Historical materiality of performance: On the costumes of The Rite of Spring (1913)

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Järvinen
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Methodological Pluralism ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
Rite Of Spring ◽  
Historical Performance

By focusing on surviving costumes of the 1913 production of The Rite of Spring, this article asks how a close examination of costumes and their role in historical performance practice can change our understanding of a canonical work of art. It argues for methodological pluralism in examining material remains together with manuscript annotations, images and reviews of the production rarely considered in previous research and, consequentially, for a critical examination of all previous claims, including the so-called reconstruction (1987) of The Rite of Spring. Compared with designs and costumes of other productions by the Ballets Russes company, those of the 1913 production explain much of the contradictory ways in which the work figured in discourses relating to art and modernism in France and Russia at the time. Most importantly, the costumes exemplify a particular tradition of making theatre that has been obscured by the prevailing Orientalist view of the Ballets Russes company that is hegemonic in what is claimed to be ‘known’ about The Rite of Spring and its reception.

The Spanish Reception of Le Sacre du Printemps (1913–1936)

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-66
Author(s):  
Idoia Murga Castro
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
Rite Of Spring ◽  
Le Sacre Du Printemps ◽  
Cultural Expansion

Centenary celebrations are being held between 2016 and 2018 to mark the first consecutive tours of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Spain. This study analyses the Spanish reception of Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913), one of its most avant-garde pieces. Although the original work was never performed in Spain as a complete ballet, its influence was felt deeply in the work of certain Spanish choreographers, composers, painters and intellectuals during the so-called Silver Age, the period of modernisation and cultural expansion which extended from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

scholarly journals Performer rights and responsibilities in historical performance

Muzikologija ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
John Irving
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Joseph Haydn ◽  
John Irving ◽  
Keyboard Sonatas ◽  
Historical Performance

In April 2014, fortepianist and Mozart specialist John Irving recorded a CD of solo keyboard sonatas by Joseph Haydn, using a modern copy of a Viennese fortepiano of Haydn?s era. This is an account of the project written from the performer?s perspective, examining some relevant issues of historical performance practice, organology, and detailed reflections upon the performer?s preparations (of various musical and technical kinds) for the recording.

Nijinsky, Vaslav (1889–1950)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Järvinen
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
World War ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Rite Of Spring ◽  
Vaslav Nijinsky ◽  
New Research ◽  
Le Sacre Du Printemps

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. He achieved international renown as the star of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Company between 1909 and 1916. A dancing prodigy, Nijinsky was lauded as the best male dancer of his generation. From 1912 onwards, his choreographic modernism inaugurated the use of simpler movement language that de-emphasized virtuosity with L’Après-midi d’un Faune (Afternoon of a Faun, 1912), Jeux (1913), Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring, 1913) and the little-known Till Eulenspiegel (1916), created during the company’s second North American tour. Nijinsky refocused attention on the choreographer as the author of dance, which had great influence on how dance as an art form was understood and discussed after World War I. Because Nijinsky was institutionalized for mental illness in 1919, none of his choreographies survived intact and were, for decades, considered artistically irrelevant. This attitude began to change in the late 1980s, when new research and reconstructions of Nijinsky’s choreographies helped scholars and audiences to rethink his place in dance history, and his works are now considered to be important examples of modernism as well as precursors to both contemporary ballet and contemporary dance, more generally.

Evolution, science and the study of literature: A critical response

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Methodological Pluralism ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
Critical Response ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Approach

This article offers a critical response to the proposal made by Jonathan Gottschall (2008), and discussed sympathetically in a review article for this journal (Francis 2010), for a more ‘scientific’ approach to the study of literature. A critical examination of evolutionary psychology, the particular scientific approach which underpins Gottschall’s own work on folk tales, is followed by a broader consideration of what ‘scientific’ might mean in relation to literature, asking how far it is either possible or desirable to apply the methods and evaluative metrics of science in other areas of scholarly endeavour. It is argued that there are good reasons for linguists and literary scholars to maintain the theoretical and methodological pluralism that has characterized their fields in the past

Donatoni, Franco (1927–2000)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitch Renaud
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Karlheinz Stockhausen ◽  
Pierre Boulez ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Rite Of Spring ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Mature Work ◽  
And Control

Composer and poet Franco Donatoni studied in Vienna before attending the Darmstadt summer music program, where he encountered Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. Donatoni took to the serial practices of Darmstadt but attempted to join them with John Cage’s project of separating the composer’s ego from the work of art. These encounters eventually led him to apply what he referred to as codes to found or borrowed material. In any given mature work, codes operate on multiple levels and control all musical parameters. His early experiments with codes, such as EtwasRuhigerimAusdruck (1967), aim for the creation of a work completely autonomous from its maker; however, Donatoni’s thinking gradually changed to acknowledge his role in the deployment of codes. Works like La souris sans sourire (1988) for string quartet demonstrate his self-defined joyous period, where he employed a wider range of materials. One of the clearest examples of his use of codes is his final piece Esa (In Cauda V) (2000), written for his student Esa-Pekka Salonen, which uses the musical spelling of Esa’s name and material from The Rite of Spring.

In search of truth in service of beauty: the comparison of the autograph of Sonata in a minor by Franz Schubert with available editions

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (16) ◽  
pp. 9-57
Author(s):  
Eliza Pawłowska
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Franz Schubert ◽  
Historical Materials ◽  
Historical Performance ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
First Editions ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Selection Of

Musicians attach increasing importance to the selection of edition they use for playing. There is a growing awareness of the influence of score material selection on interpretation. Historical performance raises the bar as well by encouraging the use of autographs, manuscripts and first editions. Thanks to referring to historical materials, we can quickly appreciate the effort of contemporary editors who – once publishing scores today – make them much more accessible. It would seem that basing one’s interpretation on an urtext edition should be a perfect solution combining today’s clarity with historical truth. The analysis shows, however, that even these trustworthy urtext editions differ from one another, thus differ from the autograph. Using Sonata in A Minor D 385 by Franz Schubert as an example, the article shows different approaches to music text edition. There are distinct ways in which editors interpret articulation, dynamics, and even sound pitch. The biggest number of differences can be found in terms of articulation, which it largely connected with the necessity to read handwritten material. Unambiguous deciphering (and exact placement) of numerous music markings can sometimes be downright impossible. That is why editors often use the method which consists in searching for analogies between fragments and parts, yet this method does not always seem right. As performance practice shows, treating each part individually, playing a similar fragment in a dissimilar way, often brings interesting results interpretation-wise. The article encourages own experiments, using doubts as material for interpretation, and using the benefits of contemporary editions cautiously.

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