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From the ritual of human sacrifice to the prayer of the Psalms, from the peak of brutality and cruelty to the peak of spiritual ascension.
Stravinsky begins his musical journey with Barbarization (The Rite of Spring) and after a huge musical evolutionary process in which he takes musical materials from periods and styles of a very broad spectrum in music: starting with Baroque (Pulcinella), ending with Jazz (Soldier’s Story) and reaching the last stage of his life for liturgy.
Although the “Symphony of Psalms” is not the last piece written by Stravinsky, it can be seen as closing the circle opened by “The Rite of Spring” in the musical and spiritual aspect.
“The Rite of Spring” is one of the greatest and most provocative works ever written and despite being Stravinsky’s earliest work, it can be seen to a large extent as a certain peak in his work as it has originality, energy and strength and a formal perfection that serves its spiritual purpose.
The ballet describes the custom of primitive tribes to offer a human sacrifice – a young maiden in this case – so that the god of spring will reward them with kindness. The world presented by the “worship” is a primitive, cruel world, so different from the spiritual, aesthetic and human world expressed by classical music up to his time.
Stravinsky is a link in a chain of Slavophile composers who deliberately avoid the influences of the dominant German school of the 18th and 19th centuries and seek their inspiration in Russian sources: folklore and liturgy. The process of penetration into the past was started by Glinka, Borodin and Mussorgsky, who returned to the intricacies of Russian history and wrote in their works about figures from the past such as “Prince Igor” and “Boris Godunov”. However, Stravinsky goes further than them both in the dimension of time and in the abstraction of returning to the sources. He actually reaches the end of the road! to the primitive customs of pre-culture.
The situation he paints in “Worship” is, according to him, “pictures from primitive Russia”. These images constitute a primitive religious experience – the spoken word has no part in it and hence the musical medium most suitable for it is the language of the instrument. In this kind of “liturgical” there are no singers or a choir!
Despite Stravinsky’s declaration that the work is national, it has no Russian musical elements and the listener’s feeling is not that of participating in a unique Russian national experience (as for example in Rachmaninov’s works) but of sharing in a universal primitive event that embraces nations and cultures and could have happened anywhere on earth.
“The Rite of Spring” is the first work in the history of classical music that deals with anxiety, barbarism. In order to achieve this goal, Stravinsky uses the musical materials at his disposal in a new and powerful way that will have a huge impact on the development of modern music.
Orchestration
The orchestra he uses is very large, as is customary in post-romantic music (for example Mahler and Strauss), however the sound he produces from it is different and suits his needs: the duinant effect is that of the percussion and even the bows in the orchestra are used for this purpose, starting with the chord known in ” The Dance of the Elves”, which repeats itself with heavy blows 32 times in a row 1
Harmony
This dissonant chord is actually a value in itself, it does not constitute a tension level prior to the release – as is common in tonal music, but is repeated and appropriate for us in the micelol and not only because of its dissonance.
Rhythm
Due to the unequal emphasis of the beats which creates a new rhythmic effect of a sort of momentary (shock) and unexpected shocks.
Development
Not by an organic process of theme development, as is customary in classical music from the German school. The polyphony that is created does not have contrapuntal properties but is similar to pieces of music played in different corners without any connection between them.
Form
In fact, the entire work can be seen as a prelude to the “dance of sacrifice” which is actually the spiritual goal of the Piece.
Starting with the well-known solo of the bassoon, which is the most melodic in the work and therefore also perhaps the most human in the work, up to its spiritual goal – the human sacrifice, so in this dance all the elements reach their peak.
This dance is the busiest – according to the order of the components rhythmically, polyphonically, instrumentally and dynamically. Because intoxication and ecstasy are a necessary condition for the performance of the sacrifice.
In the “Symphony of Psalms” you can see the symmetrical counterpart to the “Spring Worship”. There is a reverse process in it: from the Christian to the human God. “Symphony of Psalms” is Stravinsky’s first American work, after two turbulent periods in his life – one as a Russian nationalist, the other as a French citizen (he received his French citizenship in 1934 and his American citizenship in 1945)
It was completed in 1940, for the jubilee celebrations of the Boston Orchestra, although the desire to write a liturgical work was awakened while he was in exile in Paris, at a time when he was involved in the life of the Russian Church in that city. The “Symphony of Psalms”, as the “Rite of Spring” also returns to the intricacies of the past. Stravinsky wanted to write a monotheistic piece and a return to the past.
The end of the road, the examination of reaching the source of what can be defined as monotheism, the turning point from paganism to culture. Stravinsky, in his search for liturgical material, does not return to early Christianity but to Judaism, which is the mother of monotheism. However, just as in the “Spring Worship” he composed a work that is universal in content, so also in the “Psalms Symphony”. The hymns that Stravinsky chooses (chapter 9 verses 13-14 and chapter KJ in its entirety) are universal in their meaning. Furthermore, Stravinsky does not use the original text (as Bernstein would do after him in his work “Chichester Hymns”) but the Latin text, in the Vulgate. And so not only is it not unique to the Jewish source, but also in terms of Christianity it is not identified with any current: Catholic or Protestant (Brahms, for example, used psalms in the German language in the “German Requiem”) but expresses a religious experience shared by all.
If in “The Rite of Spring” the movement in the work was all in the direction of creative ecstasy, which is the goal of the work, then in “Symphony of Psalms” the movement of the music in the work is from creativity to silence in the exaltation of the soul.
The creativity in the work is expressed by the orchestra (remnants of “The Rite of Spring”), the transcendence of the soul is expressed by the human voice (which is not found at all in “The Rite of Spring”)
Orchestration
The orchestra used by Stravinsky in the “Symphony of Psalms” is large, but conspicuously without violins, violas and clarinets, which are “instruments of the soul” instruments with qualities associated with warmth and emotionality. On the other hand, he often uses flutes, pipes and metal wind instruments that create a sharp sound. He also makes use of two pianos which he uses as percussion instruments.
The resulting sonic aesthetic is dry and consciously rejects any melodic, romantic, emotional note. In addition to the orchestra, he uses a large mixed choir which will bring us to the climax of the work.
Harmony
The opening is typical Stravinsky with a short and emphasized chord that repeats itself in several places. In the first chapter – a chord in the “Dance of the Elves” (Rhythmus), with a transparent texture and motors – elements drawn from the “Rite of Spring” and which symbolize creativity, kestasi.
Melody
From the opening of the orchestra, the choir rises in a conservative canto firmus singing that develops slowly. Towards a multi-vocal record.
Even in writing for the choir, Stravinsky creates new values. He does use words, but neutralizes them. The neutralization of the word was done first by the actual use of the Latin language which today is not understood and which has phonetic features that create a certain monotony.
Latin is not a language rich in sounds or rhythms and the music of the text is in the style of the Gregorian chants – a narrow range, modality and right intervals, whose aim is not to arouse the emotions, but to create a suitable atmosphere for meditation. Here there is a complete reversal of the “Rite of Spring” since here you can see in the entire work a prelude to the “Hallelujah” song by the a cappella choir that ends it.
The direction from creativity to the transcendence of the soul is expressed in the transition from the instrument to the voice and the gradual weakening of the rhythmic energies and the short, motor motifs until the heavenly end of the Piece.