It is not a symphony in which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the Psalms that I am symphonizing.' --- Igor Stravinsky
Biography
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was born and raised at Oranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland on 5 June 1882 (O.S.) or 17 June (N.S.). His father wanted him to pursue law so he enrolled in the course. The strong attraction to music though took him back to his roots. He composed piano pieces. His musical abilities were further honed through the able guidance of Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the famed Russian Five.
Stravinsky befriended Rimsky-Korsakov's son. He spent a lot of his time composing on his own. At that time he was taking private lessons in harmony and planned to enroll in the Russian Conservatory. Fate decided to step in when he met Rimsky-Korsakov, the head of the Conservatory. Never the one to withhold help to a true artist and seeing the promise the young man showed, Rimsky-Korsakov volunteered to teach Stravinsky himself. Stravinsky, of course, jumped at the rare opportunity.
At the conservatory, Rimsky-Korsakov required his students to perform their works. Stravinsky chose his composition called Fireworks. His music caught the attention and impressed Sergei Diaghilev. He believed Stravinsky would be the ideal person to
compose ballet music for his Russian Ballet. Diaghilev commissioned his three famous works The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring.
When war broke out, Stravinsky and his family left for Switzerland. When the war ended, he realized he was too far from the important music centers in Europe. In 1920, he moved to France.
The French Composer in France
Diaghilev passed away on 19 August 1929 leading to the disbandment of the Russian Ballet. Stravinsky felt disassociated to his native land due to this. He had not step foot in Russia for the past fifteen years since he left in 1914. He managed to become one of the leading musical figures in France though. Besides, Diaghilev's troupe was based in Paris, and most of Stravinsky's works had their premières in Paris.
Despite his popularity in France, he felt unappreciated. He was commissioned to compose only one work called Persephone which was to be presented in France under Ida Rubinstein and her company. The Americans and the Germans showed more interest in his works than French. He received positive reviews on his compositions from the former countries compared to France.
Success in Europe
Stravinsky played the solo part of his composition Capriccio on its first performance at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, on 6 December 1929. It received much acclaim. The demand for his services grew quickly. The next five years saw Stravinsky performing in a number of Europe's key cities.
It was during this time of his where his works met much success and acclaim that he was commissioned by his dear friend Koussevitzky, who became the permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to compose a symphonic work to mark their fiftieth concert season in 1930. He composed the Symphony of Psalms.
Symphony of Psalms
Symphony of Psalms was the product of Stravinsky’s efforts in his bid to attend to his friend Serge Kussevitzsky’s request for a symphony that would honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. Stravinsky’s dramatic works Oedipus Rex and Apollo paved the way for Symphony of Psalms. The former works were similar to his religious works in their splendor and musical composition even though pagan in subject matter.
The dedication to the Boston Orchestra was: "Cette Symphonie composée à la glorie de Dieu...". Stravinsky's faith was in full bloom when he wrote the Symphony of Psalms. This was attested by the fact that he was a regular communicant of the Orthodox Church in 1926.
The Symphony of Psalms was wrenched from the author’s soul. It represented his efforts to explicitly express his faith and desire to pay tribute to God. The resulting effect was a highly dramatic work that evoked man’s inner longings for the everlasting arms of God. The fact that he was a pious believer did not imply that the work should be viewed as a personal confession of faith. Symphony of Psalms is the projection of Stravinsky's own faith which typifies the faith of a devoted congregation. Because of that, Symphony of Psalms never lost its sense of drama.
In the Symphony of Psalms, Stravinsky used three of David's Psalms, in the Latin version of the Vulgate. He presents them in consonance with the spirit exhibited in the Old Testament. Before Christ came and earned salvation for men, man's relation to God, as shown in the sacred Mosaic texts, is incomplete. The grace which comes from God can only be won for the Christians through the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. But even under such circumstances, attaining grace is still possible at certain very special moments.
It is only on such occasions of perfect grace that faith enables to help us get rid of all the problems of existence, to dissolve the dramatic tensions of human life, and to calm the turmoil of the spirit. In the absence of grace, faith is only able to offer us consolation as it grants prayer and invocation, thus giving us deeper awareness on the emotional level where the dramatic tone of alternate struggle and passivity of the Old Testament and the pain and suffering of life are real and common.
Stravinsky wrote the third movement first, which is dated April 27, 1930 where an inscription, `a week after Ascension,' is found. The first movement was finished on August 15th, `Assumption Day in the Roman Church'. The second movement was finished on July 17. Stravinsky attached `a drawing of the Crucifixion' into his sketchbook, and wrote on it the following: `Adveniat regnum tuum'; and in an interview in May 1930 he stated that `the more one separates oneself from the canons of the Christian Church, the further one distances oneself from the truth,' but also `the overflowing of the framework in art testifies to a lack of internal discipline, which weakens the work.'
Form
Stravinsky did not intend to imitate the standard nineteenth century symphony, comprised of four distinct movements. Even before Symphony of Psalms, he was able to produce a special symphonic form for the Symphonies of Wind Instruments whereby several periodic episodes were connected to form a single movement. His wanted the Symphony of Psalms to be an original symphonic work performed on a grandiose scale without adhering to conventions.
He wanted `to create an organic whole without conforming to the various models adopted by custom, but still retaining the periodic order by which the symphony is distinguished from the suite' (Craft, Chronology of a Friendship).
When Stravinsky called his previous work Symphonies of Wind Instruments instead of Symphonies for Wind Instruments, he actually meant to emphasize the initial meaning of the word symphony, which is to bring together various instruments to produce a single. The symphony later pertains to a four-movement work with a particular structure. This is also apparent in his work Symphony in Three Movements.
Symphony of Psalms is actually comprised of three movements, but there is no gap or abrupt change in each movement, which follow one upon the other. He stressed that `it is not a symphony on which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the Psalms that I am symphonizing' which was apparent in the way he treated the voices, like the way he treated the orchestra musically.
Gabriel Paichadze, his publisher, asked him to produce orchestral piece that does not have chorus, `....something popular': but Stravinsky wanted a psalm symphony for a long time which he kept to himself and he insisted on doing just that (Craft, Dialogues).
He wanted the work to present extensive contrapuntal development, and in order to carry out what he had in mind, he chose `a choral and instrumental ensemble in which the two elements should be on an equal footing, neither of them outweighing the other' (Craft, Chronology). For his text, he chose from the Vulgate verses 13 and 14 of Psalm 38, verses 2, 3 and 4 of Psalm 39, and the whole of Psalm 150. He prefaced the score with the instruction that the words should be sung in Latin all the time.
Analysis
Symphony of Psalms first movement is intended to be a Prelude to the Double Fugue of the second movement. It starts with arabesque appregios in the woodwind interspersed with a number of chords of E minor. The strings are then used then enter replaced by the altos.
The three movements which comprise the Symphony of Psalms do not pause between them. Symphony is used to refer to an assembly of musical strands and does not denote any particular form. The fundamental structure of the music is not to be associated with the `sonata form'; the first movement is a Prelude, and the second a Double
Fugue for voices and instruments. The theme of the instrumental Fugue is communicated by the oboe and then demonstrated by the flute. Oboes and flute also play the first development of the Fugue, which sounded like a soft organ.
Contrasting musical motifs pave the way for the eloquence of the third movement. Unlike traditional final movements that are composed during Stravinsky’s time spanning the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Alleluia does not project a sense of triumph that is captured at the beginning of the movement. Instead one gets a feel of relief in the motif, emphasized by a crescendo and followed immediately by decrescendo.
Addendum
What I liked most in my class is tackling the works of the famous composers especially those that I admire. It offers me a glimpse of their lives and what contributed to their greatness. I feel my musical experience has grown during the semester. It made me appreciate music more.
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