Legendary organist Booker T, who recently employed the Drive-By Truckers as his backing band during Potato Hole’s recording sessions, has partnered with Rancid. T’s Hammond B3 organ can be heard on “Up To No Good,” a track from Rancid’s upcoming Let the Dominoes Fall. [PunkNews.org]
Want to play drums for the Smashing Pumpkins? Corgan and company are holding auditions in L.A. on Friday, April 10th. [PitchforkMedia.com]
Country queen Taylor Swift has pushed another song to the top of the country charts, marking her fourth number one single in less than two years. [CountryStandardTime.com]
A Woman a Man Walked By arrived just a year and a half after PJ Harvey’s equally difficult and brilliant White Chalk. That alone makes it notable, since the last time she released albums in such quick succession was the early to mid-’90s, around the same time of her last songwriting collaboration with John Parish, Dance Hall at Louse Point. That album’s unbridled experiments provided a sharp contrast to the subversive polish of its predecessor, To Bring You My Love; while A Woman a Man Walked By isn’t quite as overt an about-face from White Chalk, the difference is still distinct. Here, Harvey and Parish (who played on and co-produced White Chalk) trade sublime, sustained eeriness for freewheeling vignettes that cover a wider range of sounds and moods than her music has in years.
Film composer Maurice Jarre, who wrote scores for more than 150 films, passed away Sunday from a heart attack at age 84. The the themes to David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago were among his best-known pieces. Jarre won Oscars for both of those scores, as well as for the music to Lean’s final film, A Passage to India. [Time.com]
Nickelback dominated Canada’s Juno Awards, scoring three trophies — including Group of the Year and Album of the Year for Dark Horse. Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and the High School Musical cast cleaned up at Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards. [RollingStone.com]
The rumored stage adaptation of Green Day’s American Idiot is a go: The musical, which is a collaboration between the band and Spring Awakening director Michael Mayer, will debut this September at Berkley, CA’s Repertory Theatre. [NME.com]
Since “Young Folks” was such an inescapable smash for them in 2007, it would have been easy for Peter Bjorn and John to try to follow in its bubblegummy footsteps and become a happy, shiny pop band with a strong line in novelty songs. Instead, the trio first released an instrumental album (Seaside Rock) in late 2008 and then returned with the much darker, less bubbly album Living Thing in the spring of 2009. That being said, Writer’s Block wasn’t that upbeat, and apart from “Young Folks” and a couple other tracks, its sound and lyrical themes were pretty gloomy at heart. There were plenty of guitars, though, and that’s a big difference, as Living Thing continues the trio’s effort to refine and reduce their sound into just the essential elements needed to put the songs across.
Never content to stay in one musical place for very long, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs take their restlessness to the limit on It’s Blitz! — and wind up making some of their most contented-sounding songs along the way. As if to prove one more time that they’re not just the architects of New York’s early-2000s rock renaissance, Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase strip away the guitars and explosive dynamics of their early work even more thoroughly on these songs than they did on Show Your Bones. In their place are shiny keyboards, synthetic sounds galore, and a very different kind of energy powering this music than any of their previous work. It’s Blitz!’s images of a woman’s hand bursting an egg and fleshy tomatoes and mushrooms spread across an otherwise empty pizza box are surprising, immediate, and strangely sensual, and that goes double for the actual music.
Country artist Dan Seals, who launched his career with England Dan & John Ford Coley before embarking on an acclaimed solo career, died on Wednesday at the age of 61. Seals sent 11 singles to the top of the country charts between 1985 and 1990, making him one of the era’s most successful artists. [CMT.com]
After pleading guilty to weapon charges, superstar rapper T.I. has been sentenced to a one-year sentence in prison. Such crimes routinely carry of minimum of nearly five years in jail, but T.I.’s legal team offered a plea bargain involving community service, house arrest, and a hefty fine, all in exchange for an abridged sentence. [RollingStone.com]
Multi-talented Cuban composer, guitarist and conductor Leo Brouwer turned 70 on March 1; Brouwer is perhaps the most renowned of living Cuban composers, and this inspired us to take a look back at some of the Cuban composers throughout history who have made lasting contributions to the world of concert music.
Leo Brouwer began to compose in 1955 at age 16, and even in those early years produced works of high quality such as his Danza Caracteristica (1957), regarded today as a classical guitar standard. Although he took guitar instruction and studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at Juilliard, Brouwer considers himself an autodidact. In 1961, Brouwer participated in the Warsaw Autumn Festival in Poland and came in contact with the music of composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki and Iannis Xenakis, and the integration of experimental styles marks the next phase of his career. From 1976 he entered into his mature vein, which Brouwer calls “New Simplicity;” it encompasses input from popular and classical music, Afro-Cuban music and the avant-garde.
The violent Russian spring that seemed to begin in an hour and was like the whole earth cracking — that was the most wonderful event of every year of my childhood.
- Igor Stravinsky
Of all scandalous modern classical works — and there were many in the 20th century — Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 ballet, Le Sacre du printemps is undoubtedly the most ground-breaking and influential. (The English title, The Rite of Spring, is more accurately translated from French as The Consecration of Spring; it is subtitled, Tableaux de la Russie païenne or Pictures from Pagan Russia.) So bold and innovative were its explorations of complex metrical changes, polyrhythms, polytonality, and dissonance, it redefined what could be considered music. In one masterstroke, Stravinsky broke decisively with the past and opened new paths for composers who would follow, from George Antheil and his Ballet mécanique, to John Williams and his scores for Jaws and Star Wars. The furor over Le Sacre du printemps was a signal moment in 20th century modernism, and the work became a landmark of western music history. Yet as a few anecdotes of this ballet’s origin and reception suggest, its path to greatness was not straight and its success was far from assured.
Le Sacre du printemps was the third ballet Stravinsky composed for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe, and was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, who had brilliantly danced the lead role in Stravinsky’s 1911 ballet, Petrushka. The creation of Le Sacre began with an idea of an ancient Russian fertility ritual, centered on the sacrifice of a young virgin who dances herself to death. Though Stravinsky later claimed the idea was his, it was actually the inspiration of the Russian artist, archaeologist, and folklorist, Nicholas Roerich. Stravinsky worked out the scenario for the two-act ballet with Roerich, who had created the sets for Alexander Borodin’s opera, Prince Igor, and went on to design the set for the original performance of Le Sacre (above, right).
Stravinsky began sketching Le Sacre in 1911 in Clarens, Switzerland, on a muted upright piano in a room that measured eight by eight feet. This is an important aspect of the work’s gestation, because many of its dissonances and percussive rhythms were derived from Stravinsky’s obsessive sounding of chords on the piano. For example, the famous “Augurs of Spring” chord (sampled below), an F flat major triad and an E flat dominant seventh played together and repeated almost 200 times, fits under the fingers naturally and has a deeply resonant quality when played at the keyboard. As he composed the orchestral score of Le Sacre, Stravinsky simultaneously worked on a four-hand piano arrangement, which was the public’s primary means of studying the work in its early years and is regarded today as a valid version. In June of 1912, Stravinsky and the French composer Claude Debussy (left) sight-read it together. Debussy commented that the music resembled “a beautiful nightmare.” Later, Stravinsky made two versions of Le Sacre for player piano.
After hearing the composer play Le Sacre on the piano, the conductor Pierre Monteux remarked, “The very walls resounded as Stravinsky pounded away, occasionally stamping his feet and jumping up and down to accentuate the force of the music. Not that it needed such emphasis.” Monteux gave the work its first performance, despite misgivings that it might cause a scandal.
The premiere at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 29, 1913 is remembered for the riot, which started shortly after the introductory bassoon melody. Beyond that, little of the music was heard. Yet even though tradition holds that the boos and hisses were triggered by the strange sounds coming from the orchestra, the fracas was apparently preplanned, because factions had formed before the event and were itching for a fight. While the music certainly was shocking, as were the dancers, whose movements were decidedly primitive, awkward, and not at all the refined pirouetting of conventional ballet, the mayhem erupted on ideological grounds. As Jean Cocteau (right) recalled, the dispute was between ” …the smart audience in tails and tulle, diamonds and ospreys, and the suits and bandeaux of the aesthetic crowd. The latter would applaud novelty simply to show their contempt for the people in the boxes.” Cocteau also related that the audience ridiculed the women dancers in their braids and primitive costumes as “knock-kneed Lolitas.”
The initial din of catcalls led to fisticuffs in the aisles, and the police arrived by intermission, only to restore a modicum of order. Stravinsky fled the audience, reportedly weeping, and went backstage to find Diaghilev switching the lights on and off, and Nijinsky standing on a chair, shouting numbers in Russian to the dancers, who could no longer hear the orchestra. Monteux was calm and collected as he conducted Le Sacre to the end, despite the maelstrom surrounding him.
Though the fiasco depressed Stravinsky and Nijinsky, Diaghilev was delighted with the chaos and claimed afterward that it was exactly what he wanted. However, critical reaction was predictably harsh, though it’s surprising to see how long after the premiere reviewers still took a negative view of the music. Below are some of the more notorious comments, selected from Nicholas Slonimsky’sLexicon of Musical Invective:
The most essential characteristic of Le Sacre du printemps is that it is the most dissonant and the most discordant composition yet written. Never was the system and the cult of the wrong note practiced with so much industry, zeal and fury.
- Pierre Lalo, Le Temps, Paris, June 3, 1913
The music of Le Sacre du printemps baffles verbal description. To say that much of it is hideous as sound is a mild description. There is certainly an impelling rhythm traceable. Practically it has no relation to music at all as most of us understand the word.
- Musical Times, London, August 1, 1913
One recalls the scandalous spectacle of this Sacre du printemps, or rather a “Massacre du printemps.” Never before had such a challenge been made to human ears.
- H. Moreno, Le Ménestrel, Paris, June 6, 1914
I’m not competent to discuss Le Sacre du printemps as I have heard it only on the piano. But assuming…that Stravinsky is mechanism become music…I don’t want it…I’m bored with imitations of noises…and their monotonous cacophony.
- Deems Taylor,The Dial, New York, September, 1920
Of course, Le Sacre went on to become a modern classic and ever more popular over the years, thanks to orchestral concerts, recordings, and performances choreographed by such major figures as Leonide Massine, Maurice Bejart,Kenneth MacMillan, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Mary Wigman, and Pina Bausch. It was also widely promoted by Walt Disney’s use of the score in the 1940 film, Fantasia. Yet even this was not free of controversy. At first, Stravinsky was flattered to learn that Le Sacre was to be animated, but he was less than thrilled to learn that sections had been reordered, and the prehistoric visuals of dinosaurs and volcanoes did little to please him. Add to this the irony that Deems Taylor, who had criticized Le Sacre in 1920, was called upon to provide a spoken introduction and narration in the film, though the introduction only appeared in the road show version and was later cut.
In 1987, the Joffrey Ballet (right) presented a restored Le Sacre, employing the set and costume designs by Roerich and the original choreography by Nijinsky, long thought lost. The ballet had only received eight performances before it was withdrawn, and because Diaghilev split with Nijinsky and had the 1920 production choreographed by Massine, the Nijinsky version was not seen for decades. But due to the efforts of director Robert Joffrey, dance historian Millicent Hodson, and her husband, art historian Kenneth Archer, the resurrected ballet was staged to critical acclaim, and in subsequent years was revived by the Paris Opéra and Kirov ballets.
The Joffrey Ballet’s complete reconstruction of Le Sacre du printemps is presented below.
No collection of anecdotes of Le Sacre du printemps would be complete without a recommendation of some important recordings. Below are several excellent renditions, though this list is far from exhaustive. While each offers a different understanding of Stravinsky’s masterpiece, and all will continue to be argued over by fans, there is never a last word on Le Sacre and no definitive reading. So take your pick!
Have fun sampling, and by all means make Le Sacre du printemps a staple of your listening, if you haven’t already. But don’t forget, if the weather’s nice, be sure to turn off the stereo and go outside. That’s what spring is really for!
Legendary organist Booker T, who recently employed the Drive-By Truckers as his backing band during Potato Hole’s recording sessions, has partnered with Rancid. T’s Hammond B3 organ can be heard on “Up To No Good,” a track from Rancid’s upcoming Let the Dominoes Fall. [PunkNews.org]
Film composer Maurice Jarre, who wrote scores for more than 150 films, passed away Sunday from a heart attack at age 84. The the themes to David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago were among his best-known pieces. Jarre won Oscars for both of those scores, as well as for the music to Lean’s final film, A Passage to India. [
Since “Young Folks” was such an inescapable smash for them in 2007, it would have been easy for 
Never content to stay in one musical place for very long, the 
Country artist Dan Seals, who launched his career with England Dan & John Ford Coley before embarking on an acclaimed solo career, died on Wednesday at the age of 61. Seals sent 11 singles to the top of the country charts between 1985 and 1990, making him one of the era’s most successful artists. [
Multi-talented Cuban composer, guitarist and conductor 
Le Sacre du printemps was the third ballet Stravinsky composed for 
Stravinsky began sketching Le Sacre in 1911 in Clarens, Switzerland, on a muted upright piano in a room that measured eight by eight feet. This is an important aspect of the work’s gestation, because many of its dissonances and percussive rhythms were derived from Stravinsky’s obsessive sounding of chords on the piano. For example, the famous “Augurs of Spring” chord (sampled below), an F flat major triad and an E flat dominant seventh played together and repeated almost 200 times, fits under the fingers naturally and has a deeply resonant quality when played at the keyboard. As he composed the orchestral score of Le Sacre, Stravinsky simultaneously worked on a 
