressedan imaginedcommunion with the
composer, refusingto reduce the scope of creativeintention to materialissues
of "pure" sound. A successful performance transmitted not the notes but
what was between and behind them: the sense of a living, feeling consciousness at work. The most powerful interpretiveweapon in achievingthis "vitalism" in performancewas tempo fluctuation. Sensitiveperformersmarshaled
both local and long-range tempo shifts to mimic the subjectiveflux of what
Stravinskylaterdenigratedas "psychological"time.
Between vitalism and geometry
We will have occasion to reengage this vitalisttraditionbelow, so it might be
well to go a little more deeply into its ramifications.What Taruskincalledsimply "vitalism"appearsto encompass two quite separateperformancestrategies, which we might distinguish functionally as the expressiveversus the
structural use of tempo modulation in performance. The former involves
micro-managementof phrasebeginnings, endings, and accents by means of a
suite of interpretivetools-agogics, luftpausen,dynamic stresses,and coordinated accelerando-crescendosand ritardando-decrescendos-that we have
tended to lump together under the generic name of rubato.7 Expressiverubato, the painstakingsculpting in time of individualmelodic phrases,got its
most powerful nineteenth-century advocacy from Wagner's famous 1869
treatise On Conducting.A generationlater, it was associatedwith such virtuosos of the baton as Artur Nikisch and Hans von Billow. Writinghis own On
Conductingin 1895, FelixWeingartnerused "tempo-rubatoconductor"as an
epithet in a famous attack-which is also a capsuledescriptionof the practice
in its fullestflower:
The tempo-rubatoconductors... sought to makethe clearestpassagesobscureby huntingout insignificant
details.Now an innerpartof minorimportancewould be givena significance
that by no meansbelongedto it; now an
accentthatshouldhavebeenjustlightlymarkedcameout in a sharpsforzato;
oftena so-called"breathpause"wouldbe inserted,particularly
in the caseof a
crescendoimmediatelyfollowed by a piano, as if the music were sprinkledwith
anddislocafermate.Theselittletrickswerehelpedout by continualalterations
tionsof the tempo.Wherea gradualanimationor a gentleanddelicateslowingoff is required-oftenhoweverwithouteventhatpretext,-a violent,spasmodic
accelerando
or ritenutowasmade ...
17. The definitivetreatmentof temporubatois RichardHudson's StolenTime:TheHistoryof
TempoRubato (Oxford: Clarendon,1994). Hudson sees a successionof two types of rubato,with
the looser right hand over steady left hand of eighteenth-centurykeyboardplayersgiving way to
the wholesale bending of time in the later nineteenth century. He does not discuss larger-scale
structuralissues. For those see the computer-aidedstudy of tempo fluctuationin David Epstein,
ShapingTime:Music,theBrain, and Performance(New York:Schirmer,1995).
310
Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
The rhythmicdistortions... werein no wayjustifiedby anymarksof the
composer,but alwaysoriginatedwiththe conductor.18
Weingartnersaw tempo rubato alreadydecadent and in eclipse. The pendulum was beginning to swing away from "pure" vitalism toward a more
modern style:less individualflamboyance;less obtrusiveand less idiosyncratic
interpretations; more conscious submission to the composer's will; more
fidelity to the text; and, underpinning all these reforms, more attention to
keeping tempos steady.19
By 1906, in his third edition, Weingartnercould claim to have stemmed
the growth of tempo-rubato music making; more performances,he noted,
were being acclaimedas "simple"and "grand."(Stravinskylatervolunteered
that Weingartnerwas a "nearidol" of his youth.)20By the time of TheRite of
Spring and the first stirringsof historicalperspectiveon the performanceof
canonic works, expressiverubato was seen as a specializedtechnique for dealing with contemporary(i.e., late Romantic)music. So while Dionysianperformances of Mahler and Strauss built the reputations of latter-day rubato
specialistslike Willem Mengelberg, Mozart and Beethoven were thought to
demand a more sedate, more classicalapproach.But not even Weingartnerespoused giving up modificationsof tempo altogether.In music with a strong
pulse, he consistently attacked anything that gave the impression of tempo
shiftsfrom barto bar,but he just as consistentlyallowed for larger-scalemodificationsof tempo, as long as the organicunity of the whole was not compromised. If subtle shifting of tempos would bring out the characterof different
sections of a work and thus help uncover its organic structure,the conductor
got no points for hiding behind a metronome mark.21
We might call this manipulationof long-range tempo relationsstructural
rubato,as opposed to the mercurialshiftsof expressive
rubato.This is not to say
that structuralrubato does not result in sudden speed-ups and slow-downs,
18. Weingartner,
On Conducting,
trans.ErnestNewman(London:Breitkopfand Hartel,
1906),28-29.
19. Therearemoments,particularly
whenBeethovenis underdiscussion,
whenWeingartner
-no one'sideaof a modernist-anticipates
someof Stravinsky's
mostacerbicattackson conductorialarrogance.
Hereis Weingartner
in 1906:"Somuchattentionwasdirectedto thepersonof
the conductorthatthe audienceevencameto regardthe composersas the creatures,
as it were,
of theirinterpreters,
and in conjunctionwith the nameof a conductorpeoplespokeof 'his'
'his'BRAHMS,
or 'his'WAGNER"
in 1939:
BEETHOVEN,
(On Conducting,
29). CompareStravinsky
"Perchedon hissibyllinetripod,[theconductor]imposeshisownmovements,hisownparticular
shadingsupon the compositionshe conducts,andhe evenreachesthe point of talkingwith a
naiveimpudenceof hisspecialities,
of hisfifth,of hisseventh,thewaya chefboastsof a dishof his
own concoction" (Poeticsof Music,131).
20. Weingartner,On Conducting,40. "FelixWeingartner... was a near idol of mine in my
youth, and a Beethoven cycle I heard him direct in Berlin in 1900 was a very great event in my
life" (Igor Stravinsky, "On Conductors and Conducting," in his Themesand Conclusions
[London: Faberand Faber,1972], 225).
21. See Weingartner,On Conducting,40-42.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
311
but they come at the turning points of the form, to accommodatethe changing character of the music's thematic material. Wagner declared in On
Conducting:"Theright comprehension
of theMELOSis thesoleguide to the right
tempo";comprehending the melosmeant knowing to what extent individual
melodic periodspartook of the lyrical"pure"adagio and the rhythmic"pure"
allegro.22The relative strength of these two temporal archetypes-not the
written tempo indication or metronome mark-determined the correct
tempo. In the late nineteenth- and earlytwentieth-centurypracticethat took
Wagner'streatiseas gospel, tempos tended toward the extreme: allegroswere
fasterand adagiosslower,since no pretensewas made that a single moderated
tempo should work for all the melodic charactersin a movement.
A classic opportunity for structuralrubato in the Wagnerianvein is provided by the contrasting themes of the typical nineteenth-century sonataallegromovement: the rhythmiccharacterof the firsttheme group usuallydemanded a briskertempo than was appropriatefor the lyricalsecond theme. In
the absenceof specificdirectionfrom the score, it was the conductor'sresponsibilityto plan the necessarytempo modulations.Structuralrubato thus articulates large sections with uniform thematic character:as the melosshifts,there
are moments of sudden flexibility,but whereverthe music maintainsa single
character,the perception of a single, basic tempo is never allowed to disintegrate. Wagner's conducting treatise specificallywarns against "arbitrary
nuances of tempo" applied simply for effect. He does take great pride in recounting his success at leading an orchestrathrough the tricky(and unwritten) tempo shifts in his interpretationof Weber's Freischiitzoverture, but in
every case the accelerandoor ritardandois planned and then negotiated not
for its own sake, but to preparethe correcttempo for the melosthat follows.23
The articulatingfunction of structuralrubato remained attractiveto performerslong afterthe more mercurialexpressiverubato had become unfashionable. Well into the 1950s, Wilhelm Furtwangler(Taruskin'sparagon of
vitalism)was turning andantesinto ultraslowpure adagios,pushing pure allegros into overdrive, and using tempo shifts within movements to articulate
Schenkerianprolongation spans.His performancesof Beethoven's Fifth completely abandonthe nervous flexibilityofArtur Nikisch'sfamous 1912 recording, in which not a single bar of the Allegro is in the same tempo. On the
other hand, Furtwangler,whose moment-to-moment beat is monumentally
steady,alwaysslows down quite deliberatelyfor the second theme.
22. Wagner, On Conducting:A Treatiseon Style in the Executionof ClassicalMusic, trans.
EdwardDannreuther(London: W. Reeves, 1887; reprint,New York:Dover, 1989), 18, 34-48;
emphasisin original.
23. On sonata forms: "Evidentlythe greaternumber, if not all modern Allegro movements,
consist of a combination of two essentiallydifferentconstituent parts:in contrastwith the older
naive unmixed Allegro, the constructionis enrichedby the combination of the pure Allegro with
the thematic peculiaritiesof the vocal Adagio in all its gradations" (Wagner, On Conducting,
52-53). On "arbitrarynuancesof tempo," see On Conducting,67.
312
Journal of the American Musicological Society
As if it were composed by Stravinsky
But what is the point of splitting hairs over the typology of vitalism?What
could it possibly have to do with the Rite? The ultimate triumph of Stravinskiangeometricperformancepracticeis well documented both in printand
on recordings.Earlymusic that is actuallyearlyis now being performedwith a
certain degree of freedom again, but in the mainstreamof performancethe
geometric has become the norm, and more rigidlyso the closer in the reperGiven the present-dayhegemony of Stravinsky's
tory one gets to Stravinsky.24
own modernist aesthetic,performing the "authentic"Rite now seems trivial
rather than quixotic. Make it brisk, geometric, faithful to the letter of the
score: that is, do exactly what the composer explicitly demanded, which is
what everybody is alreadydoing. Well, of course. As far as the Rite is concerned, it seems we have all been authenticistsavant la lettre.
After threadingits way through the interlockingparadoxesoutlined above,
musicology finds itself in the unfamiliarposition of having to argue history
againsthistorical"authenticity."The goal is not-as in Taruskin'snumerous
demolishments of self-servingrecord-jacketscholarship-to force spuriously
historicalperformersto unmaskthemselvesas modern. Ratherit is to seek to
understandan instanceof the historicalprocess by which modernist-historical
performanceconstituted itself in the firsthalf of our century.We will do well
to rememberthat performancestylesarenot constructedin a day,nor arethey
ultimatelyenforced by unilateralshifts in compositionalstyle or the apodicticism of a composer'saestheticpronouncements.Since the time of Beethoven,
performancepracticeshave been the resultof prolonged culturalnegotiations
between composers and performers.Tracing a performancepractice means
excavatingthe documentary traces of a long, intense, ongoing conversation
about the interpretationand control of musicaltexts.25
24. For brief surveysof the recorded evidence see Taruskin,"The Pastnessof the Present,"
163-64, 187-88; and Daniel Leech-Wilkinson'scontributionto "The Limits of Authenticity:A
Discussion,"in EarlyMusic 12 (1984): 13-16. For a prescientdiscussionof the "reversediscrimination"whereby earlymusic performersare allowed the vitalismthat modern mainstreamplayers
have abandoned, see Michelle Dullak, "The Quiet Metamorphosisof 'EarlyMusic,"' Repercussions2, no. 2 (1993): 31-61. For the most extremestatementof the modernistconservatoryposition (from a past presidentof the New England Conservatory,no less) see GuntherSchuller,The
CompleatConductor(New Yorkand Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress, 1997).
25. This type of performancehistory,with particularattentionpaid to the recordedevidence,
has been the principalinterestof Jose Bowen, directoruntil recentlyof the Centerfor the History
and Analysisof Recorded Music (CHARM) at the Universityof Southampton. See his "Tempo,
Duration, and Flexibility:Techniques in the Analysisof Performance,"Journal of Musicological
Research16 (1996): 111-56. For a longer discussion that touches on some of the same critical
and historical issues broached here, see Bowen, "The History of Remembered Innovation:
Tradition and Its Role in the RelationshipBetween Musical Works and Their Performances,"
Journal ofMusicology11 (1993): 139-73. Less relevantto the present discussion-though still a
pioneering study-is Robert Philip's Early Recordingsand Musical Style:Changing Tastesin
InstrumentalPerformance,1900-1950 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1992).
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
313
As it turns out, TheRite of Springis the perfect text upon which to trace
the complex forging of modernistperformancepracticein the firsthalf of the
twentieth century.The negotiations were unusuallypersonal, and they often
turned ugly: Stravinsky'sirritationwith conductorswho got in the way of his
music is legendary.26It took sustainedwork with the pen and the baton-and
multiplerevisionsof the text-before Stravinskycould rely on hearingeven his
own most famouspiece played "asif it were composed by Stravinsky."
To get some idea of the distancehe had to traversewe can return, not to
the 1913 ballet premiere so painstakinglyresearchedby Hodson and company-we have almost no testimony from qualifiedwitnesses about how that
sounded-but to the St. Petersburgconcert premierethe following February.
This is the earliestRite for which we have criticaldiscussion of the musical
performanceby a trained,disinterestedobserver familiarwith the score. The
composerNicolai Myaskovsky,in 1914 stillconsideredan importantjournalistic ally of Stravinsky,had been furnishedwith a score of the Rite so that he
could soften the ground a little before the firstRussianperformances.His assessment of the piece itself was guardedlypositive, but at the actualpremiere,
as a composer in possession of the score and its metronome markings,he had
only scorn for Serge Koussevitsky's"interpretation"-and I use the word in its
Stravinskian,pejorativesense. According to Myaskovsky,Koussevitskymade a
hash of the piece (the review refersto "sonic porridge"and "the mess called
forth by Mr. Koussevitsky'smagicwand");most of the themes were simplyinaudible.Even worse, the conductor used cheap sound effects in an attempt to
compensatefor his inabilityto control the orchestra:"The end [of the piece]
was beyond Mr. Koussevitsky'spowers. In generalthe music went at exaggerated tempi, with the brassbellowing and the percussioncracklingthe way Mr.
Koussevitsky loves it."27
Evidentlyplayingthe Rite was not alwaysas serenelygeometric an affairas
at present. In the absenceof any survivingrecordingof Koussevitsky'sRite (I
will propose a substitute below) one can only imagine a highly theatricalbut
sloppy performance in which appropriatetempos, geometric regularity of
pulse, and carefulorchestralbalancewere ruthlesslysacrificedfor dramaticand
expressiveeffect. The following study of source materialsand recordings attempts to outline the path from this putative vitalist performance-not an
atypicalone, as I'll try to show-to the grimly geometric Rite embalmed in
the composer's 1960 Columbiarecording.I will begin with a briefconsideration of the extant performing materialsfor the Rite and the shifting timings
and tempo markingsin variousscores. The question of the "correct"tempo
26. Thus the famous fallingsout with even his most trusted executants:Monteux, who took
understandableoffense at Stravinsky'sadvertisementsthat his own messy performanceswere, ex
officio,more definitivethan Monteux's; and Ansermet, a trusted ally banished for making a few
unauthorizedcuts in balletscores.
27. Review in Muzika, no. 171 (1 March 1914); quoted and translatedin Taruskin,Stravinskyand theRussian Traditions2:1023.
314
Journal of the American Musicological Society
for the "Danse sacrale"will lead to a more detailed discussion of expressive
tempo modificationsin that final movement. As I pointed out above, whatever Stravinsky's1913 intentions might have been (and as usual we will have
to be skepticalabout his expostfactoclaims),historicallyimportantrecordings
of the "Danse sacrale"betray an underground, mostly unwritten tradition
of vitalist tempo fluctuation. I will survey, through published and primary
sources, the fugitive documentary justification for this recorded practice.
Finally,I will trace the process by which Stravinskylater imposed modernist
geometry onto the Rite in his attempt to wipe out not only this one conductorialinspirationbut unauthorizedtempo modificationsin general.
The Performing Materials of the Rite
Let me say at the outset that I have not found any "new"sourcesfor the Rite;
I am simplyreexaminingsome well-canvasseddocuments, the most important
of these being the autograph full score (hereafterPartitur) currentlyhoused
at the Paul SacherStiftungin Basel.28(The boldfacetermsin the following descriptionof sourcesarekeyed to the texts which arelisted as primarysourcesin
WorksCited and whose markingsare collated in Tables 1-3 of the Appendix.
The German nomenclature follows that of the Paul Sacher Stiftung, where
most of these sources reside.) Before 1922, when a printed full score became
generallyavailable,the four manuscriptorchestralscores of the Rite in existence were regularlylent out to conductorsfor performances.Stravinsky'sautograph, although not the primarylending score,29was among these, and it
now carriesextensive performancemarkings,a fact that the composer's alter
ego Robert Craftdeplores:"Everypage of the originalmanuscript[is] marred
by [conductors'] remindersto give cues, by large redrawingsof the meters,
and by such expressionsas 'tres tranquille'-where Stravinskymerely gives a
change of tempo."30Most commentatorson the Partiturfollow Craftin giving relatively short shrift to these "inauthentic" markings. Even Volker
Scherliess,who has published the most extended description of this closely
held source to date, was mostly interestedin compositionalvariants(of which
there are many) and what the autographrevealsof Stravinsky'searlyrevision
process. Conductors' marksin the score engage him only brieflyand in passing, though he does at least list the places where Stravinsky'smetronome
marksare crossedout and replaced.31
28. The key referenceto all the sources for the Rite is still Cyr, "Le Sacredu printempsPetite histoired'un grandepartition."The following catalogueis indebted to his painstakingand
pioneeringwork.
29. See ibid., 109-10.
30. Craft, "Le Sacre du printemps:A Chronology of the Revisions,"in Stravinsky:Selected
ed. and trans.Robert Craft(New York:Knopf, 1982-85), 1:399 n. 4.
Correspondence,
31. Scherliess,"Bemerkungenzum Autographdes 'Sacredu printemps,'"Musikforschung
35
(1982): 244-45.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
315
Consideredas a performingdocument, the Partiturforms the firstlink in a
chain of primarysources, all now resident in Basel, that together justifysome
startlinginferencesabout performancesof the Rite over the years.The most
importantsupplementarysourcesare Stravinsky'spersonalcopies of the 1922
and 1948 conductor's scores (RMV 197; B&H 16333); the composer
quite clearlyconducted from these full-size scores for decades, and they are
heavilyencrusted with corrections,cues, rebarrings,and all the practicaljottings of the podium. Stravinsky'sthickly annotated copy of the 1913 fourhand piano score (RMV 196), whose choreographicnotes on the original
production were describedin print by Robert Craft, also contains a few key
musicalcorrections.32Stravinskyhad two personalcopies of the 1922 pocket
score (RMV 197b), and though he of course never conducted from these, he
did write in corrections,particularlyof tempos. In addition, tempo markings
in Stravinsky'sSketchbook, availablein facsimile,and his draft short score
(hereafterParticell) can be brought to bear. Finally, there are the printed
editions of 1922, 1948, and 1967 (B&H 19441) themselves,along with the
1943 revised version of the "Danse sacrale" (AssociatedMusic Publishers,
unnumbered). When added to the acoustic evidence-the 1921 Pleyela piano rolls and various historic recordings-they outline a contested performance practicethat is as fascinatingas it was fundamentallyunresolved.
Before turning to the specific question of what the conductors' marksin
the Partitur and other significant early scores suggest about tempos and
tempo shifts in early Rite performances,it will be useful to give a general
overviewof the performancemarkingsin these unpublishedsources.First,the
Partitur:VolkerScherliessassumesthat most of the performers'annotationsin
the autograph are by Pierre Monteux.33 This is logical, since Monteux rehearsedand performedthe score more than anyone else in the crucialperiod
(1913-21) before the first printed edition. (A definitiveidentificationof the
handwritingis difficult,however, for most of the annotationsare isolated numerals in crayon, lines and circles, and the like, and even the few complete
words seem scrawledin haste. While the matteris by no means closed, for euphony's sake I will refer to "Monteux" below ratherthan "the conductor or
conductors who markedthe Partiturat this spot.") The conductor's performance notes are written in a large hand across the score, mainly in red and
blue crayon.They are easilydistinguishablefrom Stravinsky'stext corrections,
most of which are small, neat, and in pencil or darkink. (The composer does
not appearever to have conducted from this score; by the time he took up the
baton in 1926, he owned severalprinted copies of the Rite.) Though Craft
gives the impression that Stravinsky's autograph was heavily defaced,
Monteux's markingsare in general quite discreet. It seems that unlike many
32. Igor Stravinsky,TheRite of Spring:Sketches1911-1913 (London: Faberand Faber,1969),
appendix3. See also Craft,"TheRite at Seventy-Five,"for reproductionsof severalkey pages.
33. Scherliess,"Bemerkungen,"244.
316
Journal of the American Musicological Society
modern conductors, who use complex systems of score markingto ease (or
substitute for) analyzingand internalizinga trickyscore, Monteux knew the
Rite so well that he needed only the most fleeting aidesmemoiresduringactual
performance.34
Most of the markingshighlight complex metric changes:Monteux is likely
to write the number of beats per bar in quickly changing passages in large
roman numeralsat the center of the score, though often he simply enlarges
the actualmeters as they change. Where there are compound uneven meters
in fast tempos he usuallywrites out the division of the bar he will beat (more
on this below). There are very few cues. The conductor has circled a few of
the trickiestentrances-mostly criticalpercussionpassageslike the bass drum
hemiola heraldingthe entranceof the "Cortege du Sage" (three measuresbefore R65) and the irregularlyspacedtimpanishots that pockmarkthe opening
of the "Danse sacrale." He also reminded himself to encourage exposed
woodwind solos like the high-altitudehorn melody at R25 of the "Danse des
Adolescents."Monteux added slursor articulationmarksextremelyrarely(he
did clarify some ambiguous mute and pizzicato-arco changes); he altered
dynamicsmore readily,fiddling with the balanceof severalpassagesand even
changing a doubling or two (for example,he askedthe third horn to join the
fourth in the growling pedal passageat R31). Significantly,he added no marks
of "expressive"phrasing:no hairpins,no breath-marks,and no fermatasthat
were not alreadyimplied by the music. (There are a few characterwords, but
we'll deal with those, along with tempo markings,below.) There are also no
indicationsof the choreographybeyond the bare acknowledgmentof the raising and lowering of the curtainfor the two tableaux.
Interestinglyenough, given Craft'shauteur over conductorialdefacement
of the autograph,Stravinsky'sown copy of the 1922 full score is much more
thickly encrusted with performancemarkingsthan the Partitur.Its elaborate
mnemonic annotations seem to suggest that the composer had to learn the
Rite quickly,almost from scratch,as he preparedto begin his own conducting
careerin the mid 1920s. Stravinskywent far beyond redrawingthe meters in
crayon:he remindedhimselfof the rapidlyshifting beat patternswith the processionsof largeverticalstrokes,triangles,and squaresabove the score that are
still many a conductor's firststep when parsingan unfamiliarscore. He delin34. Actually,one wonders what score Craftwas thinkingof, or whether he was working from
memory or hearsaywhen he disparagedthose who conducted from the Partitur.The "tris tranquille"that so exercisedhim seems relativelyinnocuous: afterall, Stravinskyhimself used "Tranquillo" as a tempo markingat R48 and R56. As for large redrawingsof the meters, Monteux's
markingsarejust numbers;no new barlines, verticalticksfor beats, or the big squares(duple) and
triangles(triple) favored by modern conductors (like Stravinskyhimself) appearanywhere.It is
quite possible that Monteux did actually-pace Craft-hesitate to use the composer's autograph
as his personalnotebook. See Erich Leinsdorf, TheComposer's
Advocate:A Radical Orthodoxyfor
Musicians,for a wonderfullyacerbicdiatribeagainstusing this kind of graphicalscore parsingas a
crutch ([New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1981], 2-4).
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
317
eated hypermetricgroupings of measuresby tracingkey bar lines in bold blue
crayonand drawingbracketsabove the firstviolin line, and sometimes actually
enclosed a sequence of bars in a large red box spanning the entire height of
the score. Important cues are carefullynoted, as are the score's few writtenout tempo transitions.Stravinskytransferredmost of these markingsto his
personalcopy of the 1948 full score with meticulousprecision.
All these annotations make it easy to trace the development of a performance practice.Let us take one strikinginstance. Having the stringsplay the
famous "Augurs"polychord using nothing but repeated down-bows was an
inspirationthat struckStravinskyonly in performanceduring the 1920s. The
bowings are not in the autographPartitur,nor are they in the 1922 first edition. The composer/conductor penciled them into his 1922 full score (and
not his pocket score) sometime in the middle 1920s, and they were duly engraved in the 1929 revision of that first printed edition. Why? One practical
reasonprobablystruckStravinskythe conductor the firsttime he rehearsedthe
passage:as the stringplayerssawed back and forth, takinghis famouslyirregular accentsjust as they came, he must have realizedit was imperativeto specify
a bowing to ensure that none of the string accents landed on an weak upstroke. Demanding all down-bows was a simple solution that combated orchestral routine, avoided fussiness, and guaranteed absolute regularity of
accent.
But the decision might also have been a product of Stravinskythe composer'schanging conception of the way the Rite should sound. Having the
strings retake over and over again forces playersto lift the bow after every
note, clipping each chord short and thus enforcing automaticallythe trademark "etched" staccato sound of postwar New Objectivity.One might infer
that earlierconductors of the Rite had playedthe Augurs chords more on the
string, more tenuto; later recorded performances by Monteux, Ernest
Ansermet, and Stokowskido indeed bear tracesof this pre-1929 performance
practice.Do the repeateddown-bows then imply that every eighth-note beat
should be heavily and equally felt? Not if we respect the Fassung letztes
Taktstocks.
As Example 1 shows, Stravinskyremindedhimselfin his 1948 score
to beat the passage in an easy alla breve,writing in the metricallyincorrect
pulse of two half notes per bar.At or below the written tempo of J = 50, beating four eighth notes to the baris just possible, if one wants a heavy,stomping
effect; but two beats to the barimpliesa faster,lighter feel, like the bouncy J =
60-62 Stravinskydemonstratesin his 1960 Columbiarecording.
Insofaras conductors'markingsrepresenta kind of rough-and-readyanalysis, they are also rich in theoreticaland structuralimplications.For example,
comparingthe way Monteux and Stravinskybroke up the Rite's complex uneven meters is particularlyhelpful in unravelingknotty questions of rhythmic
scansion. Sometimes the two simply disagree, as in Example 2, which shows
how the two conductors parsed the infamous eleven-four bar that begins
the "Glorificationde l'elue." It is revealingthat both felt the need to split this
318
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Example 1 Stravinsky'sperformancemarkingsfor the "Augursprintanieres"(R13)
Igor Stravinsky,in red pencil, in his
personalcopy of B & H 16333 (after
1948)
2r r r r
131
Vln(
f
f
se e stacca
semprestaccato
Igor Stravinsky,in blue pencil, in his
personalcopy of RMV 197 (after 1922)
undifferentiated string of quarter-note beats into familiartriple and duple
patterns.35
But Stravinskyoften worked through several notations of his trickiest
rhythms. Knowing how contemporary performers actually subdivided the
composer's originals throws new light on the provenance, motivation, and
structuralimplicationsof his rebarrings.To take a famous instance:in the late
1920s Stravinskyredrew most of the bar lines in the "Danse sacrale";seventeen pages of score had to be completelyreengravedfor the 1929 "revisedfirst
edition."36He arrivedat the barringfamiliarto most of us by splittingalmost
all of the measureswith five or seven sixteenthnotes into shorterbarsof three
or two, and by rewritingall four-sixteenthmeasuresas barsof two-eight. This
had the immediateadvantageof simplifyingthe counting-almost everything
was either a two or a three-and, more crucially,of allowing the composer to
control the way conductorswould actuallybeat (and thus accentuate)the bars
of five. Robert Craftand others have noted that this rebarringfirstappearsin
35. I can find no deeper significancein Stravinsky'schoice of 4 + 4 + 3 versus Monteux's
choice of 3 + 4 + 4. Monteux's division might be preferredas closer to the choreography,if
MillicentHodson's restorationwork is to be trusted at this level of detail. Her reconstructionhas
the "amazons"stomping in place for all eleven beats;there is an arm gesture on the fourth beat,
the beginning of Monteux's second group; and a clap on the last quarter,which works better if
the last group is a group of four as in Monteux ratherthan a group of three as in Stravinsky.See
Hodson, Nijinsky'sCrime, 137.
36. The publisherdeclined to change the plate numbers, so both the 1922 firstprintingand
this 1929 revisedscore carrythe number RMV 197. This has led quite a few librariesto list their
very common 1929 scores as the much more rare 1922 printing.See Cyr, "Lesacredu printemps
-Petite histoire d'un grande partition,"98-99 and 120-27, for a more detailed discussion of
variantsbetween the editions.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
Example 2
1)
319
StravinskyversusMonteux at the introductionto "Glorificationde l'elue" (R103 +
Bracketsand numbersby Igor Stravinsky,in
red pencil, in his personalcopy of B & H
16333 (after 1948) ~
4
J=120
I
T
i
_
4
3
3
I
/collabacch.di Tamburo
fcolla
Fermata,slurs, and numbersby Pierre
Monteux(?)in crayonon Partitur(1913)
Stravinsky's1922 conducting score, painstakinglyand ingeniously draftedby
the composer's own hand over the originaltext.37But no one seems to have
noticed how closely Stravinsky'srebarringfollows Monteux's own rhythmic
"analysis"of the "Danse sacrale,"recordedon the Partiturin 1913.
Example 3a comparesStravinsky'soriginalbarringin the 1913 autograph,
Monteux's parsing of those bars into beat patterns, and Stravinsky'srevised
barringof the 1920s. In almost every case, the division of five that Monteux
beat in 1913 is the division that Stravinskylater wrote into his score.38The
only place where Stravinsky'snew barring contradictswhat was conducted
in 1913 is at what is now R148. Monteux opted for consistency (the oompah-pahof the low brassis alwaysbeaten in three) and followed the percussion
(his version keeps all the timpanistrokeson the "stronger"beats). Stravinsky,
interestinglyenough, had something quite differentin mind. The composer's
new barringdisrupts symmetry and displacespercussion accents in order to
follow the melody, placing the first leap up to A in metricallystressedrelief.
The 1943 revisionchanges the barringyet again, placing both A's on written
downbeats and the following Bl on what a conservativelistener will almost
certainlyhear as an unwritten one (see the scansion symbols at the end of
Ex. 3a).
Even when Stravinskydidn't split up bars of five, he renotated them to
make sure the A's of the melody would alwaysfall on strong beats. Monteux,
faced with severalbarsof five in which every note carriedan accent, chose to
beat them as 2 + 3-a logical division, but one that in retrospectlooks like a
37. Craft, "Le Sacredu printemps:A Chronology of the Revisions,"403-4; van den Toorn,
"StravinskyRe-barred,"188-90.
38. Stravinsky'sdecision to combine the two measuresbefore what is now R147 into one
could not be anticipated.
Example 3a Monteux and Stravinskyrebarthe "Dansesacrale"
1913Partitur
A
C,. _k
.
I%
p
lI
II
2
3
Monteux:
M=
I"
,'IA$
3
',
'
Iria T
I
I
q
3
? ^Tgir-^
!
ggiAjik&4jid
'
*
2
Ilh&^iA
'
143]
[142]
1929 "revisedfirstedition"
A?
1913Parfitur
1; Z i ; ;^n
i
Monteux:
3
3
7l i&
fi ^41
fiJi
2 3
A!
i^lt
h~~~~'
^^
I929
[144]
"revisedfirst edition"
o
-r
-I
iA
-^s^
isiA
L.
se
Example 3a continued
1913 Partitur
A
- _ r ' IL7. Ia
- 1i5.-lp
3
3
a
i
k
i.^
Monteux:
^
B
ii^'
i&?
[146]1
^r^-''
1929 "revisedfirst edition"
'
k
p
-
7
2
r I~~
i,
lih
i,
i~
~
,
A
u
/
1913Partitur
22
-
3
3
k
k
r
~~ibl"
i. ONr5
l4
w
r
1811 I -ON
Ii
P
[147]
1929 "revisedfirst edition"
7
,,@'\ - d
1 -
k
-N
5 5
- /
u
u\
I
A
u
- 1;
;
3
Monteux:
F'
3
I
#4
R
4
7
1 5'
I0
[ 7
Iit
.1
/
1943 revised "Danse sacrale"
_5
II
[148] 1
u
/
.v11 ,T
-4
[7]
322
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Example 3b StravinskycorrectsMonteux's "wrong"divisionsof five
I913 Partitur
Ira?
sim.
>
7
r-r r L.
1
ff
marc.ff cresc.
3
2
3
2
3
Monteux's
divisions
1929 revisedfirstedition
E144
1145|
P
I r
-Ti
ff marc.
[3
3
sim.
+
2]
[3
+
2]
divisions implied
by Stravinsky's
revision
mistake, an artifactof the beaming (see Ex. 3b). Once aware of Monteux's
"error,"anyone can see why Stravinskywent back in 1929 and rebeamedthe
note-heads,thinned out the accents,and added hairpinsleading directlyto the
crucialA's. No conductor could now failto see what BorisAsaf'yev would call
the intonationof the whole passage:the way its coordinationof rhythmicand
melodic accentscreatesa perceptiblycoherent shape (he would have calledit a
popevka,a "littlemelodic cell"), repeatedlyleading to the high A and, finally,
when enough tension has built up, one scalestep higher to Bb.39
The Partiturlets us watch Stravinsky"correcting"Monteux and shows the
composer parsing the music to favor middle-ground melodic connections.
Abstractmelodic structure-at any level of reduction-is not a structuralfeature of the Rite that has come in for much recent discussion,yet this dispute
over accentuationin performanceshows that it clearlymattered to the composer. (Such documentaryevidence tempts me to undertakean Asaf'yev-style
intonationalstudy of the entire work's melodic structure.)Taking the metrically ambiguous Partitur as the text for a historical performance of this
passage,one might still choose to follow the interpretationof the composeras-conductor,enshrinedin the 1929 revisionof the text ("the composer's intentions"), ratherthan the interpretationof the actual conductor who used
39. See BorisAsaf'yev,A BookAbout Stravinsky,trans.RichardF. French (Ann Arbor:UMI
ResearchPress, 1982), 50-59.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
323
the Partiturat the premiere,as recordedon the 1913 text itself ("the sound of
the firstperformance").But in any case, this "mistake"in beating recordedon
the autographremains crucialfor musicologists:it alone makes sense of the
tracesStravinskyleft in later sources as he clarifiedhis rhythmic (and intonational) intentions.
Furthermore,one can argue that Monteux's "wrong" interpretationhas
become, if only negatively,part of "the music itself."Stravinskydid not arrive
at the revised 1929 barringand accentuationof the "Danse sacrale"by solitary approachto a Platonic Ideal; his reading of the text was sharpenedin
dialecticalstruggle with another's. The point of dispute between the two interpretations is small, but the philosophical implications are profound.
Stravinskylaterarguedperformanceaestheticsfrom the propositionthat there
were two "moments"of music: "potentialmusic," the fully realizedset of the
composer's intentions "fixed on paper," which exists logically prior to any
performance;and "actualmusic," the stuff mortals can actuallyhear, because
mere mortals have actuallyplayed it for them.40As soon as we accept that
these two moments arediscreteontological essencesand acceptthe logicalpriority of the potential (composer's) over the actual (performer's),the entire
ideology of modernist-historicalperformancepracticefollows with inexorable
logic. The move from potentialto actualis alwaysa fallfrom grace,especiallyif
the performershave known Sin, letting their own musicalideas "contaminate"
the purityof the composer'soriginalconception. (The only salvationis the inerrantscripturalauthorityof the Urtext.)
But the little vignette we have just tracedon the Partiturshows the absurdity of subordinatingactualto potential music: Monteux's incorrectinterpretation of the text was not a betrayalof the composer's prescriptionsbut the
catalystfor them. Actual music, in this case at least, precedes and determines
potential-if only dialectically,by contradiction.An ironic, almost deconstructive paradox arises:composer-conductors(Stravinsky,Mahler, Boulez) who
intervenein the practiceof actualmusic on behalfof theirpotential music end
up undermining the very texts whose (non)interpretationthey are trying so
hard to control. Their "intentions"become clear to them only gradually,in
retrospect,and the resultis a destabilizingproliferationof contradictorytexts,
each purportingto realizeonce and for all "the composer'sintentions."Every
remaking of the score to make it (at last) a perfect document of the composer's will underminesthe very idea that a materialtext alone can guarantee
any "authentic"realizationat all.
TheRite of Springprovidesan extreme example. It is no accident that the
most famous work of our most famous "composer'sadvocate"spreadsitself
among a bewilderingarrayof contradictorytexts, recordings, and anecdotal
admonitions.(Afteralmost a hundredyears,the idea of a single criticaledition
40. Stravinsky,Poeticsof Music, 125-29. The terms "potential"and "actual"are Stravinsky's
own.
324
Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
of the Rite seems more impossiblyutopian than ever.) The only way for the
composer and his amanuensesto establish control over the text of the Rite
was to producemoretexts,which had the paradoxicaleffect of dissipatingthe
composer'stextualauthorityeven further,to the point where he could make a
complete revision and reorchestrationof the "Danse sacrale"only to have it
pointedly ignored by most scholars,nearlyall performers,and even his publisherof record. (One does not reviseScripturelightly.)
What, then, can be done? The temptationis to invoke arbitraryclosure by
privilegingeither the composer's last text (the musicological default) or the
composer'sfirstthoughts (a new performingwrinkleexemplifiedby "period"
recordings of early and even draft versions of canonic works). One might
well choose either of these options as the basis for an "authentic"Rite. The
Fassung letzter Hand would be the 1967 Boosey and Hawkes score, with
the possible substitution of the 1943 revised "Danse sacrale";the "original
version"(to use the authenticistslogan) would be the text of the Partituras it
stands in the Paul SacherStiftung, with a few key passagesreturned to their
primalstate before rehearsalsstartedin the earlyspringof 1913.
But neitherof these texts guaranteesthe realizationof Stravinsky's"original
intentions," the "potentialmusic" that he famouslyclaimed to have heard in
1910 but had been unable to write down. That music seems to me to be, if
not an expostfacto fabrication,then a red herringwith little relevanceto performance practice. Even after he wrote the Rite down, Stravinskycouldn't
know the relation of what he had written to what he (didn't yet know he)
wanted-what he later would decide he "had alwayswanted"-until Pierre
Monteux tried to give it to him. And it is onlythat gift in sound-however ungratefullyreceived-that a "historicalperformance"can ever hope to reclaim.
General Questions of Tempo
The case is no differentwith geometric tempo: Stravinsky'svastly influential
stricturesturn out to be not so much intention as reaction-or overreaction.
This is not to say that Stravinskydid not have reason to feel that his "potential"Rite had been betrayedby his earlyinterpreters.Even a cursoryglance at
the performancemarkingsin the Partiturshows that the first generation of
Rite conductorsfelt free to ignore both Stravinsky'stempo indicationsand his
metronome marks;someone has simply crossed many of them out in blue
crayon and written in his own. (These and other changes appear in the
columns labeled Partiturin Tables la through Ic. Takentogether, these three
tables should provide an independentlyuseful concordance of tempo markings found in significantprimarysources for the Rite, with special attention
given to variantsand handwrittencorrectionsat the placeswhere performance
practiceis in dispute.)
The new tempos are almost all slower than the composer's,and most commentators, prodded by Stravinsky'sjaundiced recollections, assume that
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
325
choreographicdemandsforced the wholesale abandonmentof the composer's
original tempos. But Stravinsky'srepeated hatchet jobs on Nijinsky and his
work are so crude and so transparentlyself-serving-or, rather,so transparently in the service of the Rite as abstractconcert piece-that all of the composer's complaints need to be vetted with particular care. In his 1936
autobiography,Stravinskydid indeed sniff that Nijinskyhad, "eitherthrough
clumsinessor lack of understanding,"ruined his "Danse sacrale":"It is undeniably clumsy to slow down the tempo of the music in order to compose
complicated steps which cannot be danced in the tempo prescribed."41But
on closer examination that "prescribedtempo" turns out to be something
of a chimera. For the "Danse sacrale,"there are no tempo markingsin the
Sketchbook, the Particell,or the Partitur:tempo markingsfirst appearin the
printedfour-handscore,which came out at the earliestin mid April 1913, well
afterall the choreographywas worked out.42We do not have any manuscript
sources for this score, so there is no way to know whether Stravinskyspecified
tempos in the piano reduction that he never wrote down either for himself
(in the drafts)or for Monteux (in the Partitur).It would be comforting to let
the composer convince us that he had an ideal ontological tempo in mind
for every dance before the first rehearsalof the Rite, but it is more likely,as
Volker Scherliessproposes, that loose tempo ranges were honed collaborativelyduring the dance and orchestralpreparations.43
Scherliess'shypothesisis borne out by the earlymanuscriptsources.The divergence of metronome markingsbetween the Sketchbook,the Particell,and
the Partitur(Tables la-c) allows us to see just how variableStravinsky'searly
conceptions of tempo were. In severalcases, the Partitur's"compromises"return to tempos "pre-scribed"in the Particell.When Monteux decided to pull
the "Jeuxdes Cites Rivales"(R57) backfrom a breakneckJ = 168 to the more
manageableJ = 146, he came within two metronome clicks of the original
tempo for this section (the Particellimplies J = 144 at R57, since there is no
direction to modify the tempo set at R54). At R72, the beginning of the
"Dansede la terre,"Monteux crossedout Stravinsky'sprestissimoand wrote in
"rigoreux,"implying a tempo significantlyslower than the J = 168 marked;I
suspect this "rigorous"tempo was quite close to the "Vivace.J = 138" that
Stravinsky'sshort score originallydemanded.
Actually, the damage to Stravinsky'sgeometric conception is generally
less than the casualdisregardof his metronome marksin the Partiturmight indicate.Though obviouslyoffensiveto Craft'ssensibilities,the verbaltempo indications Monteux wrote in next to his new metronome marks are by no
means romanticallyeffusive;in fact, they often imply a conscious preoccupation with maintaininga locally strict (i.e., geometric) tempo. What else can
we conclude when "MoltoAllegro"is replacedby "Allegrorigoroso"(R57), or,
41. Stravinsky,Autobiography,
48.
42. See Cyr, "Le Sacredu printemps-Petite histoire d'un grande partition,"114-15. Note
that the "Danse sacrale"does not even appearin the Particellin possessionof the SacherInstitute.
43. Scherliess,"Bemerkungen,"244.
326
Journal of the American Musicological Society
as mentioned above, when Monteux declines to take the "Danse de la terre"
prestissimo,but reminds himself that it must still be "rigoreux"(R72)? It is
doubtful whether a veteran ballet conductor like Monteux allowed any spontaneous phrase-levelrubato.44One thing we can sayfor certainis that he never
confessedto this kind of expressiveshapingon the score itself.And on a larger
scale, the new slower tempos are often carefullycalculated to preserve the
interlockingtempo relationswritten into the score: in TableauI, for example
(see Table la), the 1:2 ratio between the slow and fastsections of the "Rondes
printanieres"(R54) is maintained(80:160 becomes 69:138), and the subsequent addition of exactlyeight metronome marksto determine the tempo of
the "Jeux des Cites Rivales"(R57) is also punctiliouslypreserved (160:168
becomes 138:146).
Ultimately,all these slower tempos are something of a distraction.If they
are Monteux's, he had abandoned them by the time of his 1929 recording,
which makes heroic efforts to take all the fast sections of the score at or near
the tempos Stravinskyindicated. (Table Id compares the markings in the
Partiturwith Monteux's recording.) In fact, Monteux's most significantdeparture from the printed text is in the other direction, when he begins the
"Danse sacrale"at what Myaskovskywould undoubtedlyhave calledthe exaggerated tempo of J = 148-53; this is more than twenty clicksfaster than
Stravinsky'srathersedate J = 126.45
There is no justificationfor Monteux's blazing tempo in any printed or
manuscriptscore. There is, however,the 1921 piano roll, which startsand finishes the "Danse sacrale"at about that speed (more on that later).And there is
a fascinatingdocument in Stravinsky'shand-hitherto unpublished-which I
have transcribedas Example4a. This chartappearspastedinto the inside front
44. Monteux had been with the Balletsrussesfor less than two yearswhen he conducted the
Rite; in fact, he had never conducted dance before agreeing to rehearse the orchestra for
Petrushkain 1911. (Monteux was at the time the assistantdirectorof the Concerts Colonne and
firmlyentrenched in the nineteenth-centurysymphonic repertory.)But as he pointed out when
George Gershwinlater praisedhis "marvellousrhythmicsense," he had put in severalformative
years(age fourteen to sixteen) playing for the acrobatsand dancersat the Folies Bergeres:"Oui,
my two yearsat the Folies has a great deal to do with it. There were many dancing and acrobatic
acts, in which, as you know, the rhythmis markedand extremelyprecise. It was excellent training
for a young musician."His wife points out the relevanceto the Rite: "This experiencestood him
in good stead later,when as a conductor of the BalletRusse under Serge Diaghilev,he triumphed
in the works of Igor Stravinskyand MauriceRavel."See Doris G. Monteux, It's All in theMusic
(New York:Farrar,Straussand Giroux, 1965), 30-31. This is a key source of informationabout
Monteux's training,background,and temperament-though the greatman, reminiscingnearthe
end of his life, is not above prevaricatinga little, as we shallsee below.
45. All timings of recordedperformancesare my own, taken by hand; the difficultyof establishing regular pulsations in this complex metric environment can be taken as a given. All
metronome marksgiven should be understood as having a marginof errorof approximately? 3.
On the other hand, where I specifya range of marks,the implicationis that the performanceitself
variesin tempo between the two numbersgiven.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
327
cover of Stravinsky'spersonalcopy of the 1922 full-sizescore of the Rite, from
which the composer conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. It is thus the score
the composer had to hand when he was planning his 1929 recording.
Compare Example4a with the actualdispositionof Stravinsky's1929 recording onto the ten 78-rpm sides of Columbia LX 119-123, given in Example
4b: they are close enough, at least at the beginning, to let us identifythe chart
as Stravinsky'sattempt to map out the best way to fit the Rite onto fourminute record sides.46Usefully enough, Stravinskyprojectedtimings for each
section of the Rite that were, for the most part, accurateto within a few seconds (comparethem with my timings in Ex. 4b for the actualsides of his 1929
recording).Stravinsky'sprojectedrecordinghas one fewer side than the eventual 1929 pressing, since he is convinced that he can get the entire "Danse
sacrale"on one side. But his timing is wildly optimistic. By my calculations,
one would need to maintainthe frantictempo of = 155-60 to complete the
dance in the 3'50" that Stravinskyallows.
The only person who has ever come close to that tempo on records was
PierreMonteux. But Monteux's 1929 recordingof the "Danse sacrale"takes
well over four minutes and is, like Stravinsky's,split over two sides. This is because-and now we begin to close in on what this investigationis reallyabout
-Monteux doesn't maintainany one tempo. Though he blazes through the
beginning and ending of the "Danse sacrale,"he slows down significantlyand
dramaticallyin the middle. He thus introducesat least two majortempo modificationsnot called for in any orchestralscore. It is to the question of these
modificationsthat we now turn.
Modifications of Tempo in the "Danse sacrale"
Let's considerand eliminatetwo possible practicalexplanationsfor the tempo
shifts.First,the generic appealto faultyorchestraltechnique. In fact, the parts
of the "Danse sacrale"that consistently get slowed down in early performances are not the most difficult-they are the easiestto beat and to play.
And, as we'll hear,the tempo shiftingpersistsand even proliferatesin comfortable performancesfrom the 1950s. Second, an appeal to the choreography:
Although there is evidence that these tempo shifts may go back to 1913, it
seems unlikelythey were put there solelyfor the dancers.As anyone who has
ever accompaniedballet will attest, dancershate complex tempo fluctuations
in the middle of movements. One could make a case that Nijinsky'soriginal
choreographyboth accommodatesand is articulatedby the tempo shifts I am
discussinghere (and I will make that case below), but that would not explain
46. The roman numeralsare the actualrecords;the arabicnumbers are the sides (matrixes);
the letters are the individualtracks.Matrix numbers and labels in Example 4b are taken from
Louis Cyr,linernotes for PearlGEMM CD 9334.
328
Journal of the American Musicological Society
Example 4a Transcribedfrom Stravinsky'scopy of RMV 197 (1922 cond. score), inside front
cover (originalorthography)
II
1)
2)
3)
4)
[ 3'
prelude
Les augursprintaniers ] 3'25"]
b rondes print.
a) Jeu de rapt
rivales
des
cites
Jeux
a)
b) Cortege du sage
c) Danse de le terre
III
5)
Preludea II Tableau
| 3'50"
supprimentla 6ieme mesure du 861et changent cette qui sort en 5/4, suppriment
la 3iemeet 4iemedu 87
IV
6)
7)
I
V
Circlesmysterieusesdes adolescentes |
3'50"
3'
a) Glorificationde l'elue (avec les 11 coups)
b) L'Evocation
48"
1'40"
Action rituelledes ancestres 13'15"-30"|
3'50" I
Danse sacrale
a)
b)
Example 4b Matrix numbers and disposition of Stravinsky's1929 recording (Columbia LX
119-123) (afterLouis Cyr'sliner notes to the 1989 PearlreissueGEMM CD 9334; side timings
are the author's)
LX 119
LX 120
LX 121
LX 122
LX 123
(1)
(2)
(3)
WLX 1027
WLX 1028
WLX 1029
(4)
WLX 1030
(5)
(6)
(7)
WLX 1031
WLX 1032
WLX 1033
(8) WLX 1034
(9) WLX 1035
(10) WLX 1036
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
Prelude [3'07"]
Les Augursprintaniers[3'38"]
Jeuderapt
[355
Rondes printaniers
Jeux des Cites Rivales
Cortege du Sage
Adorationde la terre Le Sage
Danse de la terre
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
Prelude [3'32"]
Circlesmysterieusesdes adolescentes[3'05"]
Glorificationde l'elue [1'52"]
L'Evocationdes ancetres[56"]
Action rituelledes ancetres[3'35"]
Danse sacrale-l'6lue[2'38"]a
Danse sacrale-fin[2'45']
[358"
aThereis a ca. 25-second overlapbetween sides 9 [R142-74] and 10 [R16-end]; the total timing
for the "Danse sacrale"is thus actually4'58".
their persistence in the face of compositorial attack over several decades of
concert performances.It seems to me that we must acceptthese tempo fluctuations as a considered aesthetic choice on the part of earlyconductors of the
Rite. They enforce a vitalistinterpretationof the "Danse sacrale,"one that is
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
329
firmlybased-and I point this out with a certainamount of revisionistgleein well-establishedWagnerianprinciples.
The vitalist practice
What would a thoroughgoing vitalist performance of the "Danse sacrale"
sound like? Not like a Mahler symphony conducted by Mengelberg, to be
sure. The elegant techniques of rubato phrasing developed to articulatethe
complex melodic periods of Classicand Romantic music are simplyirrelevant
to the Rite. Asaf'yev's 1926 formulationis still unsurpassed:
No mechanical
divisionof the textureof melodiesintoperiods,clauses,phrases,
or motives will reveal [the Rite's] structure.... the dynamicview of music sees
the melodictextureas a fabricthatis alivewith melodiccells(popevki)which
areconstantlychangingpositionandaspect.47
This is not Romanticvitalismbut a very differentkind of "aliveness."It depends on (and enforces) the consistent, precise interaction of many short
melodic gestures with repeated but irregularlyspaced metric accents. The
overalleffect is what Stravinskyand his followers later called "monometric":
music that presentsa rigid successionof beats without the formationof a complex hierarchyof beats.48Expressiverubato, the art of the anacrusisand the
agogic accent, displacessuccessivebeats to articulatetheir hierarchy;Stravinskian monometer eschews that hierarchyand thus gives no space-and no
cues-for sensitivesculpting of phrasesin time. (At the few spots in the Rite
where a melodic period actuallyneeds rounding off, Stravinskyhas written in
the phrasinghimself-hence the "romantic"ritardando-crescendojust before
R54 as the Eb-minorkhorovodcomes to its stentorianend.)
On the other hand, The Rite of Spring, like Stravinsky'sother essays in
neonationalism,is fundamentallystructuredby its melos:the basic dialecticof
the Rite is between pounding rhythmicostinatos and the folk-tune fragments
(popevki)from which Stravinskyabstractsthem. In the composer'sRussianperiod these popevkifinction like subatomic particles of the Wagnerian melos
(Taruskinglossespopevkaas "a musicalmorpheme"):they may not have periodic structureor even a single fixed harmonic referencepoint, but each will
have a pronounced melodic characterand thus might imply structuralrubato
to a musician whose interpretivereflexes were those of nineteenth-century
vitalism.49A conductor used to scanning an allegromovement for the shifts
47. Asaf'yev, A BookaboutStravinsky,51.
48. We can thank Richard Taruskinfor recovering this useful term ("The Pastness of the
Present," 169); as he reports,Virgil Thomson saw this "moder quantitativescansion"as a generalfeatureof all progressivetwentieth-centurymusic.
49. Taruskin,Stravinskyand theRussian Traditions,1678. Taruskin's1980 discussionof the
folk sources in the Rite remains fundamental. See the updated version in Stravinskyand the
Russian Traditions,891-933; or the original "RussianFolk Melodies in TheRite of Spring,"this
Journal 33 (1980): 501-43.
330
Journal of the American Musicological Society
between periods of propulsivepassagework(played as fast as practicable)and
singing melody (slowed down to preserve cantabile) might well adjust the
tempo of the Rite's monometric dance movements the same way.
Evidence that Pierre Monteux came to the Rite with his Romantic interpretivereflexesintact is not hardto find. Fiftyyearsafterthe premiere,musing
about his life and musical issues to his wife, he comes across as an amiable,
open-minded, but still very nineteenth-century musician.50Whowereyour
earlyconductingidols?"Anothermagnetic man was ArthurNikisch, the marvellous Hungarian conductor.... He was fascinatinglyromantic, with burning eyes.... [He] was my ideal as a conductor" (p. 43). "WillemMengelberg
... [w]e were extremelyimpressedby this youthful Dutchman's conducting
of Bach and Beethoven" (p. 44). "I never failed to record everythingin the
way of interpretationof these great conductorsin my scores.At home I would
sit for hours, smiling over Arthur Nikisch's interpretationsor Felix Weingartner'sremarkson the works of Beethoven" (p. 44). How did youfeel about
the nineteenth-centuryvitalist tradition?"As [Hans Richter and Felix Mottl]
conducted three times each, I had a wonderful opportunity to hear Wagner
... led by the finestWagnerianconductors of that period. I absorbedthis music into my heart and soul, and became in no time a confirmedWagneraddict,
listening to all of the conductors' remarks,watching all they did, and subsequentlywriting it into my scores.... I was determinedthat I would some day
be a fine conductor of Wagner also" (p. 49). Wereyou reallya modernistat
heart? "[Mahler] was a fine conductor, but very disagreeable.I have never
cared for his music, as I feel most of it is contrived"(p. 63). "As a conductor
born in France,I have been askedto playcertainof Debussy'sworks too many
times over these past fiftyyears,and I am sometimesweary of them. The eternal repetition of measures so prevalentin Les Nuages and other works have
disturbedme over the years.I am neverweary of Beethoven and Brahms,and
consequently I have wondered about the future of these compositions of
Debussy" (p. 47). "I must admit I did not understandone note of Le Sacredu
Printemps[when Stravinskyfirst played it for Diaghilev and myself]." "I decided then and there that the symphoniesof Beethoven and Brahmswere the
only music for me, not the music of this crazyRussian!"(p. 89).
Monteux could afford this jocularconservatismin 1962, because he had,
of course, become one of the world's most respectedinterpretersof "the music of this crazy Russian."But one wonders how much affinityhis 1913 Rite
performanceshad with the vitalist performing tradition in which he had so
clearlysteeped himself. Did he make the work sound a little like his beloved
Beethoven and Brahms?Or even like the Wagner operas to which, like so
many of his generation,he had been addicted?
As a defamiliarizingthought-exercise,let us follow Monteux back to the
foundationaltext of his youthful idols Nikisch, Mottl, and Weingartner,the
50. All referencesin the following discussionare to Doris Monteux, It'sAll in theMusic.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
331
bible of nineteenth-centuryvitalism:Wagner'sOn Conducting.To get a sense
of what structuralrubato might do for the Rite, we can apply(misapply,really)
what we find there to Stravinsky's"Danse sacrale."Remember,Wagnertold
us that "the right comprehension of the Melosis the sole guide to the right
tempo"; we thus look to the melodic characterof the popevkias a guide to
tempo modification.As Example 5 shows, this movement interminglesthree
very differentkinds of thematictextures,which I have attempted,not without
some irony, to correlatewith performancedirectivesgleaned from Wagner's
treatise.The opening and closing sections (A) aredominated by "pure"rhythmic figurationand are noticeablydevoid of cantilena,or sustainedmelody. So
is the first"episode"of contrastingmaterial(B). It is only the popevkamarked
(C) that displaysa sustained,singing melody.
These irruptionsof the sustained tone characteristicof the adagio into a
purely rhythmic allegromust be respected by a sensitiveconductor. The following tempo plan suggests itself: all A sections are to be taken as fast as humanly possible, with little or no slackening for the B section; the two C
sections, however, should be articulated by a noticeable slowing down to
bring out the melos.When the A materialreturnsafterC, it will be with a sudden and dramatica tempo,and toward the end the fire of the "pure" allegro
might well be allowed to take its naturalcourse:a powerful accelerandoto the
final "Beethovenian"fermata,in which a last snatch of cantilena must surely
be given enough spaceto breathe.
Nothing further from Stravinsky'sgeometric, ontological ideal of performance can be imagined. A strong misreading along these Wagnerianlines
would be strikinglyinauthentic (and of course unmodern). It would also be
quite typical.To dramatizethe issue, I will adduce a recordingmade in 1958,
well after Stravinsky'spublic pronouncements on performancehad achieved
wide dissemination and only two years before his own "definitive" 1960
recording.(See Table2 in the Appendixfor a tempo chartof this and all other
recordedexamplesdiscussedbelow.)51
The performancein question is that of Leonard Bernstein and the New
YorkPhilharmonic.Here we have Myaskovsky's"exaggerated"tempos, with
"the brass bellowing" and "the percussion crackling"all the way. Bernstein
came by them honestly; he is standing in here for his old Tanglewood conducting teacher,Serge Koussevitsky,whom Myaskovskywas grumblingabout
back in 1914. Bernstein begins the "Danse sacrale"at . = 138-42, significantlyfasterthan the J = 126 marked.This "purer"allegrowill not do for the
C section, so it is taken much slower both times it appears.The second time
is particularlyoperatic:Bernstein slams on the brakesat R181, delaying the
second beat of that barso he can sink into a huge agogic accent and an instantaneous drop of 25 metronome marks.Holding the orchestraat J = 112-16,
51. Interested readers are encouraged to direct their browsers to <http://www.humnet.
ucla.edu/humnet/musicology/fac/rfink/JAMS99/>. Alternatively,a searchengine can be used
to locate the page titled "FinkJAMSSound Examples."
Example 5 Wagnerconducts the Rite (a very strong misreading)
A Section (Ri42-49;
C142
-
I67-74;
I80-8I)
6
f
126
E
f
semprese sf
"
.T
T
#>
8va
8va-_
B Section (RI49-67)
f marc.
5
f>
>
*
-
>
>
..
T
Example 5 continued
C Section (RI74-8o;
I8I-186)
i
Vins.
s
184
F
v'\S
1
I_
b ''
m.s~~ff.
t):s-
fff I, ^
l
6~~~~~~~
I I 9.*
b I
b
V
I.9:
3
*~ b .
--"I
*tt^
rrible
4
Final (A') Section (Ri86-end)
f
q
t
ssss3'
ff
9):
, #:[,#rElI
8fi
4b
menof
~,I -- t~ltc
"
,bKl^f
*
ff
&
Note:AllquotestakenfromWagner,OnConducting
(1887).
*
B
/_"
fhassi
b
i
1
f
lit
1 1iint
;>
rlj'
i5:
^d
menof
"
ses=
334
Journal of the American Musicological Society
he indulges the melos,coaxing a truly terrifyingorgy offf cantabileout of the
brassand strings.The A materialreturnsat R186 as if it had been shot out of a
catapult:Bernsteintries to jump instantlyto ? = 138, but as in most performances of the "Danse sacrale"that use structuralrubato, this spot is a melee
of failed ensemble. Things finallysort themselves out a few bars later at ~ =
127-30, leaving plenty of room for a race to the end. Bernstein blazes past
R201 at well above J = 140 and then luxuriatesin the final bars ad libitum.
Vitalismlives!
StravinskydismissedBernstein'shyperactiveSymphonyof Psalmswith a wry
monosyllabicput-down that we might transferto his Rite: "W O W!"52 But a
quick surveyof the conductorswho were associatedwith the Rite in its earliest
days revealsthat they all subscribeto this "Wagnerian"interpretationof the
"Danse sacrale."Bernstein might well have first heard the Rite in Leopold
Stokowski's pioneering 1930 recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Stokowskihad conducted the 1922 Americanpremiereof the Rite; his RCA
discs, cut less than a yearafterthose of Monteux and Stravinsky,are the earliest
documentationwe have of how the work sounded when played by a first-rate
ensemble under its own music director.Stokowski's1930 recording,which is
far more polished than either of its predecessors,has been unjustlyneglected,
thanks to a later indiscretion involving an animated mouse and some dinosaurs.53In it we can hear the conductor, who begins at ~ = 128, very close
to the printed score, slow down even more dramaticallythan did Bernstein
at R181. Stokowski drops to J = 98-100 and gives his beloved Philadelphia
moment in the sun. After speeding up
stringstheir one full-bowed, espressivo
he
a
very slightly, attempts dangerousleap to . = 137 at R186, carryingonly
the lower strings with him. (The falteringis particularlynoticeable since the
stringsand horn arenot supported,as in the post-1929 Rite, by the low brass.
More on the reorchestrationsof this passagelater.)
Eugene Goossens conducted the 1921 English concert premiere of the
Rite. Almost forty yearslater,in a recordingfrom 1960, he was indulging in a
massiveagogic slowdown at R181 (J = 132 to J = 96), turning R181-86 into
a broad singing strain, and bounding out of the C section with a sudden a
tempo.Yearsafterthis recording,Stravinskytook time out from jaundicedgossiping about famed conductors for uncharacteristicpraiseof Goossens: "I recall his performanceof Le Sacre,in London in 1921, with pleasure."54If that
52. Stravinsky,"On Conductorsand Conducting," 231; I have preservedthe orthography.
53. There is-finally-a serious discussionin print of the Sacresection of Disney's Fantasia
(1940). See Nicholas Cook, "Disney'sDream: The Rite of SpringSequence from 'Fantasia,'"in
his Analysing Musical Multimedia (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998),
174-214. Cook's discussionof the Rite as "multimedia"(he dismissesthe absolute autonomous
Rite out of hand and then ingeniously correlatesNijinsky'sand Disney's visualcounterpoints)is
exemplarywork-especially coming from a music theoristin the midst of a demonstrationof analyticalmethod.
54. Stravinsky,"On Conductors and Conducting," 231.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
335
1921 Rite sounded anythinglike the one Goossens recordedin 1960, our expectations of a "historicallyauthentic"performancewill have to be dramaticallyrevised.
Even the conductors closest to Stravinskyslow down for the cantilena.
Ernest Ansermet, who conducted the Parisianballet revivalof 1921 and was
perhapsmore intimatelyinvolved with the score than anyone other than its
author, is most discreet at R181-86. In his 1957 recording, he drops back
only slightlyat R181, acceleratesa bit through the section, and makes a relatively smooth transitionat R186. But even Ansermet indulges in perceptible
structuralrubato at the first appearanceof the C material.Having held quite
close to the written , = 126, he digs in and drops to J = 102-6 as he crosses
R174.
Finally,there is Pierre Monteux himself, conductor of the first recorded
performancein May 1929 as well as the premiere.His tempo at the climaxof
the "Danse sacrale,"while not quite as exaggeratedlyslow as that in some of
the laterAmericanrecordings,is easilythe most flexible.After dropping back
to J = 116, he acceleratesfreelybetween R181 and R186, reachingJ = 138; he
thus must make a breakneckjump to an almost impossible- = 152 to preserve
the tempo contrast.Monteux therebyprivilegesa particularlystrikingfluctuation in "psychologicaltime" above all else-even getting the notes right, as
the hair-raisingfinalbarsof his 1929 recordingattest.
Documentary and choreographic evidence
There are a few fleeting documentarytracesof this vitalistpractice,allowingus
to posit with certaintythat it was a featureof at least some interpretationsof
the Rite as earlyas 1913. Dover Publicationshas disseminatedone of these
farand wide. Example6 reproducesR174 of the "Danse sacrale"as it appears
in Dover's reprintof the original four-handpiano score published by Koussevitsky'sRussischeMusik-Verlagin 1913. Here, for all the world to see, is not
only a slower metronome mark but the clear suggestion of a perceptible
change in expressivecharacter:"Sostenutoe maestoso.J = 116." The "authenticity" of this markingis dubious. It does not reappearat R181, nor are the
implied returns to J = 126 marked. Now we can hypothesize about Ansermet's decision to slow down at R174 and not later:more than any other conductor, he was likely to be punctilious about the composer's wishes, and he
had this single written source that authorizedslowing down at R174 and not
later. But in the absence of any manuscriptsources, it is impossible to know
where this tempo indication really came from. (What Stravinskythought
about it afterthe factwill become clearbelow.)
Whether or not the Sostenutoe maestosoand the slower metronome mark
originatedwith Stravinsky,we have some fragmentaryconfirmationthat the
score was danced that way. Millicent Hodson has uncovered an unpublished
memoir by ValentineGross-Hugo, whose real-timesketches of the first four
{
Example 6
1913 four-handpiano score (RMV 196), R174
------8va.
,
Sostenutoe maestoso.J = 116
,
ff
sff
p
be ,
ff
Sostenuto e maestoso. = 116
sff
~~~~
~
i_k
d ^ 3
k
~
3
L
f pesante
16^.
~
8va_
*
1^
~
_______?
f;;
~
7
m3
I
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
337
performances provide the most immediate documentation of the original
choreography.Gross-Hugo's verbal description of R174, set down at some
later time, reads: "The sostenutoand maestosoled this balancedmovementwhere the limbs moved more freely-into ever largermovements, all leading
toward the final entreaty, all rendered desperate and ecstatic at the same
time."55Gross-Hugo's account, unlike those of both Marie Rambert and
Stravinsky,was not written on a copy of the four-handscore itself, and she was
an artistwith no specialmusicaltraining.It seems likelythat "the sostenutoand
maestoso"was company shorthand for a landmarkmoment in the "Danse
sacrale"which stuckin her memory.
The Gross-Hugo memoir leadsus to a considerationof the actualchoreography she evokes so poetically.Would the kind of tempo shifting we see in
earlyrecordingsbe appropriate,or even practicable,during the climacticmoments of the danced "Danse sacrale"?56
Certainbasicfactsseem auspicious.As
everyone realizedeven at the premiere,the finalsolo was the most traditional,
familiar,and "expressive"part of the Rite. (The audience, which had been
jeering steadilythroughout the performance,watched MariaPiltz in silence.)
As an extended solo, with a distinctlysubordinaterole for the men representing the Ancestors, it certainlyoffered the technical possibilityfor tempo rubato, if the conductor and the premiere danseuse agreed. And Nijinsky's
choreography,as it playsout the scenarioof increasingfrenzyand exhaustion,
calls for dramaticshifts in movement and gesture at all the right places in the
score.
It is thus possible, though of course highly speculative,to correlatetempo
fluctuationsin Monteux's 1929 recordingwith key choreographicevents during the "ultimateparoxysm"(Gross-Hugo) of the "Danse sacrale."We pick
up the story at R167: With the returnof the dance's opening material(the A
section above), the Chosen One returnsto her "signaturephrase,"the quick
series of hops followed by a droop that was Nijinsky'sprecise translationof
the opening motivic cells into gesture. Monteux's 1929 tempo here is the
same quick, = 148 as at the opening. At R174, the jumps change character,
get bigger ("everlargermovements"), and areinterspersedwith even more violent gestures.The Chosen One drops to the ground and pounds it with her
fists;she even takes her "frozen"right leg and slamsit down as if to breakor
55. Hodson, Nijinsky'sCrime, 183. Hodson's bibliographiccitation for the Gross-Hugo
memoir is on page 201, the "captionreference"for TableauI, R30, mm. 1-3.
56. Reconstructingthe "Danse sacrale"turns out to be uniquely tricky.Marie Rambert, the
best witness we have, was not aroundwhen Nijinskyset the finalsolo on his sister(who was originally to dance it before she inopportunely became pregnant). Rambert, a student of Jacques
Dalcroze, was called in later to help train the corps de ballet. So, in addition to Gross-Hugo's
drawingsand recollections,Hodson's reconstructionrelies heavily on Nijinskaya'sown description of the solo to the Russiandance historianVeraKrassovskaya
in 1967, over fiftyyearsafterthe
fact. Krassovskaya
then checked Nijinskaya'saccount with MariaPiltz, the firstChosen One, who
was still alive.The following discussionis drawnfrom Hodson's bar-by-baraccount;see Hodson,
Nijinsky'sCrime,xxiii, 180-93.
338
Journal of the American Musicological Society
waken it. The larger,more violent motions complement the ff maestoso in
the orchestra;they maywell have demandedin 1913 the same sudden slowing
of tempo that Monteux allowed in 1929 (h = 148 drops to J = 124-26). At
R180 the signature phrase returns with the A material,as does Monteux's
originalbrisktempo.
At R181 the jumps change characteragain. The Chosen One leaps with
both armsand legs windmillingin front of her, giving the effect of "a prehistoric bird whose wings try to raise the body, clumsily, not yet ready"
(Krassovskaya).She begins to weaken: in six out of the next eleven bars she
does the arm movements but is too tired to leap. (Nijinskaya:"The Chosen
One in a frenzy floundersin the repetition of these jumps.") How logical to
begin this section under tempo (J = 116 in Monteux's 1929 recording), both
to accommodate the extraordinarilyawkwardjumps and as a response to the
soloist's momentary weakening. In 1913 the Chosen One next went into a
deliriousspin, "the feet almost on the points strikingthe ground like daggers"
(Gross-Hugo). Her whirling intensified as R186 approached:"She releases
her neck and arms so that the braids fly erraticallywith her flailing limbs"
(Hodson). Monteux's 1929 recordingvividlymimes this uncontrollablecentrifugalacceleration.As the melodic line ratchetsup from D to G, his orchestra races ahead, reaching J = 133 at R184 and nearlyJ = 138 by R186. (It
could hardly have mattered whether this frenzied spinning gesture was
synchronizedto the musicalbeat.)
But the most dramatictempo shift is yet to come. What was happeningonstage in 1913 at R186, the moment when the 1929 recordingleaps suddenly
and recklesslyto , = 152? The jaw-droppinganswer:absolutelynothing. The
Chosen One had frozen into an awkwardclutch and then drooped down in
preparationfor the final return of her signaturephrase, but she does not appear to have startedjumping again until severalbarsafter R186. All the other
dancerson the stage were watching her, motionless. Monteux had total freedom to set any tempo he wanted, because no one was dancing. His later
recordingsuggests that he seized the moment to set a punishinglyfast tempo
for the last set of signature jumps, literallydriving the Chosen One to her
death.
I think one can make a case that the tempo shifts in Monteux's 1929
recordingof the "Danse sacrale"are the tracesof what happenedwhen he accompanied MariaPiltz in May 1913 (though no doubt all the tempos were
slower).57At the very least we can say that nothing we know about the origi57. To be fair,Monteux's account of the premierecontradictsthis reading. "Youmay think
this strange, cherie,but I have never seen the ballet.The night of the premiere,I kept my eyes on
the score, playingthe exact tempo Igor had given me and which, I must say,I have never forgotten" (Doris Monteux, It'sAll in theMusic,90). We can dismissthe idea that Monteux had never
seen the ballet.However focused he was on opening night, he must have watched the dancersin
rehearsal.And earlierin this same memoir, Monteux congratulateshimself as a flexibledance accompanist whose vitalist management of tempo deserved credit for one of Nijinsky's most
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
339
nal choreographyis incompatiblewith the latervitalistpractice.But any historian of performancepracticewould be happierwith some more immediate,
notated trace of this practice. Did Monteux write any of this down on his
Partiturin 1913? Unfortunately,as I mentioned above, Stravinsky'sautograph
Partitur contains no metronome or tempo markings at all for the "Danse
sacrale"-the Sostenutoe maestosomarkingat R174 does not appearthere, for
example-and thus there was no opportunityor motivation for conductorsto
cross any out and write in their own.
Yet there is a single four-letterword markedon the score that speaksvolumes (see Fig. 1). On page 82 of the 1913 Partitur,exactlyon the double bar
line of R186, a foreign hand has written,diagonallyacrossthe low brassstaves,
underlinedand in bold blue crayon,the one-word instruction"Vivo."This laconic injunction to "look alive"ratifiesby inference the whole vitalisttempo
scheme implied by the originalchoreographyand audibleon earlyrecordings.
We can assumethat the entirepassageR181-86-and by analogythe previous
C section from R174 to R180-was to be taken at a perceptibly slower
tempo, and that at this point the conductor is reminding himself of the need
to make a sudden leap aheadto recapturethe fastertempo of the surrounding
A sections.
Forging a geometric Rite
That one word is the extent of the direct textual support for interpretive
tempo modificationin the "Danse sacrale,"since Stravinskyspent quite a bit
of time over the next thirtyyearsmethodicallystampingout as many tracesof
vitalismin Rite performancesas possible. Before we consider his response to
this illicit elasticityof tempo, let us look brieflyat the one spot in the Danse
where Stravinskyexplicitlyprovided for the momentary suspension of ontological time-where he actuallywrote the words "ad libitum"into his score.
The bottom row of Table Ic tracesthe progressiveerosion of the temporal
freedom allowedto performersof the Rite in its finalbars.Stravinsky'soriginal
conception, transcribedand reduced from his sketchbook as Example 7, was
of a dramaticpause long enough to execute a tricky"fade-out-fade-back-in"
famous dance triumphs:"I have alwayssmiled over the stories ofVaslav Nijinsky'sfamous elevation, and his leap through the window at the very end of Le Spectrede la Rose.The truth is ... he
was nobly assistedby Monteux in the pit, who playedthe chord before the lastwith a slightpoint
d'orgue,thereby creatingthe illusion of a prolonged elevation of the dancer.When I played the
final chord, you may be sure, the spectre was alreadyreclining on the mattressplaced there to
receivehim. Ha, ha!" (p. 77). What is to prevent us from conjecturingsimilarsubtle but critical
adjustmentsof tempo for Piltz in the Rite? As for Stravinsky'sexact tempos, really,what was
Monteux to say in 1962? The Partiturdoesn't lie-someone did change Stravinsky'stempos.
Perhapswe are to infer that the new metronome marks, though not in his hand, came from
Stravinskyhimself. (I.e., why would Stravinskyneed to "give"Monteux the tempos if they were
alreadywrittenin the score?)As I admittedabove, the question remainsopen.
340
Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
Pigure 1 Page82 (R185-87) of the 1913 Paraturof De Rite of Sprix,g)wii performance
of ie PaulSacherFoundation.
bythekindpermission
Reproduced
markings.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
341
Example 7 A preliminarysketch for the finalbarsof the Rite
lunga- ,colla
r
Vln I; Cls
I
-
.
,
F Horns
Tpts +'Tbnsf
-1,
+
Qj/
Cymbal
|
X1
#_,Oa
Vln 2
?
t
rrJIL
1
I1
lunga ad lib
n
17 Y1,IF
"r
9
-
f__
y-?
A
i]JiU#.
S; K,po----#-
-.,
+
cuivrez
parte
tt
n."ro
glissando colla
Ibacch.
di triangolo
^
I
lunga ad lib
0
lunga ad lib
-Z
1#
i^"0#ai lung
Via
con sord.
sul ponticello
Note: Diplomaticallytranscribedand reduced from Igor Stravinsky,TheRite of Spring:Sketches,
1911-1913, ed. Robert Craft(London: Faberand Faber, 1969), 89
maneuver:thus the fermata,and the instructionsto hold the string tremolo
lunga ad lib and to playthe woodwind scalescollaparte.(Whatcould be more
vitalist?)By the time of the 1913 four-hand score and the Partitur,the dynamic fade-swellis gone, but the fermata,lunga ad lib, and collaparte instructions remain. In addition, there is an accelerandomarkedin the previousbar.
By 1922, it too has disappeared,and in all scores after 1929, the fermataand
lunga ad lib are gone as well, leaving the winds instructedto play collaparte
for no apparentreason. Thus all tempo fluctuationhas been eliminated,as indeed Stravinskyspecificallyrequestedin a 1938 letter to the Italianconductor
Alfredo Molinari(who was conducting the Rite in a festivalof contemporary
music at Venice and was troubled by the discrepanciesbetween the orchestral
and piano scores): "There is no need of an accelerandonor of the 'lunga ad
libitum'-everything should be played strictlyaccording to the tempo indicated at R186 and at the beginning of the 'Danse sacrale,'a pulsationof 126
342
Journal of the American Musicological Society
to the eighth-note."58(That would close the matter,except that, confusingly
enough, in the 1943 revision the fermatahas been reinstated and the colla
parte removed.)
Even before all printed license to change tempo had been eliminated,
Stravinskyhad begun battling the vernacularperformancepracticeof tempo
shifting that was forming around the Rite. The composer was unequivocalin
print about the unwrittenpracticeof slowing down for the cantilenasat R174
and R186. His copy of the four-handscore at the Sachercollection carefully
corrects the metronome mark at R174 in boththeprimo and secondoparts,
twice changing J = 116 back to J = 126. This alterationmay well have been
added as earlyas 1913, since this is the same score on which Stravinskytook
copious notes on Nijinsky'schoreography.And, later,in self-defense,Stravinsky began to hedge the "Danse sacrale"with metastasizingmetronome marks
and tempo equivalencies.He had evidentlydecided that it was the difference
in beat unit that made the sections between R174-80 and R181-86 "look
slower,"so he set out to createa score that would never againlead conductors
into temptation. In his 1922 pocket score (the first printed score he possessed), he hand-wroteJ = k = 126 or . = J = 126 in red ink at every change of
beat unit. Not all of these markingswould appearin print in the 1922 full
score, but by the 1967 final revision every single sectional transitionis defended by both a metronome markand an explicittempo equivalence.
Stravinskyalso tinkeredconstantlywith the orchestrationof R186 over the
years (Ex. 8a-c). As soon as he took up the baton to conduct the Rite he became awareof the problem:the herd mentalityof orchestralmusiciansreading
an unfamiliar score and the performance practice already forming under
Monteux et cie. guaranteedthat at this crucialmoment the "Danse sacrale"
would change tempo, regardlessof the conductor'sintentions. He would thus
risk an unrecoverablecollapse of ensemble every time he led an orchestra
through it.
Example8a is a reduction of R186 as it appearedin the 1913 Partiturand
1922 firstedition. The scoring is light-in view of the circumstances,dangerously light: double bassesalone carrythe basspart, and a weak combinationof
bassoons and two low horns take the offbeats. The whole complex is marked
piano-pianissimo.It's a nice idea to have this dynamic contrast after the sJffz
arrivalon the downbeat, and one can instantlyappreciatethe correlationbetween this sudden intense pp and the frozen terror of Nijinsky'smotionless
Chosen One. Unfortunately,it didn't work in performance.The rest of the
orchestracouldn't hear the pp offbeats, missed the new tempo, and inevitably
58. Letter to Alfredo Molinari of 1 August 1938; quoted in Craft, ed., Stravinsky:Selected
1:406. Interestinglyenough, we have evidence of Molinari'sauthentisticconsciCorrespondence
entiousness:the performanceimpressedat least one sympatheticobserveras being "playedwith a
lightness, perfection, and loyalty to the score that the work has probablynever experiencedbefore" (Paul Hindemith, letter to Willy Strekerof 20 September 1938, in SelectedLettersof Paul
Hindemith,ed. and trans.GeoffreySkelton [New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1995], 120).
reorchestrationsof the "Danse sacrale,"R186
Example 8 Stravinsky's
(a) 1922 firstedition (RMV 197)
+ piccolos
piccolo trumpet
piccolo darinet +8va
L
I3
___
con tuttaforza] slf
vlns., fls, clars., bsns b?
fi
h_
ffi
[fff
-
-"^
+r
4
b
-
I
1
+tbn i
tpts., oboes, hns. 2 & 4
-A
fffr
[ff
ttaforza
[fffconcon tuttaforza]
bass drum
hfl S
,^
-I
II
timpannii,
3
basses, cellos,
tuba, cbsn.
3
p-~ ?
3-
w
=
h
7
,
#
t
[fff con tuttaforza]
Note: Reductionsare my own. In the 1922 and 1929 editions, the extraordinarytutti leading up to R186 is
approximated.(In 1943 Stravinskylightened and rationalizedthe scoring, and the reductionsucceeds rathe
relevantorchestrationaldetail. All articulationmarkingsand performancedirectionsare Stravinsky's.
Example 8 continued
(b) 1929 "revisedfirstedition"
+ piccolos
piccolo trumpet
piccolo clarinet +8va
I
J
i
p
3
i=
3
f^r
1---1
'=
P;
[Iff con tuttaforza]
~2
-e
_
vlns., fls, clars., bsns_
b
. -A-
-
~
+tbn ix
E_
tpts., oboes, hns. 2 & 4
>
1
b
I
JI
[ff
con tuttaforzaJ]
violas,--
,
J
-
I
hns.1-3-5-7
bassdrum
timpani
3
basses, cellos,
'f
tuba, cbsn.
[fff con tuttaforzal
3
3
tt:1j
r
*'
-,# #T
7
Note: Stravinskyadds trombonesand tuba,changes prevailingdynamic tof, andadds"sempre
marcato,""sfs
Example 8 continued
(c) 1943 revisionof"Danse sacrale"(AssociatedMusic Publishers,unnumbered)(R45 = R186)
C trumpet, alto flutes,
piccolosb-
451
b
^A
S-
^EJ
S
Y
-1A
iJ
I86)
v
L
3
3
vlns., dars., bass tpt., tbn I
v
oboes, tpts.
J
7
7
v7
7
f
t
7
-
i
[fff con tuttaforza]
hns 1-3-5-7
sf
bsns., b. clar.
7s-7-
i
9gII
7
3;1
7
Y
cbsn.
A
bass drum
"~itimpani
r
3
3
vjJ
yp~
i? j4 g
Ig -
7'
,
If
3
'^
c
10arc
L
7
t
-o
basses, cellos, trbns., tubas, all bsns
:'
ceosn
^1^ ~
;
V_W
[fffcontuttaforzal
4
f7l
s
,I
#J?5
3
17
bass
Note: At 186 Stravinskyrewrites note values eliminatingchange of beat unit, removes low brass, maintai
and repeateddownbowsin other strings.
346
Journal of the American Musicological Society
degeneratedinto the weltering chaos audible on every earlyrecording. (This
1913-22 scoring-and the chaos-can be heardin the Monteux and Stokowski pre-1930 recordingsdiscussedabove.)
Stravinsky'sfirstsolution was of the spit-and-bailing-wirevariety.The 1929
revised first edition (Ex. 8b) disseminated the orchestration that evolved
through the 1920s, made it into a new set of engravedparts in 1926, and is
familiarfrom most contemporaryscores and performances:the dynamiclevel
is raised to forte, and everyone is asked to play marcato,secco,and staccato.
Moreover, the composer, taking out a kind of sonic insurancepolicy, has the
heavy brassdouble everythingsempresforzatoe ben marcato.It is quite possible that Stravinskythe composer simplyno longer wanted the effect of a sudden sottovocehere, but if his goal as a conductor was to make it easierto keep
the passage together, he displayedstrikingorchestralnaivete. Any conductor
will tell you that the extraweight of trombones and tubas makes the passage
harderto control, especiallyif the orchestrahas slowed down and one desires
to returnto a strict,geometric J = 126. For proof, one need only listen to the
hash that the low brassmake of this moment in Stravinsky'sown premiere
recordingin 1929. In 1940, when Stravinskyrecorded the Rite with a truculent and uncooperativeNew YorkPhilharmonic,the problemwas, if anything,
even worse.
This catastrophicrecording experiencewas undoubtedly the major factor
in Stravinsky'sdecision to undertakeanother full-scalerevisionof the "Danse
sacrale,"finishedin 1943. In it he decided to solve once and for all the performance problems caused by his originaldecision to notate the C section "twice
as slow" as the other parts of the Danse. He simply doubled the value of all
the notes in the A and B sections (compare Exx. 8b and 8c). The composer
claimed this made the music easierto read, but it also nicely solves the problem of the music at R174 "looking slower."The effect is to erase all trace of
formal division in the "Danse sacrale,"disguising (orthographicallyat least)
the moments where the "characterof the melos"changes. (The articulating
double bars at R174, R180, R181, and R186 that graduallycrept into the
1929, 1948, and 1967 editions are all eliminatedas unnecessaryin the 1943
score.) The global change of beat unit allowed Stravinskyto dispensewith the
low brass safety net that had been so embarrassinglyuseless. Though still
markedloud and accented, the 1943 orchestrationof R186-pizzicato low
strings,bassoons, and bass clarinet-is even lighter and crisperthan the original 1913 version.
Now the composer needs only to place a single tempo indicationand a single metronome markat the beginning of his rhythmicallyhomogenized score
to ensure total geometric regularity.The absolutelycharacteristicinjunctionis
"Rigoroso(h = 126)."59And so it is in his 1960 performance.One has to have
59. This is, of course, incorrect:Stravinskyforgot to changethe beat unit of the metronome
mark,which should logically be J = 126. Is it too pessimisticto anticipatean informed performance late next century that attempts to respect this absurd,yet undeniably"authentic,"marking?
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
347
sufferedwith Stravinskythrough his 1929 and 1940 recordingsto appreciate
the triumphantmoments in which, even with the underrehearsedand scrappy
"Columbia Symphony Orchestra," nothing happensat R174, R181, and
R186. Vitalism is vanquished and strict ontological time is preserved; the
"principleof contrast"is replacedby the "principleof similarity."60
Now, finally,Stravinskysounds like Stravinsky.
Traces of life
And, thanksto that "definitive"1960 recording,so does everyone else. Listen
to any performanceof the "Danse sacrale"recordedwithin the last ten years
and you will hear the same unyieldingmonometer throughout.61And yet...
the Fassung letzter Aufnahme remains elusive. The composer, reported
Robert Craftin 1969, had instructedhim that "the accelerando,in the fourhand score, four measuresbefore the end, should be followed, and a outrance,
in the orchestrascore."62In the 1938 letter to Molinarithat categoricallyoutlaws that same accelerando,Stravinsky-amazingly-told Molinari that the
J= 116 at R174 of the four-handpiano score was correct.63
But that might have been a slip. What is harderto explainawayis the evidence of the earliest"performance"we have of the Rite. Stravinskydeclaredin
his Autobiographythat he transcribedworks like the Rite for playerpiano "to
preventthe distortion of my compositions by future interpreters,"and in particularto fix "the relationshipsof the movements (tempi) and the nuances."64
How strangeit is, then, to hear the perfectmechanicalexecutantbetrayits patron by transmittinga suspiciouslyvitalistinterpretationof the Rite! It is yet
another performancethat starts much fasterthan J = 126, slows down dramaticallyat R181, and leapsaheadat R186 for an exhilaratingrush to the final
cadence. But this time there is no preening maestroto blame-just a humble
pianolaplaying back the piano roll of the Rite punched under Stravinsky'sdirect supervisionin 1921. Drawinginferencesabout performancetempos from
a piano roll is, of course, fraughtwith complications;in particular,any attempt
60. Stravinsky,PoeticsofMusic,33.
61. This is the conclusion reachedin the only exhaustiveanalysisof the recordedRite, Jerome
Waters,"TheRite of Springby Igor Stravinsky:A ComparativePerformanceCritique Based on
Sound Recordingsfrom 1929-1993" (Ph.D. diss., FloridaState University,1996). Waters'sabstractreportsthat although timings for the Rite were actuallyfasteroverallin the earlypart of the
century (one wonders if this is just Monteux's 1929 recording skewing the data), "in some sections there has been a narrowingof interpretativevarietywith regardto overalltempo." My personal collection of post-1980 "Dansessacrales"confirmsthat whateverthe absolutetempo taken,
by now-at least in this particularsection of the Rite-the range of interpretivevarietyis effectivelyzero.
62. See Robert Craft,"The Performanceof the Rite of Spring,"in TheRite of Spring:Sketches,
1911-1913, by Igor Stravinsky(London: Faberand Faber,1969), 48.
63. See Craft,ed., Stravinsky:SelectedCorrespondence
1:406.
64. Stravinsky,Autobiography,101. By page 151 he is touting his recordingsas better than
the piano rolls becausethey transmit"allhis intentions."
348
Journal of the American Musicological Society
to deduce absolutetempos from this 1921 Pleyelaroll of the Rite is bound to
disappoint us. We don't know for certain either the precise roll speed
Stravinskyintended or whether he expected the pianolist to compensate for
the built-inaccelerationinherentto the pianolamechanism.65
But there is a strong argument to be made from the rolls about relative
tempos in the "Danse sacrale"(see Tables 3a-c). Physicalexaminationof roll
nine of the Rite (and I am indebted here to'the world-renownedpianolistRex
Lawson) shows that the sections beginning at R174 and R186 are actually
punched slower on the roll-that is, the number of punches (and thus the actual length of the paper roll) corresponding to a given beat unit increases
(Table 3a). This guaranteesthat whateverthe absolute speed of the music at
those two points-and, as the rest of the exampleshows, there are at least four
quite differentplausible "performances"to be pulled out of this roll-there
will be very perceptible slowdowns for the two cantilena sections, and a
thrillingjump of at least thirty metronome clicks at R186. The irony is in65. The following discussionis deeply indebted to the acknowledgedworld expert on the pianola and the reproducingpiano, Rex Lawson. I have had occasion both to talk extensivelywith
Mr. Lawson and to hear him perform Stravinskypianola rolls in person. Some key points: (1)
Although it is quite easy for the pianolistto introduce tempo shiftswhen realizinga pianolaroll,
Lawsonsayshe did not intentionallydo so in any of his publishedrecordings.(2) Piano rolls came
in different "speeds,"usuallymeasured in feet per minute; most pianolashad severalroll-speed
settings, and unfortunately,the Pleyelarolls Stravinskymade of the Rite are not clearlymarked.
(3) In any mechanismwhere a roll is pulled onto a (powered) take-up reel, there will be an inevitable accelerationas more and more of the roll moves onto that reel. In a reproducing or
"player"piano, this is of little consequence, since the same accelerationtook place when the roll
was recorded by the pianist. But a pianola roll, unlike the reproducingpiano, was punched by
hand and was designed to be controlled during playbackby a musicallysensitiveperformer.This
performerhas constant control over tempo, and many rolls of Classicaland Romanticmusic used
a curving line to direct the performerto change tempos (normallya knee lever was used to keep
an arrowon the mechanismlined up with the moving line). The performerthus was also responsible for equalizing the built-in accelerationof the roll mechanism.As Table 3c shows, Lawson
appearsnot to have done this, but one can easilyimagine Stravinsky"riding"the roll to keep its
tempo geometricallyexact. (Ironically,the pianola-Stravinsky's paradigmaticgeometric "performer"-could not keep a steadybeat without a human hand to guide it.) (4) There is a growing
musicological literatureon the pianola; the key reference is ThePianola Journal, founded and
edited by Rex Lawson since 1987. Of particularinterest is Rex Lawson, "Stravinskyand the
Pianola,"publishedin two partsin vol. 1 (1987): 15-26, and vol. 2 (1989): 3-16. An earlierversion appearsin ConfrontingStravinsky:Man, Musician,and Modernist,ed. Jann Pasler(Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986). See also Louis Cyr, "Two Pleyela
Recordings of The Rite of Spring:A Review," ThePianola Journal 8 (1995): 41-50. Cyr's extended discussionof tempo and tempo fluctuationsin the "Danse sacrale,"while not in total accord with the one set forth above, does agree with it on the essentialpoint: "If one looks at the
'Danse sacrale,'it will be obvious how difficult, if not well-nigh impossible it is to maintainin
practicethe one prescribedtempo throughout the entire scene" (p. 48). Particularlyvertiginous
from the aestheticpoint of view is a short meditation by a listenertroubled about the "authenticity" of earlypiano rolls which featureexpressiverubato;see Drue Fergeson, "Ambiance,Musical
Style, and Authenticity:Some Thoughts with Respect to ReproducingPiano Rolls," ThePianola
Journal 5 (1993): 25-31.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
349
tense: the pianola, Stravinsky'smechanicalparagon of geometricallyperfect
reproduction,does preservea simulacrumof the composer's 1921 intentions
with flawlessprecision.But it enshrinesvitalism,not geometry.66
Conclusion
At one point in The Philosophyof Modern Music, Theodor Adorno taunts
Stravinskywith one of his trademarkdialectical reversals:regardless of its
stanceof modernistobjectivity,Le Sacredu printempsisactuallycomplicitwith
the Romanticismit claimsto supersede.
The aboriginalRussiansbearan uncannyresemblanceto Wagner'sancient
GermanicExamples-the stage settings for Sacrerecall the rocks of the
The soundin particular
of the workis Romanticin origin;the tutti
Valkyries.
sound of the orchestrahas at times a touch of Strauss-like
excessiveluxury.
the effectof the whole workis
Regardlessof all theoreticalanti-subjectivism,
largelya matterof mood, of anxiousexcitement.67
Adorno holds out no prospect that this covert Romanticismwill be expressed by tempo fluctuationsin performance.He is too busy taking Stravinsky's geometric aesthetic at face value ("any subjectivelyexpressiveflexibility
of the beat [is] absent"), so that he can equate it with fascisticviolence: "In
the 'sacrificialdance,' ... the most complicated rhythmic patterns restrain
the conductor to puppet-likemotions. Such rhythmicpatternsalternatein the
smallestpossibleunits of beat for the sole purposeof impressingupon the ballerina and the listeners the immutable rigidity of convulsive blows and
shocks." (This all-too-influentialargument has played havoc with Frankfurt
School-influenced cultural studies of minimalism,jazz, and rock.) By a remarkablecoincidence, in a later passage setting up Stravinskyand Mahler as
antipodes,he discussesR184-86 of the "Danse sacrale,"the climacticpassage
66. Thatis whythe only"historically
informed"recordingof the Riteto dateremainsaninfailedcuriosity.
ConductorBenjamin
Zanderthoughtto achieve"authenterestingbutultimately
the exacttemposfromthe Pleyelapianorollsin performance
with the
ticity"by reproducing
BostonPhilharmonic
MusicMastersMCD 25, 1989). Whathe did wasprovidea
(Innovative
foretasteof theflawedreasoning
thatis sureto plagueauthenticist
RitesofSpring.He ignoredthe
issuesof rollspeedandacceleration
discussedaboveandsimplychosethe fastesttempofor the
"Dansesacrale"
he couldfind.The hypothesis(of course)is thatthis fastertempowas "what
wanted."Nevermindthat,as I pointout above,thereis not a shredof documentary
Stravinsky
evidencethatStravinsky
himselfeverwantedanythingotherthan,- = 126. Zanderhasfulfilledthe
to MakeIt Newby MakingIt FasterEvenmoresymptomatiearlymusicmovementimperative
on the roll.Oncehe has his new fasttempo,he
cally,he ignoresthe actualtempofluctuations
holdsto it grimlyandgeometrically
to the end.If we aregoingto hallowthesepianorollsasevidenceof thecomposer's
intentions,oughtwe not listento themallthewaythrough?
67. TheodorW.Adorno,Philosophy
ofModernMusic,trans.AnneG. MitchellandWesleyV.
Blomster(NewYork:Continuum:1985), 160-61.
350
Journal of the American Musicological Society
that turned out to be the crux of our argumenthere. Adomo holds this "cantilena"(his term) to be a rare"moment of respectability":Stravinsky,normally
so incapableof teleological form, for once providesthe culminatingreleaseof
tension that Mahler'ssymphonies struggle toward so consistently.Except, of
course, it is not really,afterall, so very satisfying:
Thereis a tendencyto becomeenthusiastic
abouta wickedmanif he oncedoes
in likemanner,suchmusicis praisedforits momentsof
somethingrespectable;
In rareexceptionalcasesof cleverness,[Stravinsky's]
musicperrespectability.
mitsconclusion-like
sections[abgesangahnliche
which,by contrastStrophen]
preciselyby virtueof theirrarity-borderon etherealbliss.An exampleis the
intensivefinal"cantilena"
fromthe "Dansede l'Elue"(fromnumber184 to
186), beforethe lastentranceof the rondotheme.But evenhere,wheretheviolins arepermittedto "singthemselves
out"for a moment,thesame,unchanged
is a fake.68
rigidostinatoremainsin theaccompaniment.
[Stravinsky's]
Abgesang
Adorno, vitalistthrough and through, scathing critic of the historicalperformance movement's sewing-machineBach, cannot conceive of a satisfying
releaseof tension without some kind of agogic accent and thus at least some
fluidityin the geometric pulse around R186. Nor can he conceive of the Rite
allowingit. Looking at Stravinsky's1929 score, he sees all too well the unvarying monometric pulse of the accompanimentalostinatos, and the minatory
tempo equivalencies. The composer's geometric intentions are damningly
clear. But Adorno should have listened to some recordings of this spot: he
would have heard more than a few Mahlerian Durchbruche. Searching in
Stravinsky'sballetfor the temporalfluidityof a post-Wagneriantone poem, he
was in the company of a phalanxof earlyconductors of the Rite. They all did
whateverit took to make the climaxof the "Danse sacrale"a real teleological
climax,much closer to Mahlerthan anythingStravinskyever authorized.
And what of the earlymusic movement, marchingresolutelyinto the ever
more recent past?The historicalinformationsurroundingthe Rite holds out
little prospectof the comforting authenticitythat comes from being conspicuously "historicallyinformed."The documentaryevidence shows not only that
Stravinskynever sanctioned romantic tempo modification in this music, but
that everybody,including even Stravinskyearly on, probably did it anyway.
And if we want our performancesof the Rite to be "historical,"we may well
have to work to recapture and reproduce the vitalist misreadings of
Koussevitsky,Monteux, and their compatriots.We will have to give up once
and for all on the idea that we can be authentic-or authenticist.
We will have to play the Rite wrong.
68. Ibid., 154, 155, 195-96 n. 42. The emphasisin Adoro's note 42 is mine, as is the translation of the finalsentence ("Der Abgesang is uneigentlich").
Appendix
Concordances of Tempos and Tempo Markings
Table la Concordanceof Tempo Indicationsin TheRite of Spring,FirstTableau
Location
Particell[B]
Partitur[C]
IS 1913 piano score [D]
IS
R13
J = J, no tempo mark
Tempogiusto.J = 56
Tempogiusto.J = 56;
corrected by IS to J = 56
J
Presto.J= 132
Tranquillo.J= 108
P
T
IS
Sostenutoepesante.J = 80
S
IS
R37
R48
R49
R54
R55+2
R56
R57
R59 - 4
R71
R72
Presto.J = 132; crossed out
Tranquillo.J = 108; crossed out
and replacedwith Andantino.
= 88
Sostenutoepesante.J = 80;
J=108
"80" crossed out and replaced
with "69-72"
no poco rit.; then
no poco rit.; Vivo.J = 160; "160"
Tempoprimo (J = 144) crossed out and replacedwith
"138"
conductor markscaesura
nothing [stays
Tranquillo.J = 108; crossed out
at = 144]
and replacedwith Andantino.
J= 88
MoltoAllegro.J = 168; "168"
nothing [!]
crossed out and replacedwith
"146"; lower on page in same
hand: "Allegrorigoroso"
ritenutopesante,then a tempo
nothing
nothing
J=144[!]
G.P, then Lento
(no mm)
Vivace.J = 138
ivo. J = 160
w
V
Tranquillo.J= 108
T
IS
MoltoAllegro.J = 168
M
IS
nothing
n
Lento.J = 52; "52" crossed out
J = J (Doppio movimento)
and "42" written in
Prestissimo.J= 168; conductor
Prestissimo.J = 186; IS
begins to cross out "Prestissimo"; corrects to "168"
writes "rigoreux"below on score
P
IS
Note: In column headings, letters in bracketsrefer to primarysources listed at the beginning of WorksCited; Particel
Stravinsky'sannotated copy, used for rehearsal/performance;"IS confirms"indicates that the composer underlined the
Table lb Concordanceof Tempo Indicationsin TheRite of Spring,Second Tableau (up to "Danse
Location
Particell[B]
R79 or R86
R89
Lento.J = 56a
Pocopiu mosso.J = 69
R90
R91
Tempoprimo
(impliesJ = 56)
Pocopiu mosso.J = 69
R93
Allegretto.J= 80
R97
R102-3
L'istessotempo.J = 69
no accelerando
marked
11/4 bar
no tempo mark
R104
R121
Vivo-Stringendo;
fermataon bar line
J= -; no atempo
in next bar
) = J; no G.P.
R128
moltomeno
R117 - 1
Partitur[C]
Piu mosso.J = 60; "poco"
is inserted in crayon
IS 1913 piano score [
Largo.J = 48
Piu mosso.J = 60
L'istessotempo.J = 48
Andante con moto.J = 80;
Andante con moto.J =
conductor has boxed the "Andante"
and written in "trestranquille"
Piu mosso.J= 80; "Allegretto
Piu mosso.J = 80
tranquille"written in above
metronome mark
pocoa pococrescendoe accelerando;
pocoa pococrescendoa
conductor has boxed "accelerando"; pocoa pocoaccelerand
fermataadded over last beat of 103
no fermatas
J = 120; conductor has divided
the 11 beats as 3 + 4 + 4
Vivo.
.) _= 144;
moltoallargando
= J; conductor adds fermatain
empty bar
Lento.J= 52
D
no fermata
Allarg.
nothing[!]
Lento.J = 52
Note: In column headings, letters in bracketsrefer to primarysources listed at the beginning of WorksCited; Pa
Stravinsky'sannotated copy, used for rehearsal/performance;"IS confirms" indicates that the composer underlin
aR86 is the beginning of Tableau II in this draft.
Table Ic Concordanceof Ter
dicationsin TheRite of Spring,"Danse sacrale"
Location Sketchbook[A]
Partitur[C]
IS 1913 piano
score [D]
R142
fermatabefore 1st
chord, not after;also
seems to be fermata
on b cl. note!
fermatabefore 1st chord, fermatabefore 1st chord, ferma
not after;also seems to be not after
fermataon b cl. note!
fermatabefore 1st
chord, not after
[neverafterin whole
sketchbook];samein
Particell(this is the
end of Particell)
no tempo marking
IS 1922 printed
scores [E-F]
1929
editio
no tempo marking
= 126
pocchissimo
menomosso nothing
[p. 84] Luftpause[p. 85]
R161
conductor writesin
nothing
accel.
R167 - 1 fermataon last sixteenth; nothing
no accel. or cresc.
nothing
nothing
crescendoand fermata;
no accel.
accel.
accelerandoe cresc.;
fermataon last sixteenth; on las
R142
_=126
= 12
R149
nothin
Stravinsky'smarkings
confirm fermata;"vw"
over accel.bar?
R167
R174
not actuallywritten out
nothing (and the
beginningis sketched
out severaltimes)
nothing
nothing (no
equivalencieswritten
in, but no conductor's
markseither)
nothing
Sostenutoe maestoso.
J= 116; IS carefully
correctsthis (twice) to
J = 126 in his copy, but
does not cross out
the performancedirection
nothing
nothin
J= 126
.=J=
IS pocket score (RMV
197b; inscribed"Igor
Stravinsky/Paris,1922)
has red markingsenforcing
the tempo equivalencies
(,= = J=J126, etc.)
written into score,
here and everywhere
IS's full score (RMV 197)
has been reworkedto form
the basisof the 1929
"standard"version (126
enforced at all junctures)
Table lc continued
Location Sketchbook[A]
R180
R181
R186
R201
Partitur[C]
nothing (spot is never
nothing
sketchedas such); it
appearsthat going back
to the A section between
the two explosionswas
not partof original
conception [p. 97
bottom]
see above
nothing; conductor
confirmsfermataover
barline of R181
conductor writes in
nothing
"Vivo" dynamicis p
[horns, bassoons]
trillis already"lunga
ad lib" on p. 87 and
even more so on p. 89
IS 1913 piano
score [D]
IS 1922 printed
scores [E-F]
nothing; fermata
b= 126; fermataJ
IS confirmsfermata
= .;
nothing (no fermata)
fermata;J = 126
IS confirmsfermata
ferm
b= J
nothing; dynamicis pp
J = 126; dynamicis p
J_ =
[horns, bassoons]
isfto
mar
[bas
accel.then a tempo;
lunga ad lib in vln 1
part at R201 + 1 in
trillis markedlunga
finalchord, bass playersad lib.
are told [in ink] to
"playthe low d on the
1929
editi
no accel.;trill (now a
lung
tremolo) is markedwith but w
fermataand lunga ad lib.:
ww are collaparte [no IS
markings]
C-string"
Note: In column headings the bracketedletters refer to primarysources listed in Works Cited; the Particell is lacking
hearsal/performance.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
355
Table Id Tempo Marks in 1913 Partitur Compared with Tempos of Monteux's 1929
Recording
Location Partitur
Monteux 1929 recording
TableauI
R13
R37
R48
R49
R54
R55
R56
R57
R59
R71
R72
Tempogiusto.J = 56
Presto.J = 132; crossed out by conductor
Tranquillo.J = 108; crossed out by Monteux and
replacedwith Andantino. J = 88
Sostenutoepesante.J = 80; "80" is crossed out and
replacedwith "69-72"
no poco rit.; Vivo.J = 160; "160" crossed out and
replacedwith "138"
+ 2 conductor markscaesura
Tranquillo.J = 108; crossed out by conductor and
replacedwith Andantino. J = 88
MoltoAllegro.J = 168; "168" is crossed out and
replacedwith "146"; lower on page in same hand:
"Allegrorigoroso"
- 4 ritenutopesante,then a tempo
Lento.J = 52; "52" is crossed out and "42" written in
Prestissimo.J = 168; conductor begins to cross out
"Prestissimo";writes "rigoreux"below on score
J= 50-56
J= 118-22
J = 108 slowing to 80
J=80
J= 160!
J = 108 slowing to 80
J = 168! but down to 146
for Cortege
yes
J=44
J= 164-68!
TableauII (up to end of "Action rituelle des anc'tres")
Piu mosso.J = 60; "poco" is inserted in crayon
Andante con moto.J = 80; conductor has boxed
the "Andante"and written in "trestranquille"
Piu mosso.J = 80; conductor has written in
"Allegrettotranquille"above mm
R89
R91
R93
R97
R102-3
pocoa pococrescendoe accelerando;conductor
has boxed "accelerando";fermataadded over last
beat of 103
11/4 bar J = 120; conductor has divided the 11 beats
as 3 +4 +4
R104
R117 - 1 moltoallargando
R121
R128
,-
= J;conductor adds fermatain empty bar
Lento.J= 52
Note: SeeTable2 for"Dansesacrale."
J=66
J= 1oo
J=0oo
J= 76
no fermata!
J= 144!
J= 135-44
accel.!then faster,
J= 144-50
=66
Table 2 Some Recorded Tempos in the "Danse sacrale"
A
R142
B
R149
rit.?
R161
accel.?
befR167
A'
R167
C1
R174
A
R180
C2
R181
Bernstein1958
[4:27]
138-42
130-32
no rit.
no accel.
138-44
122-25; accelto
ca. 1410 at R180!
138
112-16;a
verybroad;
no accel.to end
Stokowski1930
[4:53]
126-28
115-18
slightrit.
accel.only
to 126-32
116-18;
105-8; slight
attempted push at R178;
accel.(128)
suddenaccel.
collapses to ca. 126 at end
128
Goossens1960
[4:39]
126-32
124-26
slightrit.
no
133-35
Ansermet1957
[4:42]
126
134-36
rit.
no
126
Monteux1929
[4:15]
148-53
133-45
no rit.
accel.to 157!
146-48
1929
Stravinsky
[4:58]
108-12
accel.to
ca. 140
110-13
ca. 99;d
accel.after
R178 to ca. 116
116
98-100!
verybroad;
R184-86,
speedsup very
slightly106-8
startsat 96;
stabilizesat
114-16
116-20;
slightaccel.
to 122-24
startsat 116-20
then accel.to
133 at R184 an
ca. 138 at R18
108-13;
solid 113
afterR184
no
accel.to
ca. 160!
127-33;
steadyat
130-32
afterR178
124-26;
pushesslightly
afterR178
124-26
126-27
127-31
122-26
130-32
135
startsat 108-10
then steadiesa
ca. 118-20
Performance
1940
Stravinsky
[4:24]
119-20 accel. no rit.
to ca. 130
143-45 [!];
113; tries
to push
pushesto
(ca. 118-20?) 150-55 atff
1960
Stravinsky
[4:31]
120-22
135-38
no
accel.to 145
130-32,f
but loses
tempo to
122-26
122-26
Pianola1921h
[4:13]
140-44
134-39
no
accel.to 144
13540
116-18
132
126
102-6; 112
at R178; pushes
to 116 atlast bar
triesfor
124-26;
slow accel.
145-48
to 133'
aIf one were to calculatetempo fromfirsttwo quarters,it would be J = 96! Agogic slowdownis noticeable.
bAuthor'sinferenceof desiredtempo frommomentsof collapsedensemble;in this case,calculatedfrom the tuba/bass/contrabassoonp
CAccel.beginswith the reiteratedoffbeatD's at R178; samein 1951 recording.
dVeryhardto hear;tempo is inferredfrom bass/tuba part.
eExtremelyhardto hear(messiestsectionof recording);tempo inferredfrom bassfigureat R186 and followingstringsixteenths.
fClever!By takingthe B sectionso fast,Stravinskyis able to get the orchestrato takeA at a decent speed the second time around.
gProblem:bassdrum(whereone usuallygets tempo) is out of time here.
hAsrealizedby Rex Lawsonon InnovativeMusicMastersCD MCD25, 1989.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
357
Table 3 ProportionalAnalysisof TheRite of Spring,Pleyela Roll Ninea (Pleyela/Odeola 8437,
1921)
a. The roll itself
Location
Actual perforationsper beat unitb
R142
R174
R180
R181
R186
. = 24 punches
J = 30 punches (-20% deceleration)
= 28 punches
J = 36 punches (-22% deceleration)
. = 24 punches
b. Approximatemetronome marksif roll
travelsat 7 feet per minute
Location
Accelerating(no compensation
for roll speed-up)C
Metronomic (pianolist
compensates for roll speed-up)
R142
R174
R180d
R181
R186
= 150
J=125
=138
J = 120
.= 169
= 148
J=116
.=138
J = 107
J)=149
c. Approximatemetronome marksif roll
travelsat 6.5 feet per minute
Location
Acceleratinge
Metronomic
R142
R174
= 140
=116
= 140
J =110
R180
= 138
h=115
R181
R186
= 107
.=159
= 99
J.=139
aActual
measurements
doneby RexLawson,London,England,October1996, on the rollin hispossession.
The Rite was releasedon nine Pleyelarolls numbered8429-8437. (See Lawson,"Stravinsky
and the
ed. Pasler,299.)
Pianola,"in Confronting
Stravinsky,
bTherelationbetweenpunchesandtempois somewhatcounterintuitive.
Pianolapunchholesareof fixed
to a givenstretch
length;the morepunchesperbeatunit,the greaterthe actuallengthof rollcorresponding
of score.Sincethe rollmoves(basically)
at fixedspeedit willtakethislongerpieceof rollmoretimeto be
played.Thusmorepunchesperbeatequalsa slowerrelativetempo.
dueto shiftin weightasthe rollmovesonto
CApianolaroll,if leftto playon its own,willspeedup gradually
the take-upreel.If a pieceis transcribed
is clearlyaudidirectlyonto the roll by punching,the accelerando
ble.Thepianolistcancompensateforthe speed-up,usinga handleveranda kindof "speedometer"
on the
showthe approximate
pianolato keepa steadytempo.Thecolumnsabovemarked"Accelerating"
speedsof
the Riterollif it is left to runon its own;thosemarked"Metronomic"
showthe approximate
resultsif the
pianolistattemptsto usethe tempocontrolsto maintaina steadyrollspeed.
dThissectionis too shortto get anaccuratetempomeasurement;
allnumbersareprovisional.
'This column approximatesRex Lawson's 1989 realizationon Innovative Music Masters MCD25.
358
Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
Works Cited
TheRite of Spring:Primary Sources
Manuscriptsand printedscores
A. Sketchbook, 1911-13. Available in facsimile as Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of
Spring: Sketches1911-13, edited and with commentaries by Robert Craft
(London: Faberand Faber,1969).
B. Particell (autographshort score), 1912. Paul SacherStiftung, Basel. Catalogue
014-0009.
C. Partitur (autograph full score), 1912. Paul Sacher Stiftung, Basel. Catalogue
014-0010.
D. 1913 Four-Hand Piano Score. Berlin-Moscow-St. Petersburg: Russische
Musik-VerlagRMV 196. Identical with reprint in Igor Stravinsky,"Petrushka"
and "TheRite of Spring"for Piano Four Hands or TwoPianos (Mineola, N.Y.:
Dover, 1990). Stravinsky'spersonalcopy is owned by the Paul SacherStiftung.
E. 1922 Pocket Score. Berlin: Russische Musik-VerlagRMV 197b. Stravinsky's
two personalcopies are owned by the Paul SacherStiftung.
F. 1922 Conductor's Score. Berlin: Russische Musik-VerlagRMV 197. Stravinsky'spersonalcopy is owned by the Paul SacherStiftung.
F2. 1929 "Revised First Editions" of 1922 Pocket and Conductor's Scores.
Republished by Russische Musik-Verlagwith the same plate numbers as RMV
197/197b. Although these are the texts in which the Rite firstachievesits "standard"form, there is no recordof Stravinskyhavingput markingsin any copy of this
edition.
G. 1943 Revision of the "Danse sacrale." New York:AssociatedMusic Publishers,
unnumbered, 1945.
H. 1948 Conductor's Score. London: Boosey and Hawkes B&H 16333.
Stravinsky'spersonalcopy is owned by the Paul SacherStiftung.
I. 1967 Conductor's Score. London: Boosey and Hawkes B&H 19441.
Recordedperformances
A. Igor Stravinsky, Piano Roll (Paris, 1921). Pleyela/Odeola Piano Rolls 842937. Performed in 1989 by Rex Lawson, pianolist, on InnovativeMusic Masters
MCD 25.
B. Pierre Monteux, Grand Orchestre Symphonique [de Paris] (Paris, 1929).
GramophoneW1016-1019. Rereleasedon Pearl GEMM CD 9329. Liner notes
by Louis Cyr.
C. Igor Stravinsky, Orchestre Symphonique [de Paris] (Paris, 1929). Columbia
LX119-123. Rereleasedon PearlGEMM CD 9334. Linernotes by Louis Cyr.
D. Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra (Philadelphia,1930). RCA-Victor
7227-30. Rereleasedon RCA-Victor09026-61394-2.
E. Igor Stravinsky, Philharmonic-Symphony of New York (New York, 1940).
Columbia 11375-78-D. Rereleasedas PickwickGLRS 107 and as PearlGEMM
CDS 9292.
F. Ernest Ansermet, L'Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande (Geneva, 1957).
London LL 1730. Rereleasedon London 443 467-2.
G. Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic (New York,1958). Rereleasedon
Sony ClassicalSMK 47629.
The Forging of a Modernist Performing Style
359
H. Sir Eugene Goosens, London Symphony Orchestra (London, 1960). Everest
SDBR 3047. Rereleasedon EverestEVC 9002.
I. Igor Stravinsky, Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Hollywood, 1960).
Rereleasedon Columbia MasterworksMK 42433.
J. Benjamin Zander, Boston Philharmonic (Boston, 1989). Innovative Music
MastersMCD 25.
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A Comparative
Performance
Waters,Jerome."TheRite of Springby Igor Stravinsky:
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Abstract
It is only recentlythat we have begun to consider modernistperformingstyle
-especially its brisk, unyielding tempos and abhorrence of "expressive"
rubato-as a historicalphenomenon. Much of the credit (or blame) for this
style has been ascribedto the composer of The Rite of Spring;RichardTaruskin argues that "all truly modern musical performance ... treats the music
performedas if it were composed-or at leastperformed-by Stravinsky."But
the performinghistory of the Rite shows that the composer struggled mightily to get his own music played "asif composed by Stravinsky."Earlyinterpretations of the Rite were slower and more elastic-more "romantic"-than the
composerwanted.
Focusing on the "Danse sacrale," this paper examines the battles orer
tempo and rubato evidenced by historicrecordings,piano rolls, and published
documents. It also considersthe unpublished compositional and performing
materialsfor the Rite: Stravinsky'sautographshort and full scores, and his annotated personalcopies of the 1913 piano reduction and the 1922 and 1948
fill scores.The recordindicates(1) that tempo and pacing of many sections of
362
Journalof the AmericanMusicologicalSociety
the Rite were radicallyrethought between sketch and 1922 printed score; (2)
that someone (Pierre Monteux?) indicated rubatos and changed many of
Stravinsky'smetronome markson the autograph;(3) that earlyperformances
of the "Danse sacrale"featuredunwritten tempo modificationsfor dramatic
effect; and (4) that Stravinskyhad to work for decades to fix in his score the
rigorosothat has become the characteristicperformingtempo of our time.