The bassoon plays the famous opening solo in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
The ballet begins with an unusually high bassoon melody, far above the instrument’s familiar low register. This exposed solo immediately gives the opening a distinctive, mysterious sound and has become one of the best-known orchestral entrances in 20th-century music. The bassoonist must control difficult high notes with exceptional precision because the line appears before the rest of the orchestra fully enters.
Stravinsky’s ballet premiered in Paris on 29 May 1913, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes led by Sergei Diaghilev. Its bold rhythms, dense orchestration, and unfamiliar choreography provoked a notorious audience reaction at the premiere, though the work later became a landmark of modernism.
The bassoon is a double-reed woodwind and is normally associated with a deep, reedy tone. The opening solo is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the oboe because it lies high and sounds nasal, but the part is specifically written for bassoon.