The Premiere of the Rite of Spring with Thomas Kelly

In this music lecture, Professor Thomas Kelly explored the ‘scandalous’ premiere of The Rite of Spring in 1913 Paris by the Russian ballet of Diaghilev. What was it that caused the riot? The outrageous music of Stravinsky? The ridiculous choreography by Nijinsky? Was there a riot? Why is a piece that’s 112 years old still stirring such controversy?

About the Speaker

Thomas Forrest Kelly is Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music Emeritus at Harvard University, where he taught since 1994; he was chair of the Department of Music from 1999 to 2005. His research interest is in medieval music, and in the performance practices of past musical eras. He was artistic director of the Castle Hill Festival (Massachusetts), and directed the Early Music Program at the Five Colleges in Massachusetts and the Historical Performance program at the Oberlin Conservatory. His most recent book is Capturing Music: The Story of Notation (Norton, 2014). His book The Beneventan Chant (Cambridge University Press) was awarded the Otto Kinkeldey award of the American Musicological Society for 1989, and has been translated into Korean and Chinese. He is also the author, among other books and articles, of First Nights: Five Musical Premieres (Yale, 2000), named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year: First Nights at the Opera (Yale, 2004); Early Music: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2011, translated into German and Hungarian); He is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic, an Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society, and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.