Igor Strawinsky: Canticum Sacrum Ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis

Extract

Among the works Strawinsky has written in his late contrapuntal style, the Canticum Sacrum is the most representative so far. In accordance with the importance of the subject he has chosen, the scope of the music is wide, and the apparatus needed for performance comprises two soloists (tenor and baritone), a mixed chorus (including descant instead of soprano), organ and a large orchestra, though without violins, cellos, clarinets, horns and percussion. These resources are, however, very economically employed. In a short Dedicatio to the city of Venice and its Patron Saint the two soloists are accompanied solely by trombones. The five movements that follow form the Canticum Sacrum proper and are based on texts of the Vulgate, i.e. they are in Latin. They include quotations from the Old and the New Testament, viz. from the gospel of St. Mark, St. John's first Epistle, the Song of Songs and the Psalms. Strawinsky imparts a great variety to his pieces of sacred music, but closely integrates the musical material by divers means of tonality as well as of the serial method of composition with twelve notes.