Igor Stravinsky - Rite of Spring

Please tell me how much Archi is needed in this work(the exact number), anybody?

It's a fact that Stravinsky didn't like Archi. He used a few strings in his orchestral works, while the woodwinds and the brass are often of huge scale. But actually he paid a lot of attetion on the strings. You can learn from his scores to find that the performing and dividing of the strings are carefully arranged. You can see the notes('Sul ponticello' and 'col legno', etc.) everywhere.

Maybe Stravinsky liked the strings to be a group of soli---just like the woodwinds. In the 'Introduction' and 'Mystic Circles of the Young Girls' of 'THE SACRIFICE', the strings are divided to an extent that nearly one stave for one string intrument. Really a creation!

Still, I think the scale of the strings should be enlarged. In some episodes---especially 'Dances of the Young Girls', the strings are not forte enough.


Another thing to be concerned is why Stravinsky never used Arpa?

*bump*

I love the Rite of Spring, it's really my favourite piece right now.
I bought the score for it, together with the score for the Firebird suite and The Planets bu Holst. I absolutely love the way he extends the harmonies of the orchestra, and treats the whole thing as a gigantic percussion instrument in the ballet.
Btw, Archi is called "Strings" in english. ;-) Arpa is called "Harp".
Anyways, since I'm a woodwind player (clarinet, oboe) I love the emphasis on woodwind, with 5 players pr. instrument group instead of 2 or 3. I also live the unpredictable style Stravinsky writes in.

How I love the Rite of Spring It is (my opinion) far better than the firebird. Does anybody know of Stravinky's later works? I would really like to hear them to see how stravinsky grew from where he was.

Also I have mixed feeling on his ballet Petrushka, how do you guys feel about that piece?

Never used a harp?
His firebird has 3 of them!

Wanton extravagance...especially since in Stravinsky's orchestral texture, not one of them would ever be heard.

I'm being facetious, of course...but really. Three harps? Wagner did it too...I couldn't believe it when I saw it, when I performed "Goetterdaemerung" this past summer. Wanton extravagance.

I really love Stravinsky's tendency to use a gigantic orchestra. the ROS has no harps in it, but it has
Piccolo
3 Flutes
Alto Flute
4 Oboes
English Horn
Piccolo Clarinet
3 Clarinets
Bass Clarinet
4 Bassoons
Contrabassoon

8 Horns
Trumpet in D
4 Trumpets in C
3 Trombones
2 Tubas

2 Timpani
Triangle, Tambourine, Guiro, Crotales, Cymbals, Bass Drum, Tam-tam

Violins 1
Violins 2
Violas
Cellos
Basses
+additional piccolo, english horn, A/Bb clarinets, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, wagner tubas being doubled by players
----------

Yes. 8 horns.

The odd thing is Stravinsky didn't want to use a gigantic orchestra, The orchestra he was writing the piece for had gained some extra players(namely brass) and I believe it was Diaghilev/or some other guy told him to make the piece for a large orhchestra. None of the matter he does it BEAUTIFULLY!

Heh.

Very fond of Firebird, personally (I've played two or three movements from the 1919 with two different ensembles), but I don't like Rite of Spring at all. Maybe because the images assigned to it in the 'Fantasia' arrangement always gave me nightmares as a child.

I recently joined this college orchestra, we are playing beehtoven's 5th and stravinsky's firebird(1919).
I'm slightly scared, any tips to prepare for it?(which reminds me that I should be practicing my cello )

Wanton? Actually, in Reingold Wagner calls for six harps, I believe -- most often in unison. Which, as Berlioz would tell you, is so you can hear them. For instance, in Berlioz's 'Roméo et Juliette', there are two harps in the Ball scene, but he recommends doubly or tripling each part so they can be heard properly over the rather loud orchestra.