The Rite of Spring the four-part piano score published in 1913. There have been numerous variants of the English translations; those shown are from the 1967 edition of the score. Lawrence Morton, in a study of the origins of "The Rite", records that in 1907–08 Stravinsky set to music two poems from Sergey Gorodetsky's collection "Yar". Another poem in the anthology, which Stravinsky did not set but is likely to have read, is "Yarila" which, Morton observes, contains many of the basic elements from which "The Rite of Spring" developed, including pagan rites, sage elders, and the propitiatory sacrifice of a young maiden: "The
The Rite of Spring of the work would be called "The Kiss of the Earth", and would consist of games and ritual dances interrupted by a procession of sages, culminating in a frenzied dance as the people embraced the spring. Part Two, "The Sacrifice", would have a darker aspect; secret night games of maidens, leading to the choice of one for sacrifice and her eventual dance to the death before the sages. The original working title was changed to "Holy Spring" (Russian: " Vesna sviashchennaia"), but the work became generally known by the French translation "Le Sacre du printemps", or its English equivalent "The