Requiem Canticles

Extract

As its title implies, Stravinsky's latest work is by no means comprehensive in its choice of texts from the Mass for the Dead, and clearly shows an idiosyncratic and personal attitude. Of the seven main sections of the Mass as set by, say, Verdi, Stravinsky taps only three, the Introit, Dies Irae and Responsory (Libera Me), extracting from them six short vocal movements which are symmetrically framed and divided by three sections for the orchestra. Significantly, four of these settings use the Dies Irae text, a thirteenth-century Latin hymn whose persistently dramatic and memorable poetic imagery thus dominates the canticles and produces the groundplan: Prelude—Exaudi. Dies Irae. Tuba Mirum—Interlude—Rex Tremendae. Lacrimosa. Libera Me—Postlude. It will be seen that there is no use made of the Requiem Aeternam sections which colour most settings, and the impression is that the cautionary aspects of the Mass have cast their aura over the concept of the work as a whole. While providing suitable material for an essay in dramatic ritual, this choice also presents something of the composer's personal attitude to life and the hereafter.