History Theatre / TheRiteOfSpring

* ProducePelting: The riot at the premiere included some people flinging vegetables at the orchestra. (This led to the conspiracy theory that at least some concertgoers had come already prepared to make a disturbance.)

* MinusculeRocking: "The Wise Elder" (also named "The Sage" or "A Kiss of the Earth") lasts less than 30 seconds, and on some occasions is simply merged with "Procession of the Wise Elder" or "Dance of the Earth" on tracklists.

The work was famously used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', which [[AdaptationDisplacement unfortunately has also led many people to incorrectly associate the ballet with dinosaurs]]. The final movement, "Sacrificial Dance," was one of 27 songs selected for inclusion on the UsefulNotes/VoyagerGoldenRecord in 1977.

Times taken from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP42C-4zL3w Bernstein 1958]].

# "Introduction" (3:28)
# "The Augurs of Spring, Dances of the Young Girls" (3:18)

# "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" (1:52)
# "Procession of the Sage" (1:02)
# "Dance of the Earth" (1:13)

# "Introduction" (6:00)
# "Mystic Circles of the Young Girls" (3:18)
# "Glorification of the Chosen One" (1:32)
# "Evocation of the Ancestors" (0:52)
# "Ritual Action of the Ancestors" (3:23)
# "Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)" (4:30)

** Similarly, "Evocation of the Ancestors," depending on your reading, has a sudden bass clarinet glissando leading into the orchestra hit JumpScare that begins "Sacrificial Dance."

* SensoryAbuse: The reason people rioted was that it was so grating on the ears and eyes in comparison to normal ballet.

* SiameseTwinSongs: Part II's "Introduction" and "Mystic Circles" do not have a clear transition between them and even use the same themes, so they can be seen as two parts of the same songs.

* PeriodPiece: The ballet premiered in 1913 and its intehded setting is prehistoric Russia, thousands of years in the past.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: A low 5 overall, creeps into an ''8'' at its hardest - quite a feat, considering when it was made. Back in the day, the hardest parts would have been ''way'' off the scale. In detail :
** The Introduction of Part 1 begins at soft 1 (though the mere fact that it uses a bassoon in a high register was a thing at the time) reaches something like 3-4, then goes back to 1.
** ''Spring rounds'' begins at 1, gets higher from there, then unexpectedly jumps to something like a hard 6, then ends on a very soft 1.
** The rest of Part 1 is mostly in the 5-6 range (sometimes bordering on or even reaching 7), with softer parts interspersed or sometimes more prevalent.
** The Introduction of Part 2 and ''Mystic Circles of the Young Girls'' are mostly soft to very soft 1, not going beyond a soft 2 (except at the very end).
** ''Glorification of the Chosen One'' reaches a low 8 ''even by today's standards''. It's even more jarring in context.
** The final sections are again back in the 5-6 (possibly even 7) range, with softer parts contrasting.

* UncommonTime: Stravinsky's score does this a lot. For example, "The Naming and Honoring of the Chosen One" changes, in consecutive measures, from 9/8 to 5/8 to 7/8 to 3/8 to 4/8 to 7/4 to 3/4.

# "Introduction" (4:10)

* LongestSongGoesLast: "Sacrificial Dance" dwarfs the rest of the movements at 4:30, coming last in the setlist.

-->--Mnemonic used by orchestras to count off the times in one section where a single chord is repeated.

** The Introduction of Part 2 and ''Mystic circle of the young girls'' are mostly soft to very soft 1, not going beyond a soft 2 (except at the very end).
** ''Glorification of the chosen One'' reaches a low 8 ''even by today's standards''. It's even more jarring in context.

The work was famously used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', which [[AdaptationDisplacement unfortunately has also led many people to incorrectly associate the ballet with dinosaurs]].

** ''Ritual Action of the Ancestors'' and ''Sacrificial Dance'' are again back in the 5-6 (possibly even 7) range, with softer parts contrasting.

** The Introduction of Part 2 and ''Mystic circle of the young girls'' are mostly soft to very soft 1, not going beyond a very soft 2.

** The Introduction of Part 2 and ''Mystic circle of the young girls'' are mostly soft to very soft 1, not going beyond a soft 2.

** The Introduction of part 2 and ''Mystic circle of the young girls'' are mostly soft to very soft 1.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: A low 5 overall, creeps into an ''8'' at its hardest - quite a feat, considering when it was made. Back in the day, the hardest parts would have been ''way'' off the scale.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: A low 5 overall, creeps into ''8'' at its hardest - quite a feat, considering when it was made. Back in the day, the hardest parts would have been ''way'' off the scale.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: The sacrifice is not a quick, merciful death. Instead, the virgin has to dance herself to exhaustion, until she collapses. That could take hours or days even. The Joffrey Ballet makes it clear that it's a frenzied, fast dance which will tire out the virgin faster than a slower one would.

* GotVolunteered: PlayedForDrama. If you fall out of line of the dance twice, you're the sacrifice.

* ShamefulStrip: Not uncommon in versions that feature the NudeNatureDance. A particularly harrowing one in the Ballet Preljocaj version, in which the other dancers round on the virgin, hold her down and brutally strip her, and after a brief HeroicBSOD she embarks on the furious final dance of death.

* SensoryAbuse: The reason people rioted was because it was so grating on the ears and eyes in comparison to normal ballet.

* DownerEnding: The girl dances herself to death. At least there's the consolation that onstage, you can tell the dancer isn't literally doing that and it's dramatized for show.