Sometimes I discover things in the wrong order. Growing up in the late eighties, I watched Space Balls before Star Wars and somehow still thought it was funny. After watching the original, I actually understood Mel Brooks’ spoof. A similar thing happened with the Rite Of Spring. Thanks to the Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, I’ve been listening to a lot more twentieth century music and recently bought a recording
of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with Leonard Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. I recognized the opening theme and couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but later realized it was the same melody on Sleep Talking from Ornette Coleman’s most recent CD, Sound Grammar. Of course, Coleman is quoting Stravinsky and not vice versa but that’s the way that I discovered it because I’m more familiar with jazz and improvised music than classical music. The opening bassoon melody in the Rite of Spring is a descending line of C-B-G-E-B-A while Coleman plays it a fourth above, playing F-E-C-A-E-D. Here are some sound clips of both tracks so you can hear it for yourself.
