MUS110H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Sergei Diaghilev, Art Deco, Art Nouveau
Document Summary
Every element of the evening was new & shocking: building/venue, choreography, costume, music. Opened on april 2, 1913 (built 1911-1913) One of the most important in the 20th c. Spring 1913 season: stravinsky, the firebird, rimsky-korsakov"s schherazade, debussy"s jeux (premiere) Imagined pagan rite set in prehistoric russia: a chosen virgin is to dance herself to death for the god of spring. Marked by aesthetics of primitivism: the elemental and supposedly prehistorical natural state. Rejecting artistic sophistication & stylishness of the modern time. Often ambiguous about his russian folk references. Commissioned by diaghilev to write for ballets russes: firebird (1910), Undermining meter: unpredictable accents & rests, frequent changes of meter, ostinatos. Layering & juxtaposition of static blocks of sound. Dissonances based on diatonic, octatonic & other scale systems. Opened in 1967, after same-sex dancing became legal in ny (1968) Police raid on jun 27, 1969 without warning. Gay newspapers: gay power, come out, gay!
