The Rite of Spring former's student days, considered "The Rite" a masterpiece that had created "the decade of the displaced accent and the polytonal chord". Copland adopted Stravinsky's technique of composing in small sections which he then shuffled and rearranged, rather than working through from beginning to end. Ross cites the music of Copland's ballet "Billy the Kid" as coming directly from the "Spring Rounds" section of "The Rite". For Olivier Messiaen "The Rite" was of special significance; he constantly analysed and expounded on the work, which gave him an enduring model for rhythmic drive and assembly of material. After the premiere the writer
The Rite of Spring the disturbances, while deplorable, were merely "a rowdy debate" between two ill-mannered factions. Emile Raudin, of "Les Marges", who had barely heard the music, wrote: "Couldn't we ask M. Astruc ... to set aside one performance for well-intentioned spectators? ... We could at least propose to evict the female element". The composer Alfredo Casella thought that the demonstrations were aimed at Nijinsky's choreography rather than at the music, a view shared by the critic Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, who wrote: "The idea was excellent, but was not successfully carried out". Calvocoressi failed to observe any direct hostility to the composer—unlike, he said,