Why is symphony of psalms neoclassical

References 1. Mellers, Wilfried Horward. Routh, Francis. The Master Musicians Series: Stravinsky. London: J. Tansman, Alexandre. New York: Putnam, If you don't know it, listen to it here — top tunes; clear, brazen orchestration; and some firebrandish over-ambition, it's all there; and is proof of how much Stravinsky owed to his teacher and mentor, Rimsky-Korsakov.

But this week's piece is one of those later works of Stravinsky's that does strange things with the symphonic form. The Symphony of Psalms is, for me, one of the most deeply moving and genuinely spiritual pieces Stravinsky ever wrote, but to understand why, we need to examine, and quite possibly overturn, some conventional ideas about the music Stravinsky was writing at this period of his life.

The Symphony of Psalms was a commission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in The orchestra wanted something symphonic, and Stravinsky's publisher wanted something popular. Stravinsky gave them both — but not in the way either party could possibly have envisaged. That's how Stravinsky thought of the Psalms he sets in each of the Symphony's three movements, and especially Psalm in the final movement, which is by far the longest of the three, with its vision of a world celebrating God through music.

Stravinsky had apparently already had the idea of composing a piece that would include the psalms in an orchestral context, but he didn't want to follow in anyone's footsteps.

The Psalms are poems of exaltation, but also of anger and judgement, and even of curses. The secret of this minute work's symphonism is its relationship between chorus and orchestra. Stravinsky composed for them so that "the two elements are on an equal footing, neither outweighing the other". He said he wanted "to create an organic whole without conforming to the various models adopted by [symphonic] custom, but still retaining the periodic order by which the symphony is distinguished from the suite.

The music of this period of Stravinsky's life is called neo-classical, which suggests an often ironic or coldly knowing refraction of past forms and manners through the prism of Stravinsky's way of hearing, seeing and imagining.

Translate PDF. In this essay, mainly his achievements on neoclassical approach to the sacred music is discussed. The importance of the work, the re-identification of the terms of symphony and choral work according to Stravinsky and the general analysis of the work in terms of musical elements are the main topics of the study.

Key Words: Symphony of Psalms, Igor Stravinsky, Neoclassical Music, Sacred Music, Choral Music Introduction Stravinsky, as generally known, was a composer who promoted the 20th Century Music in terms of new inventions on understanding the form, orchestration and harmonic intensity in the music.

He was able to invent sounds [timbre], to rethink the familiar dispositions Hopkins, His first approach in music was using the nationalist materials within the form in which he used blocks by juxtaposing each one after another.

However, with his development on music, he gradually headed for neoclassicism. Therefore, as it is common to use that block materials as a nationalistic characters of music in his earlier ballets, after s his tendency of using those materials would be seen as in not a national atmosphere but in a universal standing Burholder, Palisca, His new aim was to use different kinds of relationship to history and historical forms Boucourchliev.

It is possible to see Stravinsky as a composer who was a historical chart of forms. Boucourchliev claims in his book called Stravinsky that, Stravinsky is the only composer who uses the sacral elements in order to create his music and his aesthetic in 20 th Century. After the achievement of the Rite of Spring , he did not write such a piece for a long time which is in the style of the Rite in the manner of intense orchestration. However, later on, Symphony of Wind Instruments and Symphony of Psalms were written which also contain familiar structural elements from the Rite as vertical rhythmic impacts or horizontal figure variable.

After a 13 years receding from Russian-Orthodox Church service, in Roman Catholic Church, Stravinsky regained to his first church in Koussevitzky, who was the music director of Boston Symphony Orchestra, had no any stipulations on the content.

With Slavonic melodies, he employed Latin texts, psalm 39, 40 and from Vulgate Bible Kamien, Although, he first intended to use Slavonic text Oliver, , in order to evoke the feeling of ancient and solemn ritual, he decided to turn in to Latin Kamien, I finally decided on a choral and instrumental ensemble in which the two elements should be on an equal footing, neither of them outweighing the other.

That is because the used text psalm was chosen due to its universality. In addition, in the light of his aesthetic attitude implies a distancing of the object, which means objectivity and non-expressiveness in music, he easily turns his work to open everyone in the universe. The General Features of the Work The term of symphony is not in a usual sense as we know in classical style in four movements; it resembles a baroque cantata form in three movements, prelude-toccata, double fugue and finale Mellers, Thence the formation of his work would also be seen as one of the other neoclassical features.

The orchestration is also unconventional; there is no any violin, viola or clarinet. Besides, timpani, gran casa and harp are involved to the orchestration. Although the concept of the orchestration used is divergent from usual understanding, it is not so interesting for Stravinsky; his one of the main aims was to demolish the romantic orchestration idea.

Likewise, the elimination of the violins, violas, and clarinets from the orchestra, and the absence of the bright, resonant upper strings and the smooth sonority of the clarinets would create an equal prominence to the chorus and the orchestra. Using woodwind and brass has the advantage of using non-vibrated notes, which would also be seen a way to reproduce the timbre of medieval — orthodox choral music. Moreover, the chorus has no women when the work first written, they were displaced by young-boys chorus, as just like in renaissance which can be seen as an orthodox religious idea too.

Before focusing on a general analysis of the piece in terms of musical components, finally, the work consists of three different movements which all are bond each other without interruptions.