Threni (Stravinsky)

Last updated

Threni
id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae
Cantata by Igor Stravinsky
Scuola Grande di San Rocco (Venice) - Il Salone Maggiore.jpg
The hall at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, where the piece was premiered
TextVerses from Book of Lamentations
LanguageLatin
Performed23 September 1958 (1958-09-23): Venice Biennale
Published1958
Recorded5 January 1959 (1959-01-05)–6 January 1959 (1959-01-06) The Schola Cantorum (Hugh Ross, chorus master); Columbia Symphony Orchestra Igor Stravinsky, cond. (LP, 1 disc, 33⅓ rpm 12 in., monaural. Columbia Masterworks ML 5383)
Movements3
Scoring
  • soloists
  • choir
  • orchestra

Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, usually referred to simply as Threni, is a musical setting by Igor Stravinsky of verses from the Book of Lamentations in the Latin of the Vulgate, for solo singers, chorus and orchestra. It is Stravinsky's first and longest completely dodecaphonic work, [1] but is not often performed. It has been called "austere" [2] but also a "culminating point" in his career, "important both spiritually and stylistically" and "the most ambitious and structurally the most complex" of all his religious compositions, [3] and even "among Stravinsky's greatest works". [4]

Contents

Stravinsky composed Threni in 1957–58 for the Venice Biennale, and it was first performed there in September 1958. A performance in Paris two months later was a disaster, attributed to inadequate performers and insufficient rehearsals. It led to mutual recriminations between Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, and Robert Craft. Threni was first published in 1958 and first recorded in 1959, conducted by the composer.

As Threni was intended for concert rather than liturgical use, Stravinsky chose the text freely from the early chapters of the Book of Lamentations. It has three movements, a large central movement surrounded by two much shorter ones. Ernst Krenek composed a setting of the Lamentations in 1942, which Stravinsky acknowledged might have influenced him. He considered it less likely that works by Renaissance composers, including Tallis, Byrd and Palestrina, had influenced him, although he had studied such music.

History

Stravinsky composed Threni between the summer of 1957 and the spring of 1958, [1] beginning it on 29 August 1957 at the piano of the nightclub in the hotel where he was staying in Venice, [5] and completing it before 27 March 1958. [6] It was first performed on 23 September 1958 in the hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. The composer conducted soloists Ursula Zollenkopf, Jeanne Deroubaix, Hugues Cuénod, Richard Robinson, Charles Scharbach, and Robert Oliver, the NDR Chor, and the NDR Sinfonieorchester. [7] He dedicated the performance to Alessandro Piovesan, director of the Venice Biennale, who had recently died. [8]

The first Paris performance, on 14 November 1958, was disastrous. According to Stephen Walsh, Boulez failed to obtain adequate performers, and those he could obtain broke down several times. The audience response was polite at first, but when Stravinsky refused to return and take a bow, it gradually descended into jeers. Stravinsky said he would never conduct in Paris again. [9] He felt humiliated by what he called a "scandalous concert", writing in his diary immediately after the performance that it was the "unhappiest concert of my life" and blaming Boulez for it. [10] Craft adds that Boulez had promised to rehearse Threni, but failed to do so. Stravinsky nevertheless had a share in the blame for not canceling the concert despite the pleas of family and friends, including his wife and Nadia Boulanger. [11] Conceding that the performance was a "catastrophe", Boulez nevertheless insisted that he had in fact participated in the piano rehearsals, together with Stravinsky, whom he had tried in vain to persuade to be firmer with the singers. He concluded that Stravinsky "was not a good conductor; he was a terribly lousy conductor", and the singers' problems were compounded because "the orchestra had been ill-prepared by Craft". While agreeing that the singers were "absolutely awful", Boulez protested they had been chosen not by himself, but by an agent in charge of the Aix-en-Provence festival. [12]

Stravinsky himself conducted the first recording in January 1959 with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. This recording has been reissued several times since, and is part of Sony's 2007 release of Stravinsky's works. [13]

Boosey & Hawkes first published Threni in 1958. Conducting from this score is difficult because of a shortage of bar lines. [14] Asked by Craft about this, Stravinsky said, "The voices are not always in rhythmic unison. Therefore, any bar lines would cut at least one line arbitrarily". He recommended that the conductor "merely count the music out as he counts out a motet by Josquin". [15] But a revised edition, with several changes to the barring as well as some corrections, was issued in 1965. [14]

Stravinsky had already used twelve-tone technique earlier in the 1950s, in Canticum Sacrum (1955) and in Agon (1957). But neither of these is exclusively dodecaphonic, as Threni is. [16]

Orchestration

Threni is scored for one soprano, one contralto, two tenor and two bass soloists, chorus and an orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets (second doubling alto clarinet in F), bass clarinet, contrabass sarrusophone, flugelhorn, 4 horns, 3 trombones (1 alto, 1 tenor, 1 bass), tuba, timpani, tamtam, harp, celesta, piano and strings. [8] (The flugelhorn is actually listed as "bugle" by the publisher, [7] though in the "orchestration" list at the head of the score the specification is for "Contralto Bugle in B♭ (Fluegelhorn)", and in the score itself, where all the other instruments are named in Italian, it is called in French and German "Bugle C-alto (Flügelhorn)". However, the part is played on the flugelhorn. [2] [17] The French word for flugelhorn is bugle à pistons, and the Italian is flicorno.)

General attributes

Text

Stravinsky wrote Threni for the Venice Biennale, not for liturgical use, and he chose the words himself to suit his musical purposes. Kuster's analysis includes the complete text. [16] It includes the Hebrew letters that begin the verses in some chapters of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. These are always set for chorus and have been likened to "a series of illuminated initials embellishing a manuscript". [8]

Musical style

Stravinsky called his treatment of pitch in Threni "a kind of 'triadic atonality'", contrasting this with his ballet scores' "tonality repetition". [18] Threni makes extensive use of canons. It also uses pitchless chanting in the choir – the first time Stravinsky did this. [8]

The score calls for a large orchestra, but never uses it in tutti, sticking to small groups of instruments at a time. [17]

The principal 12-tone row for Threni is D♯-G♯-G♮-A♯-C♯-A♮-D♮-B♮-E♮-C♮-F♮-F♯. Stravinsky makes considerable use of the tonal – even diatonic – possibilities of this row. [8] [17] But he does not really use twelve-tone technique in depth, relying on free transposition and combination, selection, and repetition, and the music's character is not very different from that of his earlier works: the beginning of "Sensus spei", for example (especially the many repeated notes in the alto solo, and the repeated response from the chorus), recalls Renard and Les noces , and the two short passages for strings and chorus near the beginning setting the Hebrew letters caph and res are reminiscent of places in Orpheus (1948). [19]

Influences

The work most likely to have influenced Stravinsky's Threni is the Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae, opus 93, by Ernst Krenek, for 8-part unaccompanied choir, composed in 1942 [20] but only published in 1957 (the year before Threni). [21] Stravinsky said he liked this work, that he had read a treatise by Krenek on twelve-tone counterpoint, and that "Perhaps my own Threni shows contact with [Krenek's] Lamentations." [22] Stravinsky's decision to rely on a tactus beat rather than on bar lines in the "Querimonia" section is one instance. [19]

Edgar Murray finds Threni less expressive than the Krenek, and more like Thomas Tallis's Lamentationes. [17] But Stravinsky, while acknowledging that he had studied Tallis's setting and works by William Byrd and Palestrina, did not believe that they had influenced his piece. [15]

Other resemblances have been observed – for example, the male-quartet episode in the "Querimonia" was probably suggested by Carlo Gesualdo's Aestimus sum – though such things may be better characterized as "identifications" than "influences". [19]

The passage beginning at bars 231 ("NUN: Scrutemur vias nostras") presents a rhythmic texture new to Stravinsky, which strongly resembles the multilayered rhythms of Stockhausen's Zeitmaße , which Craft was rehearsing in Stravinsky's home at the time of composition (16 January to 14 February 1958). Stravinsky attended not only these rehearsals but also the recording sessions for Zeitmaße, following the score with great interest. [23] The published score of Threni is also the first of Stravinsky's works to adopt the device of replacing the staves in silent measures with white space, a feature frequently found in Stravinsky's manuscripts as early as 1916, but only in print from this point onward. This feature is also in Stockhausen's score. [24]

The series in Boulez's Structures Ia is found in the sketches for Threni, but differs so fundamentally from the row Stravinsky actually used that its relevance to Threni is unclear. [25]

Movements

Threni has three movements, corresponding to the three chapters of the Lamentations of Jeremiah from which the texts used in the work are taken. The following is a summary. A detailed musical analysis and the complete Latin text, side by side with the English of the King James version of the Bible, are available in Andrew Kuster's thesis. [16]

1. De Elegia Prima

After a short orchestral introduction, the movement begins with the words "Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae" ("Here begins the lamentation of the prophet Jeremiah"), after which the music sets Lamentations chapter 1, verses 1, 2 (first part), 5 (first part), 11 (last part) and 20. A Hebrew letter precedes each verse used (aleph, beth, he, caph, resh). [16]

2. De Elegia Tertia

This movement uses text from chapter 3 of Lamentations, with a Hebrew letter preceding each block of three verses. It is much longer than the other two movements combined, and is divided into three sections: [16]

Querimonia
(complaint) uses verses 1–6 and 16–21 (Hebrew letters: aleph, beth, vav, zayin).
Sensus spei
(sense of hope) uses verses 22–27, 34–36, 40–45 and 49–57 (Hebrew letters: heth, teth, lamed, nun, samekh, ayin, tsade, qoph).
Solacium
(solace) uses verses 58–64 (Hebrew letters: resh, shin, tav).

3. De Elegia Quinta

This is by far the shortest movement. It begins with the words "Oratio Jeremiae Prophetae" ("prayer of the prophet Jeremiah"), after which the music sets Lamentations chapter 5, verses 1, 19 and 21. No Hebrew letters are associated with this text. [16]

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flugelhorn</span> Brass musical instrument

The flugelhorn, also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Stravinsky</span> Russian composer (1882–1971)

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship and United States citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music.

An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the ancohemitonic symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory, this symmetrical scale is commonly called the octatonic scale, although there are a total of 43 enharmonically non-equivalent, transpositionally non-equivalent eight-note sets.

The alto clarinet is a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family. It is a transposing instrument pitched in the key of E♭, though instruments in F have been made. In size it lies between the soprano clarinet and the bass clarinet. It bears a greater resemblance to the bass clarinet in that it typically has a straight body, but a curved neck and bell made of metal. All-metal alto clarinets also exist. In appearance it strongly resembles the basset horn, but usually differs in three respects: it is pitched a whole step lower, it lacks an extended lower range, and it has a wider bore than many basset horns.

<i>Symphony of Psalms</i> Choral symphony composed by Igor Stravinsky

The Symphony of Psalms is a choral symphony in three movements composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The symphony derives its name from the use of Psalm texts in the choral parts.

The Wedding, or Svadebka (Russian: Свадебка), is a Russian-language ballet-cantata by Igor Stravinsky scored unusually for four vocal soloists, chorus, percussion and four pianos. Dedicating the work to impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer described it in French as "choreographed Russian scenes with singing and music" [sic], and it remains known by its French name of Les noces despite being Russian.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet have been set by various composers.

<i>Renard</i> (Stravinsky)

Renard: histoire burlesque chantée et jouée, or The Fox: burlesque tale sung and played, is a chamber opera-ballet for four male voices and 16 instrumentalists written in 1916 by Igor Stravinsky. Its original Russian text, by the composer, derives from a folk tale as collected by Alexander Afanasyev — but the piece has no name in Russian, being titled generically instead as Байка про лису, петуха, кота да барана, or Tale of the Fox, the Cock, the Cat and the Ram. The premiere took place in a French translation in Paris on 18 May 1922. Duration: 16–17 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violin Concerto (Stravinsky)</span>

Igor Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D is a neoclassical violin concerto in four movements, composed in the summer of 1931 and premiered on October 23, 1931. It lasts approximately twenty minutes.

Elegy for J.F.K. is a piece of vocal music composed by the Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky in 1964, commemorating the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethany Beardslee</span> American opera soprano

Bethany Beardslee is an American soprano and grandmother to ex-model Ella Winham. She is particularly noted for her collaborations with major 20th-century composers, such as Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Boulez, George Perle, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and her performances of great contemporary classical music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern. Her legacy amongst mid-century composers was as a "composer's singer"—for her commitment to the highest art of new music. Milton Babbitt said of her "She manages to learn music no one else in the world can. She can work, work, work." In a 1961 interview for Newsweek, Beardslee flaunted her unflinching repertoire and disdain for commercialism: "I don't think in terms of the public... Music is for the musicians. If the public wants to come along and study it, fine. I don't go and try to tell a scientist his business because I don't know anything about it. Music is just the same way. Music is not entertainment."

<i>The Flood</i> (Stravinsky) 1962 musical stage production by Igor Stravinsky

The Flood: A musical play (1962) is a short biblical drama by Igor Stravinsky on the story of Noah and the flood, originally conceived as a work for television. It contains singing, spoken dialogue, and ballet sequences. It is in Stravinsky's late, serial style.

<i>Ebony Concerto</i> (Stravinsky)

Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto in 1945 for the Woody Herman band known as the First Herd. It is one in a series of compositions commissioned by the bandleader/clarinetist featuring solo clarinet, and the score is dedicated to him. It was first performed on March 25, 1946 in Carnegie Hall in New York City, by Woody Herman's Band, conducted by Walter Hendl.

The Symphony in E-flat, Op. 1, is the first published work composed by Igor Stravinsky during his apprenticeship with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It is also his first composition for orchestra. Of classical structure, it is broadly influenced by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Wagner. It was composed in 1905–1907 and revised in 1913. It lasts for about forty minutes.

"Epitaphium" is a short chamber-music composition by Igor Stravinsky, for flute, clarinet, and harp. The score was composed in 1959 and is inscribed in German, "Für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg". A performance last for less than two minutes.

Scherzo fantastique, op. 3, composed in 1908, is the second purely orchestral work by Igor Stravinsky. Despite the composer's later description of the work as "a piece of 'pure', symphonic music", the work was inspired by Maurice Maeterlinck's 1901 essay "La Vie des Abeilles", as is made clear in a letter of 18 June 1907 from the composer to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. Ten years later, Léo Staats adapted it as a ballet for the Opéra Garnier, with the title Les Abeilles, which was objected to by Maeterlinck.

<i>Movements for Piano and Orchestra</i> 1959 composition by Igor Stravinsky

Movements is a 1959 five-movement work for piano and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky lasting about ten minutes. It was written during his serial period and shows his dedication to that idiom as well as the influence of Anton Webern.

<i>A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer</i>

A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer is a cantata for alto and tenor singers, a narrator, chorus, and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky, composed in 1960–61. It belongs to the composer’s serial period, and lasts a little over a quarter of an hour in performance.

Jeanne Deroubaix is a Belgian mezzo-soprano, focused on concert performances of early music and contemporary music. She premiered music by Igor Stravinsky and collaborated with Pierre Boulez, first performing and recording his Le marteau sans maître.

Ursula Zollenkopf is a German classical contralto singer. A member of the NDR Chor based in Hamburg, she appeared as a soloist in opera and concert, including premieres of contemporary music such as Stravinsky's Threni and Schoenberg's Moses und Aron.

References

  1. 1 2 David H. Smyth, "Stravinsky as Serialist: The Sketches for Threni", Music Theory Spectrum 22, no. 2 (Autumn 2000): 205–224.
  2. 1 2 David Schiff, "Stravinsky: Finding Religion in the Theater, Drama in the Church", The New York Times (June 2, 2002) (Accessed 2 January 2011).
  3. ↑ Roman Vlad, Stravinsky, third edition, translated from the Italian by Frederick Fuller (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978): 208. ISBN   0-19-315444-7 (cloth); ISBN   0-19-315445-5 (pbk).
  4. ↑ Robert Craft, "Threni: The Lamentations of Jeremiah", booklet accompanying Stravinsky Vol. VI, Koch KIC-CD-7514 (New York: Koch International Classics, 2002): [12–17], citation on p. [16].
  5. ↑ Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978): 443.
  6. ↑ Igor Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence, vol. 2, edited and with commentaries by Robert Craft (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984): 398.
  7. 1 2 Boosey & Hawkes. "Igor Stravinsky – Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae" . Retrieved 2011-01-03.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Eric Walter White, Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works , second edition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979): 497ff. Accessed 25 March 2011.
  9. ↑ Stephen Walsh, Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008): 386–87. ISBN   978-0-520-25615-6. (Accessed 24 October 2011).
  10. ↑ Igor Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence, vol. 2, edited and with commentaries by Robert Craft (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984): 353.
  11. ↑ Robert Craft, An Improbable Life: Memoirs (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002): 208. ISBN   0-8265-1381-6.
  12. ↑ Joan Peyser, To Boulez and Beyond: Music in Europe Since the Rite of Spring, revised edition, with an introduction by Charles Wuorinen (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2008): 223. ISBN   978-0-8108-5877-0.
  13. ↑ Works of Igor Stravinsky. 22-CD set. Sony Classical 88697103112. New York: Sony BMG Music Entertainment, 2007. Disc 21, "Sacred Works vol. 2" 88697103112-21.
  14. 1 2 Claudio Spies, "Igor Stravinsky's Threni: Conducting Details"" (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, n.d.) (Accessed 24 February 2021).
  15. 1 2 Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky in Conversation with Robert Craft (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd, 1962): 35–36.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Andrew Kuster, "Threni: Large-Scale Musical-Poetical and Formal Row Employment with Objects", chapter 6 of "Stravinsky's Topology: An Examination of His Twelve-Tone Works through Object-Oriented Analysis of Structural and Poetic-Expressive Relationships with Special Attention to His Choral Works and Threni" D.M.A. diss. (Boulder: University of Colorado, 2000). (Accessed 3 January 2011).
  17. 1 2 3 4 Edgar Murray, "Stravinsky: Threni", The Harvard Crimson (13 January 1960). Accessed 3 January 2011.
  18. ↑ Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Expositions and Developments (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962): 107. ISBN   0-520-04403-7.
  19. 1 2 3 Robert Craft, liner notes to Stravinsky: Threni, id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae (1957–58), Igor Stravinsky Conducting, Columbia Masterworks ML 5383 (New York: Columbia Records, 1959).
  20. ↑ Anon. "Ernst Krenek: Catalogue of Works Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine " (N.p.: Ernst Krenek Institute): Opus 93 (Accessed 2 January 2011).
  21. ↑ Clare Hogan, "'Threni': Stravinsky's 'Debt' to Krenek", Tempo , no. 141 (June 1982): 22–25, 28–29.
  22. ↑ Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, Dialogues (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982): 103. ISBN   0-520-04650-1 (Accessed 6 January 2011).
  23. ↑ Kohl, Jerome (2017). Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zeitmaße. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 129, 131–34.
  24. ↑ Kohl 2017, pp. 31–32.
  25. ↑ Joseph N. Straus, Stravinsky's Late Music. Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis 16 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 33. ISBN   978-0-521-60288-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.