On Thursday, May 29, 1913, Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes premiered the ballet Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, an event that led to the most infamous riot in classical music history due to its shocking primitive rhythms, dissonances, choreography, costumes and scenery. The Rite of Spring depicts an ancient pagan ritual sacrifice which culminates in a young girl dancing herself to death. Many would argue that Stravinsky’s score for The Rite of Spring is the single most important piece of classical music written during the twentieth century.
Curated by Pacific Symphony, The ReRite of Spring Project is a social-media driven, worldwide arts project celebrating the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Located in Orange County, CA, Pacific Symphony will be celebrating the centennial of this masterwork not only with three performances on June 6-8, 2013, but also by inviting the creatively-inclined public to ReRite (i.e. remix, reinterpret, and/or reimagine) this influential piece through 21st century lenses. You can be a part of history by submitting new artworks, videos and/or music using The Rite of Spring as a source of inspiration to ReRiteofSpring.org. Resources are available on this website to help you get started. All submissions – visual, musical, etc – will be aggregated on the ReRite of Spring website for others to peruse, inspiring new creations and collaborations to remain online for posterity.
Visitors to the site are invited to explore more about the work, check out works contributed by others and/or submit their own ReRites. The idea of remixing or creating mash-ups goes back centuries and has always taken a key role in creating art. Igor Stravinsky was certainly adept at taking existing source material and making it his own. The Rite Of Spring contains numerous Russian and Lithuanian folk melodies which the composer repurposed within his own style while thumbing his nose at convention and the standards of his day. In doing so, he created a revolution and changed music forever, influencing many after him.
Nevertheless, The Rite Of Spring is more than a piece of music by Igor Stravinsky, it is a ballet: a collaboration between composer, costume/set designer, and choreographer. Each artist pushed the boundaries of his art and contributed to the resulting paradigm shift which shocked audiences in 1913. Considering that our contemporary social media-driven culture, which fosters the sharing of “Photoshops,” “mash-ups,” remixes and other kind of reinterpretations of existing media and the approaching centennial, The Rite Of Spring serves as a great source of inspiration and celebration.
Using the digital tools of the 21st century to share and for some, create their own ReRites, anyone with a desire to express themselves in any artistic medium and offer a tribute to this seminal work is invited to submit his or her creation to The ReRite Of Spring Project. All relevant submissions will then be displayed on this site for others to appreciate, enjoy and hopefully be inspired by.