Jimi Michiel

For the musicologically inclined...

Nicholas Roerich was a Russian ethnographer who was a contemporary of Stravinsky's and worked on the scenario for the Rite of Spring. Many of the details of the ritualistic life in pagan Rus wouldn't have been possible without Roerich's input, despite the fact that Stravinsky often claimed that the whole scenario came to him in a dream. Stravinsky changed his mind a lot and never really had his facts completely straight, so I'm inclined to believe that Roerich had a lot more to do with the Rite than Stravinsky let on.

Besides being an ethnographer of pagan Rus, Roerich was also an incredibly talented painter. There is a museum in NYC that features his work. I've never been to it (although I plan to the next chance I get), but it's got a great website:

http://www.roerich.org/

I would recommend checking out some of the paintings. Stravinsky's music becomes it's own work of art that, to me, sometimes goes beyond the ethnographic roots that the ballet is based on. Roerich's paintings, at least in my opinion, get right to the heart of the peoples that Stravinsky's music so savagely depicts.

-Jimi

Manny Laureano

The exhibition is gorgeous!

You can see the tail end of the impressionist period and a beginning of something that is very "neo-classic" a la Stravinsky. What a wonderful post. Bravo, Jimi!

ML

Alex Yates

Being the big art buff that I am and a huge Stravinsky fan, I really enjoyed this post Jimi. Thanks so much for sharing the link.

robertwhite

Thanks for the link, Jimi. Very interesting content on that site!

Derek Reaban

I really enjoyed looking at each of his paintings. There are a lot of powerful images in his work. I felt like I was right with him as he travelled to Tibet and Nepal (very cool, but not COLD!).

I especially liked this one:



I'm guessing that this is real and not just something that he created in his mind! WOW! I'd like to see a photo of this place.

Thanks for providing the link!