THE RITE OF SPRING( EARTH | SONGS)
FROM THE STAGE
by Edouard Beyens
My preparation for Tan Dun’ s The Tears of Nature was fairly different from what I would normally do for a concerto. Most concertos are done on one individual instrument( such as a Marimba Concerto), but this piece utilizes about a dozen instruments. We actually had to acquire several unusual instruments for this piece, along with custom-made mallets from my sponsor, Dragonfly Percussion. I will be playing on tuned Tibetan gongs, Chinese opera cymbals, and roto toms, just to name a few.
instantaneous loss of thousands during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Threat of Nature is depicted using the timpani, which shows both the gentle and explosive power of nature. The transformation from the beginning of the movement to end employs various techniques on the timpani, from large mallets to finger flicking, symbolizes the taming of nature.
“ The second movement,‘ Tears of Nature,’ was born as I watched the enormously heart-wrenching live broadcast of the tsunami in Japan on television. The tragedy of the tsunami is represented by a sorrowful marimba solo crying for all of the victims of the tsunami. Tremolos and cascading lines mirror the images of water in nature, nature’ s tears: rain, rivers, and oceans.
“ The third movement,‘ Dance of Nature,’ comes from my awe and affection for New York City and its residents. After Hurricane Sandy, New Yorkers never lost their energy and confidence. Dance
Audiences can look forward to a very fast-paced, entertaining, physical piece. Tan Dun does a great job of utilizing percussion instruments in both conventional and unconventional ways. I will play timpani with drum set brushes, as well as my hands. I will be playing rocks and moving as quickly as I can from instrument to instrument. The whole piece is a wild ride that I think the audience will find very entertaining. I ' m looking forward to showing what percussionists can do when we’ re in the spotlight!
of Nature uses assorted percussion instruments, all placed in a circle. Shadowing the first two movements, I bring their motives back and mix them with new melodies. The motives dance together, causing the percussionist to whirl around within the circle, symbolizing both nature and the human spirit dancing together.”
Instrumentation: Three flutes( third doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, Chinese big drum, Tibetan singing bowl, fish blocks, slapstick, wood blocks, stones in pairs, tom toms, metal can, brake drum, cowbells, bass drum, harp, and strings, in addition to the solo percussionist( bamboo chimes, Chinese paigu tom-toms, Chinese small crash cymbals, cowbells, glockenspiel, marimba, nipple gongs, pair of stones, rainstick, timpani, vibraphone, woodblocks).
Igor Stravinsky
Born June 17, 1882, in Lomonosov, Saint Petersburg, Russia Died April 6, 1971, in New York City
LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS( THE RITE OF SPRING) [ 1913 ]
In a 1936 autobiography, Igor Stravinsky recalled the startling moment when, in 1910, he suddenly found himself confronted by“ a fleeting vision which came to me as a complete surprise, my mind at the moment being full of other things. I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of Spring.”
For the time being, Stravinsky would have to set this vision aside. Finishing touches were still needed for a new ballet, The Firebird( 1910), composed at the behest of an energetic albeit eccentric impresario, Sergei Diaghilev, and his newly founded ballet company, the Ballet Russes, who were all the rage in Paris. Stravinsky had also just begun work on Petrushka( 1911), another Diaghilev collaboration which, like Firebird, was received warmly by the Parisian public. It would not be until 1913 that Le Sacre du printemps at last reached the stage.
Preparation proved painstaking. As choreographer, Diaghilev hired the famed dancer Vaslav Nijinksy, whose lack of musical knowledge and tendency to make impossible demands of his troupe horrified Stravinsky. The score, too, posed incredible challenges. Conductor Pierre Monteux initially refused to lead the work, and the orchestra was so shocked by its jagged textures and unfamiliar sonorities that they thought many of Stravinsky’ s markings to be errors.
On May 28, 1913, the eve of Le Sacre du printemps’ s public premiere at the newly built Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a preview was hosted for critics and important guests. The event went without incident; the following day, however, would live in infamy. The public premiere generated
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