Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

this is almost definitely not what you think it is considering the general arc of this blog, but i am having difficulty letting myself explore music that isn't the music i'm supposed to be preparing, so here you get something a little different. below is a written guide to all the non-italian (and some rarer italian) written-language instructions you find in stravinsky's masterpiece score, in the order they first appear in the score, usually with some indication as to where. it's surprising to me that there isn't a list out there already for this, but maybe my googling skills just aren't that great. you certainly find them all over the place for mahler and strauss. i'm not sure of some of the longer ones, so if you find any discrepancies leave a note. maybe this will help the next aspiring conductor trying to learn this piece. and since for some reason this piece seems to now be a total favorite for people to assign during mere graduate school auditions, there will probably be (or already are) a lot of people running around like myself trying to learn this piece when by all rights we have no place attempting it.




colla parte: with the soloist (as directed to the clarinets and horns accompanying the bassoon solo in the beginning)
un peu en dehors: a little outside, maybe slightly more extraverted (as to the piccolo clarinet that enters in the fifth bar, among other places)
très en dehors: very prominent
flatterzunge: fluttertongue
come sopra: as above/before
per tutto quat.: all four (when there is a part divided into four, etc., followed by some instruction, in this case, a crescendo)
tube tenori/ tenori: wagner tubas
cuivrez: brassy (literally, copper), when he wants a sound brash and shiny
très lointain: vert distant, as for the horn soli at 89
accordèz la corde do en si: adjust/tune the string to play, as for the 2nd cello solo at 91 which has to play a d-sharp harmonic
pavillons en l'air: bells up! for the horns
colla bacch. di ______: with the sticks of (some instrument). lots of directions to play one instrument with the mallets/sticks of another. when it appears with [triangolo] it is usually telling you to run the triangle's stick over the surface of the gong, giving it a zzzzzing. when it appears with [tamburo] or [timp.] which both mean drum, use the according mallet to strike as normal. apparently tamburo usually refers to the snare drum, so it would seem that while doesn't need the snare drum for this whole monster of a piece, you still need the sticks...
au bord: on the rim, meaning to play where the sound is drier, on the rim of the timpani (as at 114)
tres serrè: very tight, as with the repeated violin notes at 134
bouchè: mouth. he writes this for the horns three times, just around 137-8. honestly, your guess is as good as mine.
ouvert: open (as for the sustained notes at 138)
avec la baguette en boin: with the stick (as for the bass drum at 139, meaning to flip the mallet around and play with the wood end instead of the covered end)
ordinairement (avec la mailloche[...]): as normal; directive about two bars later, signaling to flip the mallet back around. apparently the covered end of the stick is called a "beetle" (mailloche) in french... um.
des cordez le "la" un demi-ton plus bas: the A string tuned a half-step lower, as for the celli in order to play the four note chord at the very end of the piece which includes a g-sharp as the high note. i don't think anyone actually does this. the celli have like a bar in order to try to fix their strings like this.