October 16, 2014

he altered the course of classical music forever.

"It would be inconceivable,” said Schoenberg, "to attack the heroes who make daring flights over the ocean or to the North Pole, for their achievement is obvious to everyone. But although experience has shown that many a pioneer trod his path [with] absolute certainty at a time when he was still held to be wandering half-demented, most people invariably turn against those who strike out into unknown regions of the spirit… New music is never beautiful on first acquaintance.” Often forced onto the defensive like this, Schoenberg plunged fearlessly – and often beautifully – into the unknown, shattering the seemingly unbreakable rules of Western tonality that had prevailed for centuries. In reimagining harmony in so-called ‘tone rows’ he altered the course of classical music forever.じいあぉあ

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

(Erich Auerbach/Getty Images)绝代的霓裳

(Erich Auerbach/Getty Images)noneme

His breakthrough work was The Firebird, produced in 1900 by Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes; thirteen years later, a full-scale riot legendarily broke out at the premiere of The Rite of Spring, his ballet of pagan sacrifice (which historian Barbara Tuchman aptly describes as "the 20th Century incarnate"). The New Yorker’s music critic Alex Ross masterfully captures the work’s ominous energy, it raw, spooky power and explains how this is achieved both harmonically and rhythmically. "looselyYou have these two chords slammed together," Ross explains. "These are two adjacent chords. They're dissonant. They're being jammed together. And that's a harsh sound, and he keeps insisting on it. That chord repeats and repeats and repeats, pounding away." Rhythmically, Ross says, "It seems as though at first he's just going to have this regular pulse. But then these accents start landing in unexpected places, and you can't quite get the pattern of it…It's as if you're in a boxing ring, and this sort of brilliant fighter is coming at you from all directions with these jabs."jiiiaser

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