Saint Mark's Basilica in the evening

Canticum Sacrum ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis is a 17-minute choral-orchestral piece composed in 1955 by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) in tribute "To the City of Venice, in praise of its Patron Saint, the Blessed Mark, Apostle." The piece is incredibly compact and stylistically varied, ranging from established neoclassical modes to experimental new techniques. The second movement, "Surgo, Aquilo", represents Stravinsky's first movement based entirely on a tone row. Image File history File links Film: Fuji Velvia Lens: 2. ... Image File history File links Film: Fuji Velvia Lens: 2. ... A choir or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. ... The Boston Pops orchestra performing on the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, Massachusetts. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: И́горь Фёдорович Страви́нский Igor Fjodorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-born composer of modern classical music. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venexia) , the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice in Italy. ... In several forms of the church of Christianity, but especially in Roman Catholicism, a patron saint has special affinity for a trade or group. ... Mark the Evangelist (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark, drawing much of his material from Peter. ... Neoclassicism in music was a 20th century development, particularly popular in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers drew inspiration from music of the 18th century, though some of the inspiring canon was drawn as much from the Baroque period as the Classical period - for this reason... In music, a tone row or note row is a permutation, an arrangement or ordering, of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. ...

Though most often abbreviated "Canticum Sacrum", the piece's full name is Canticum Sacrum Ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis, or Canticle to Honor the Name of Saint Mark. A canticle is a hymn (strictly excluding the Psalms) taken from the Bible. ...

Text

Stravinsky selected all of his texts except the opening dedication from the Latin Vulgate. They are presented here in an English translation: The Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. ... Look up translate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• Dedicato: "To the City of Venice, in praise of its Patron Saint, the Blessed Mark, Apostle"
• Part I: “Go into the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15)
• Part II: "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. (Song of Songs 4:16, 5:1)
• Part III, Ad Tres Virtutes Hortationes
  • • Caritas: "And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:5) / "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God." (1 John 4:7)
    • Spes: “They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion” / “I waited patiently for the Lord” (Psalms 125:1, 130:5-6)
    • Fides: "I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted." (Psalms 116:10)
• Part IV, Brevis Motus Cantilena: "Jesus said to him, If you can, all things are possible to him that believes. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:23-24)
• Part V: "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen." (Mark 16:20)

The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospels. ... Song of Solomon is also the title of a novel by Toni Morrison. ... Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. ... (Redirected from 1 John) The First Epistle of John is a book of the Bible New Testament. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. ...

Orchestration

Canticum Sacrum is scored for tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, and an orchestra of 1 flute (which plays only in the second movement), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 3 trumpets in C, bass trumpet in C, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, contrabass trombone, organ, harp, violas, and double basses. Clarinets, horns, violins, and celli are all absent.

Notably, Canticum Sacrum is Stravinsky’s only piece to make use of the organ, an instrument he decidedly disliked. Its use represents one of many tributes to the traditions of Saint Mark's Basilica. San Marco di Venezia, as seen from the Piazza San Marco St Marks Basilica (Italian: Basilica di San Marco in Venezia) is the most famous of the churches of Venice and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. ...

Structure

Canticum Sacrum is in five movements (or sections, since they are all attaca), plus an introductory dedication (which is set apart textually, structurally, and stylistically from the rest of the piece). The work is cyclical and chiastic: the fifth movement is an almost exact retrograde of the first. Movements two and four are also related through their use of solo voice, and the central third movement (by far the longest) has an internal ABA structure. The movements' lengths are 36, 48, 170, 57, and 39 bars respectively (movement five adds three bars to the retrograde for a final amen). The construction is incredibly sophisticated, exhibiting symmetry, proportion, and balance. Movement 3 relates to movements 1 and 5 through their common use of recurring organ versets, and relates to movements 2 and 4 by their common use of dodecaphony. In music, a movement is a large division of a larger composition or musical form. ... Chiastic structure is a literary structure used most notably in the Torah in those passages attributed to the priestly source. ... Square with symmetry group D4 Symmetry is a characteristic of geometrical shapes, equations, and other objects; we say that such an object is symmetric with respect to a given operation if this operation, when applied to the object, does not appear to change it. ... Twelve-tone technique is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg. ...

Several scholars have postulated that Canticum Sacrum bears a strong structural relationship to that of the basilica, the five principle sections of Stravinsky’s piece relating directly to the five domes of Saint Mark’s. Both the central dome of the church, and the central movement of Canticum Sacrum, are the largest and most structurally imposing. Furthermore, it is in this movement which Stravinsky chooses to depict the three Christian virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) perhaps corresponding to the central dome of Saint Mark’s, which depicts the virtues surrounding Christ. Similar comparisons, structural and textual can be made for each of the movements. For example, not only are movements 1 and 5 both quotations from Saint Mark’s Gospel, thus attaching the work firmly to its patron saint and the church, but they also echo the themes of domes one and five which portray the prophets, and the disciples, respectively. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. ... Virtue (Greek αρετη; Latin virtus) is the habitual, well-established, readiness or diposition of mans powers directing them to some goodness of act. ... This page is about the title. ... Prophets may refer to: The Prophets (Neviim), which is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). ... A Disciple (from the Latin discipulus, a pupil) is one who receives instruction from another; a scholar; a learner; especially, a follower who has learned to believe in the truth of the doctrine of his teacher; an adherent in doctrine. ...

History

Stravinsky had long had a special relationship with the city of Venice and the prestigious Venice Biennale International Festival of Contemporary Music. In 1925, he performed his Piano Sonata there and in 1934, conducted his Capriccio with his son as soloist, both as parts of the festival. In 1951, his opera The Rake’s Progress, one of his last neoclassical works, was a dominating feature of the festival. Stravinsky is even interred in Venice on the island of San Michele, as is the man who brought him to international fame with the 1910 commission of L’Oiseau de Feu, Sergei Diaghilev. Thus, when in 1955 Alessandro Piovesan commissioned him to compose a new piece for Venice's Biennale International Festival, it is little surprise that he decided to make the work particularly Venice’s own, inscribing it to Venice’s patron saint and designing it for performance in the Saint’s own cathedral. San Michele, nicknamed The Island of the Dead, is the cemetery island of Venice. ... Diaghilev in 1909, by Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (Russian: ; also referred to as Serge) (March 19, 1872 – August 19, 1929) was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise. ...

Any piece written especially for performance in Saint Mark’s Basilica necessarily places itself in a long and venerable musical tradition. Although polychoral music is absent from Canticum Sacrum, Stravinsky does employ some antiphonal devices, such as the alternation between tutti choral-orchestral and solo organ sections in movements 1 and 5 (a practice which recalls the alternatum mass), and the alternation between soloists and chorus in the Spes section of the Virtues. The mixed instrumental ensemble also conforms to Venetian tradition, as does the use of the organ, though Stravinsky limits its use primarily to solo statements, accompanied only by bassoons doubling its lowest register. In music history, the Venetian School is a term used to describe the composers working in Venice from about 1550 to around 1610; it also describes the music they produced. ... The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation. ... This article is about the musical term. ...

Although Stravinsky lacked direct experience with the acoustics of Saint Mark’s, he did spend a good deal of time testing the acoustics in a number of Venetian churches. The sound resulting from his scoring, however, is harsh and austere, especially when compared with the music of the Gabrielis, Monteverdi, or Willaert. The tutti orchestration is notably impoverished of treble sonorities; even the trumpets take on a rather dark quality. Gabrieli is the name of two distinguished composers of the Italian Venetian School of the late Renaissance: Andrea Gabrieli (c. ... Portrait of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, 1640, by Bernardo Strozzi Claudio Monteverdi (May 15, 1567 (baptised) – November 29, 1643) was an Italian composer, violinist and singer. ... Adrian Willaert (c. ...

Reception

Stravinsky himself conducted the first performance which occurred in Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Venice on September 13, 1956. He was 74. Crowds of listeners heard the work broadcast through loudspeakers outside the cathedral.

The commission was expected to be a setting of the Passion, and many of the festival's organizers were initially chagrined by the brevity of Canticum Sacrum. Time Magazine entitled its review “Murder in the Cathedral”, though this may be refering to the quality of the performance, rather than the composition. The Passion is the technical term for the suffering and Agony of Jesus that led directly to the Crucifixion, a central Christian event. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...

Scholarly reviews were kinder, though also initially reticent. Robert Craft denounced the critics for noting “an austerity that is irrelevant rather than a directness which is profound. They touted influences which are trivial, having failed to perceive inimitability.” Robert Lawson Craft (October 20th, 1923 - ) is an American conductor and writer on music best known for his intimate working friendship with Igor Stravinsky, a relationship which has resulted in a number of recordings and books. ...

The public and academic confusion to which he refers might be explained by the fact that in an artistic climate dominated by emotion, drama, and ego, Stravinsky was moving towards a musical philosophy that eschewed the clamorous and imperious artist in favor of the selfless artisan. To him, the epoch that saw the dawn of European polyphony was much nearer to the essential truth – unadorned, harsh even – than the sophisticated response of a declining society’s disillusioned minds. “He was stimulated by the early polyphonist’s straightforward approach, hardly hampered by harmonic implications, as they were; for the emotionally conditioned harmonic style, which was evident, to a varying degree, in his earlier music, had no longer any attraction for him.” (Weissman) Look up Artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ...

Bibliography

• Cook, Joseph Thomas. “A conductor's study of Igor Stravinsky's Canticum sacrum, Introitus: T.S. Eliot in memoriam, and Requiem canticles.” PhD diss., Indiana University, 1976.
• Craft, Robert. “A Concert for Saint Mark.” The Score 18 (December 1956): 35-45.
• Davis, John Lawton. “An analysis of serial technique in Webern's cantata number two and Stravinsky's Canticum sacrum with implications for performance.” DMA diss., University of Georgia, 1994.
• Gerhard, Roberto. “Twelve-note technique in Stravinsky.” The Score 20 (June 1957): 38-43.
• “Murder in the Cathedral.” Time, 24 September 1956, 44.
• Pablo, Kohan. “La tonalidad en la obra dodecafónica de Stravinsky: La verticalidad en el Canticum Sacrum y consideraciones sobre la musicología acrítica [Tonality in the 12-tone works of Stravinsky: Verticality in Canticum sacrum and thoughts on an objective musicology].” Collection: Primera conferencia anual de la Asociación Argentina de Musicología, 91-104. Buenos Aires: Asociación Argentina de Musicología, 1988.
• Stein, Erwin. “Igor Strawinsky: Canticum Sacrum Ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis.” Tempo 40 (Summer 1956): 3-5.
• Van Den Toorn, Pieter C. The Music of Igor Stravinsky. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. See esp. 414-426.
• Waelti-Walters, Jennifer. “The architectural and musical influences on the structure of Michel Butor's Description de San Marco.” Revue de Littérature Comparée (January-March 1979): 65-75.
• Walsh, Stephen. The music of Stravinsky. London; New York: Routledge, 1988. See esp. 235-238.
• Weissman, John S. “Canticum Sacrum.” The Music Quarterly 43 (1957): 104-110.
• White, Eric Walter. Stravinsky: the composer and his works. Berkely: University of California Press, 1966. See esp. 481-489.

See also

• Igor Stravinsky
• St. Mark's Basilica
• Neoclassicim
• Serialism
• Robert Craft
• Venetian School