What are the *roots* of The Rite of Spring?

it's hard to point to particular pieces that musically predate Rite of Spring, I think. Tonally, there is a lot of Debussy in that period of Stravinsky's music, and he was like Ravel in his complete mastery of orchestration, and using unusual combinations instruments to achieve really particular, unique timbres. but rhythmically, I can't think of anything from that time that's really close to a lot of the Rite of Spring stuff. Both Stravinsky and Prokofiev had a recognizably "Russian" sound (I think moreso for Prokofiev), but much more likely that Prokofiev would have been influeced by it rather than vice versa.

Stravinsky studied w/Rimsky-Korsakov, so I'm sure that's in his artistic blood somewhere (and I guess you can make the case the technical demands, orchestral virtuosity is coming out of that a bit)

i rented "fantasia" last night JUST to watch "the rite of spring"

dinosaurs!

stravinsky reminds me of dvorak but i don't know a whole lot about classical.

even the wiki entry doesn't mention much that's specific. other than Russian paganism. which isn't very specific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring

Folk songs/dances and historical rituals were apparently a major influence. Wikipedia mentions that Stravisnky worked with archaeologist and folklorist Nikolai Roerich on the piece. Debussy was definitely doing some similar things with harmony. See also the wikipedia entry on primitivism.

Mussorgsky, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov,Tchaikovsky (the late symphonies) are all in there i think. Stravinsky would have agreed w/ the Russians.

2 other relevant sources of influence:
1)the russian ballet tradition. long list of obscure russian ballet composers who stravinsky would have known all about.
2) stravinsky lived in switzerland from 1910. he would have been exposed to the changes in art and music out of paris. i would guess these were important. sorry this is vague but i feel it is important.

Radical Romantic music and impressionist music.

People such as Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, Debussy and Ravel all had quite a bit of dissonance in their music, even though they didn't abandon the sense of tonality like Stravinsky did.