The Rite of Spring full voice. Stravinsky had difficulties with this section, especially with the final bars that conclude the work. The abrupt ending displeased several critics, one of whom wrote that the music "suddenly falls over on its side". Stravinsky himself referred to the final chord disparagingly as "a noise", but in his various attempts to amend or rewrite the section, was unable to produce a more acceptable solution. The music historian Donald Jay Grout has written: ""The Sacre" is undoubtedly the most famous composition of the early 20th century ... it had the effect of an explosion that so scattered the elements
The Rite of Spring murder and gangster film images. In February 1984 Martha Graham, in her 90th year, resumed her association with "The Rite" by choreographing a new production at New York's State Theater. "The New York Times" critic declared the performance "a triumph ... totally elemental, as primal in expression of basic emotion as any tribal ceremony, as hauntingly staged in its deliberate bleakness as it is rich in implication". On 30 September 1987, the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles performed "The Rite" based on a reconstruction of Nijinsky's 1913 choreography, until then thought lost beyond recall. The performance resulted from years of