It is the last Wednesday in the month today, so I was expecting to find a puzzle by Crosophile this morning. Instead, it is Alchemi who has provided today’s offering, so there has to be a reason for it – at the Indy, these scheduling anomalies always happen for a reason!
First things first, I have reproduced the clues in my blog today, following a (rather pointed) remark last week. I understand that it helps to have the clues on the screen, and I will try to retype them in future, but I do have to work within time constraints and cannot promise to do so every week, even if other bloggers can. In any case, the latest Indy puzzle is always available on the website and can be referred to on the day of publication of a mid-week blog.
A quick perusal of the grid reveals 30 as the gateway clue, and 1A indicates that we are probably marking the 100th anniversary of something. It took me a long time to solve 30, and in fact, I knew nothing about the historical incident in question, but I managed to solve all the clues to my satisfaction, and deriving copious amounts of pleasure in the process, before referring to Google to confirm the incident revealed by the theme entries.
In a nutshell, Stravinsky’s (entry at 12) Rite of Spring (or Le Sacre du Printemps) (30) was premiered exactly 100 years ago today on 29 May 1913 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées (14/27) in Paris. It had been commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev (2) for the 1913 Paris season of Ballets Russes. The avant-garde nature of the music and Vaslav Nijinsky (20)’s choreography caused a near-riot in the audience (1A), with rowdy elements (18) in the audience allegedly attacking one another. So now I know!
This was exactly the kind of puzzle I want to tackle as a daily cryptic: challenging but accessible and enormously entertaining – and I’ve broadened my general knowledge to boot!
My favourite clues today were 15 for its humour and 16 for its originality, although there is much to admire about this one, so the list could go on.
Finally, with so much going on in this crossword, it would be easy to overlook the fact that the completed grid is also a pangram.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are highlighted in blue
| Across | |
| 01 – AUDIENCE RIOT | Nude erotica I tore up, seeing what happened at 30’s opening 100 years ago.*(NUDE EROTICA I); “tore up” is anagram indicator; see preamble |
| 09 – MEATIER | More substantial one calling round.A (=one) in MÉTIER (=calling, i.e. profession) |
| 10 – DOLPHIN | Policeman returns, greeting new swimmer.DOLP (PLOD=policeman; “returns” indicates reversal) + HI (=greeting) +N (=new) |
| 11 – DOHA | Trade round one carrier’s reversal.A (=one) + HOD (=carrier, i.e. of bricks); “reversal” indicates full reversal here; the reference is to the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations |
| 12 – STRAVINSKY | Composer of 30, virtuous chap, and artist have a drink in Paris with a broadcaster.ST (=virtuous chap, i.e. saint) + RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician) + VIN (=a drink in France, i.e. wine in French) + SKY (=broadcaster); see preamble |
| 15 – BELCHING | Gaseous eruption a feature in more than half the country.CHIN (=a feature, i.e. facial) in BELG<ium> (=country; “more than half of” means more the half of letters are used) |
| 16 – HAMMER | Tease out Emin twice, we hear, in mad character’s bash.HA-TT-ER (=mad character, i.e. in Lewis Carroll’s Alice books); “tease” and Emin” are homophones (“we hear”), meaning that t + t (“teas”) are removed and replaced by m + m (“Emin twice”) |
| 19 – REVAMP | Rave about 5 makeover.*(RAVE) + MP (=redcap, i.e. the entry at 5; a redcap is also a military policeman) |
| 20 – NIJINSKY | Triple Crown-winning // choreographer of 30.Double definition; Nijinsky was a racehorse that won the Triple Crown in 1970; see preamble |
| 22 – FOODSTUFFS | Leader of fast circle dusts off strange things to eat.F<ast> (“leader of” means first letter only) + O (=circle, i.e. from shape) + *(DUSTS OFF); “strange” is anagram indicator |
| 24 – ZOOS | Moves very quickly, leaving many animal homes.ZOO<m>S (=moves very quickly); “leaving many (=M, for a thousand)” means letter “m” is dropped |
| 29 – ANTSIER | Increasingly fidgety trainees collapse when short of energy.*(TRAIN<e>ES); “when short of energy (=E)” means a letter “e” is dropped |
| 30 – RITE OF SPRING | Sanctimonious fellow taking note after wild Forties dance and music.*(FORTIES) + [N (=note) in PRIG (=sanctimonious fellow)]; “wild” is anagram indicator; this is the gateway clue to the puzzle, see preamble |
| Down | |
| 01 – ARMED | Dream about being brachiate?*(DREAM); “about” is anagram indicator; brachiate means having arms, in zoology |
| 02 – DIAGHILEV | Hag-devil I tortured as commissioner of 30.*(HAG-DEVIL I); “tortured” is anagram indicator; see preamble |
| 03 – EMIT | In parliament I measure up issue.Reversed (“up”) and hidden (“in”) in “parliamenT I MEasure” |
| 04 – CURATING | Texted goodbye to sailor making an exhibition.CU (=texted goodbye, i.e. See you in an SMS) + RATING (=sailor) |
| 05 – REDCAP | Gather around Washington to find goldfinch.DC (=Washington, i.e. in US geography) in REAP (=gather) |
| 06 – OWL | Carol’s cattle shed essential for bird.<l>OWL<y> (=Carol’s cattle shed; from Once in Royal David’s City, Stood a lowly cattle shed; “essential” means central letters only are used |
| 07 – WHYS | Reasons to sound knowledgeable.Homophone (“to sound”) of “wise” |
| 08 – ANDY GRAY | Sacked pundit with gross article in 7, reportedly.AND (=with) + [GR (=gross) + A (=article) in Y Y (homophone – “reportedly” of “whys”); the reference is to Sky sports pundit Andy Gray, sacked in 2011 following multiple allegations of sexism |
| 13 – ITALIC | “Visit Alice Springs” somewhat this.Hidden (“somewhat”) in “visIT ALICe”; the word “this” is written in italics |
| 14/27 – CHAMPS ELYSÉES | Winners see spots in the theatre of 30. CHAMPS (=winners) + ELY (=see, i.e. bishopric) + SEES (=spots); see preamble |
| 15 – BORN FREE | Soldier oddly missing uniform in insect film.[OR (=soldier, i.e. Other Ranks) + <u>N<i>F<o>R<m> (“oddly missing” means odd letters are dropped] in BEE (=insect); the reference is to the 1966 film about Joy and George Adamson |
| 17 – MUSSOLINI | Setter half-deadened taking in one defeat turned over ruler.[I (=one) + LOSS (=defeat)] in [I (=setter, i.e. Alchemi) + NUM<bed> (=deadened; “half-” means half of letters only are used); “turned over” indicates full reversal here |
| 18 – RIFFRAFF | Rubbish beginning provided French pair of aficionados with following allegedly involved in 1a.R<ubbish> (“beginning” means first letter only) + IF (=provided) + FR (=French) + AF<icionados> (“pair of “ means first two letters only) + F (=following); see preamble |
| 21 – PURSUE | Newspaper almost stops innocent hunt.SU<n> (=newspaper; “almost” means last letter dropped) in PURE (=innocent) |
| 23 – ORYX | Overhead railway supported by unknown African native.O<ver> (“head” means first letter only) + RY (=railway) + X (=unknown, e.g. in algebra) |
| 25 – SCRAG | Throttle credit during decline.CR (=credit) in SAG (=decline); to scrag is to throttle, wring the neck of |
| 26 – Q-TIP | Front of the line heard to be employed cleaning small orifices.Homophone (“sound”) of “queue tip” (=front of the line) |
| 28 – ELI | Possibly sanctified bone left by Roman Catholic priest.<r>ELI<c> (=possibly sanctified bone); “left by Roman Catholic” means the letters RC are dropped |
A mixed reaction to this. Being well aware of the centenary celebrated today I got the gateway clue and its dependent entries straight away. But then I struggled with a few of the others and having got them needed the blog to understand the parsing, particularly 16ac.
But it was all good stuff. Thanks, Alchemi and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks for the excellent blog, RatkojaRiku. I thought this was a clever and amusing crossword – thanks Alchemi.
For a while I thought that HAMMER was an (indirect) anagram of “hare” around Tracey Emin’s Ms. That was a very nice clue. I also like the way “see” was used (as usual) for “ely” and was then followed by “spots” for “sees” in CHAMPS ELYSEES.
I hope ANDY GRAY sees the funny side when he settles down to solve this.
I did wonder why Crosophile did last Sunday’s Indy with his slot comming up this week.
RR I use http://www.crosswords.drurys.org/ for the blogs these days as PeeDee has got a way to read the clues and enter them for us bloggers in a hurry. Doesn’t help you parse the clues however!
Thanks RR and Alchemi.
It’s funny, I scanned the clues quickly, saw the 100 year anniversary reference and put the gateway clue in straight away from the enumeration. Although I’m no expert on classical music, I did know the story about RITE OF SPRING, so the themed clues weren’t too tricky.
Any crossword that has ANDY GRAY and STRAVINSKY intersecting gets my vote. Thanks to Alchemi.
And RR, I appreciate that not all bloggers have as much time as they would like to produce the blog. Having the clues is nice, but as you say, the online version is always available if people want to check something.
After yesterday’s Bowie theme I found this theme much harder but I got there in the end.
My only quibble is the clue for DOHA. The wordplay could also lead to DOHI, and the reference to the WTO talks in Doha isn’t exactly a gimme.
Well, The Rite of Spring is one of my favourite pieces (going to a concert performance tomorrow) so as soon as I read 1ac I got the theme. Couldn’t remember how to spell Diaghilev, though, and had to look him up. 11ac, guessed the answer from the wordplay but didn’t know what it meant. 16ac guessed the answer from the definition but couldn’t parse it.
So, we had Wagner last week. Verdi bicentenary coming up in October, and Britten centenary in November. And that is also the fiftieth anniversary of the JFK assassination and the next day is 50 years of Doctor Who. All of which should be fun.
Somehow must have missed the Witold Lutoslawski centenary back in January
Thanks very much indeed to RR for the blog, particularly for enjoying being introduced to the story – since that was precisely my situation when I set it. I detest ballet and am only familiar with Stravinsky through the passage of the Firebird Suite which Yes used as an extended intro to the set opener of “Siberian Khatru” at their gigs in the early 70s.
But I was looking for inspiration to start a puzzle and looked through a list of centenaries, and this item caught my eye. I reckoned Diaghilev, Stravinsky and Nijinsky were well-enough known for it to be interesting that they had collaborated on this, and the events of the evening and its subsequent resonances meant that it was an event almost as significant as Bob Dylan’s appearance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. If I found it interesting, I reckoned there was a good chance that a fair number of others who would otherwise balk at a puzzle dedicated to old music which I personally find tedious would too. I realised it would be a bit of a write-in for those like Dormouse who love the thing, but I hoped to entertain them with the rest of it.
Thanks to muffyword for liking “see” as an indication for one particle and SEES as the immediately following particle, which is my favourite bit of wordplay, though my favourite whole clues are 6d and 8d, with 16a a close third.
I admire your dedication – there is no way you’d get me typing in all the clues. My current technique is chomp up the .jpz file you get from Crossword Solver using some regular expressions, but I think there are some web sites that can automate the whole thing for you.
I found this a struggle, as I knew quite literally nothing about the Rite of Spring, so getting each themed clue gave no assistance whatsoever with the next. Owl was completely lost on me (seriously, I’m expected to remember the words of Christmas Carols – as a self-respecting atheist, I normally walk out of the room as soon as I hear one). I only know the term “triple crown” from Rugby Union, so 20 was a mystery. Now I understand it, 16 was a very good clue, but it baffled me completely. I’m also not keen on anagrams for words you don’t know – I had to wait until I got all the crossing letters before I could guess at DIAGHILEV.
Many thanks RatkojaRiku & Alchemi both for an excellent puzzle and also for dropping by.
I do like ballet but I’ve never seen The Rite of Spring nor had I previously heard of the Audience Riot.
Fascinating stuff!
After yesterday with all that David Bowie stuff you can’t say the Indy doesn’t cater for all tastes.
Even if it does have to keep mentioning football (8dn).
Good crossword, with some nice clues. Things like Overhead = o always grate, though, but it was clever misdirection to have ‘overhead railway’ and not EL.
Thanks to NeilH for once again labouring his personal views. One would almost think that, as well as being an atheist, he is … surely not … anti-monarchist as well. It is so boring reading these repeated irrelevant, self-serving and self-congratulatory announcements by this blogger.