MOG Editorial Review

The 1913 premiere performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring at Paris's Teatro de los Champs-Élysées sparked an infamous riot. The music's dissonant tones, along with its accompanying ballet choreography and a storyline celebrating the death rituals of a pagan tribe, divided and stirred up the Champs-Élysées audience, which quickly devolved into shouting and fist fights. As the chaos reigned around him, Stravinsky simply counted out the music to his dancers, who couldn't hear the orchestra over the raucous crowd. The Rite of Spring would eventually be acknowledged as a genius composition, a groundbreaking piece exploring the kind of dissonant tones and off-kilter composition that would eventually be embraced by the elite of the 20th-century school.