Stravinsky composed Cantata at a critical turning point in his style. In this work, Stravinsky explores canonic and serial composition, the method of writing music which he would use in various guises for the rest of his life. These canonic procedures contrast the predominantly non-canonic procedure in Rake's Progress. Stravinsky may have been awakened indirectly to this new canonic compositional method in pondering the death of the great serialist Arnold Schoenberg on 13 July 1951 [Craft relays that the death of Schoenberg had a "profound effect" on Stravinsky, and that Stravinsky saw Schoenberg's death mask on 19 July 1951 at dinner at Alma Mahler's. Robert Craft, Stravinsky: Chronicle of a Friendship 1948-1971. New York: Knopf, 1972, 19.], or perhaps by his impressions of the music of Webern, which Stravinsky heard in late 1951 and early 1952. Stravinsky wrote Cantata after a brief break from composition during which he promoted his opera The Rake's Progress (1948-51). The poetry for Cantata is taken from an anthology edited by W. H. Auden [Auden, W. H. and Norman Holmes Pearson, Poets of the English Language New York: Viking Press, 1950, 426-431. Stravinsky sets four of the six 15th and 16th century anonymous lyrics printed in the book.], who wrote most of the libretto to The Rake's Progress. In Cantata, Stravinsky turns from opera's drama to the intimacy of Elizabethan anonymous poetry.
Within Cantata Stravinsky's writing for soloists is rhythmically intricate and challenging, whereas the choral parts are comparatively simple and repetitive, usually remaining in a single key area. Stravinsky prepared extensive program notes for the premier performance of the Cantata which took place on 11 November 1952 presented by the Los Angeles Symphony Society, and directed by the composer.
Cantata is scored for Soprano and Tenor soli, Female Chorus, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn doubling on a second Oboe, and Violoncello.
The text is taken from anonymous 15th and 16th century English lyrics from a book of poetry that Auden edited and gave him. The common subject binding the text together is the child Christ. Old English pronunciation may prove to be a challenge, but there are many rhymes at the ends of lines as guides.
The structure of Cantata is symmetrical: movements for soloist or duet are framed by verses of the choral Dirge. The most extensive movement (the tenor solo) is set like a jewel at the center of the work.
The complete program notes reproduced here are taken from Eric Walter White Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works, 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California, 1979, 468-471.
Stravinksy in White: "My Cantata for solo soprano, solo tenor, female chorus, and instrumental quintet of two flutes, two oboes (the second interchangeable with English horn) and cello was composed between April 1951 and August 1952. After finishing The Rake's Progress I was persuaded by a strong desire to compose another work in which the problems of setting English words to music would reappear, but this time in a purer, non-dramatic form. I selected four popular anonymous lyrics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, verses which attracted me not only for their compelling syllabification, but for their construction which suggested musical construction."
3-part Women's Chorus, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; tranquillo, 2/4 throughout, quarter-note=52; natural key signature, modal with few accidentals, ends on D-maj.
The tranquil verses of the Lyke-Wake Dirge are the pillars upon which the entire Cantata rests. Stravinsky's setting of theDirge is unique in the Cantata in that the verses are separated one from antother by the other movments of the work. But while the interruption of the flow of the Dirge verses causes the cumulative effect of the poetry to disintegrate, the composer instead uses the verses as points of respite in the midst of more active poetic settings. In doing so Stravinsky achieves a variety of levels of meaning in the course of the Cantata akin to the chorale, recitative, and aria in a Bach cantata. [In the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31 (1943) Benjamin Britten uses the words of the Lyke-Wake Dirge in an unbroken, cumulative effecct much different than Stravinsky's.]
The poetry of the Dirge is about the soul's journey after death on a stormy night. The soul progresses from the body to Whinnymuir, a dank waiting area for the ensuing journey to purgatory. [In a conversation with Stravinsky and Craft on 21 January 1953, Auden explains that "the Winny-Muir is the gorse moor where souls are ceaselessly nettled, a familiar landscape of the time." Craft, 43.] The generosity of the soul in life (giving away shoes and socks) is rewarded in Whinnymuir, just as greed is punished. The soul moves from Whinnymuir to purgatory over the Bridge of Dread. [Auden explains that "The Brig o' dread is the narrow bridge to Purgatory from which the wicked topple into Hell." Craft, 43.] Here, as in Whinnymuir, the soul is tested for its generosity in life, this time for whether it gave food to the poor. The good soul proceeds on in its journey, whereas the soul of evil deeds burns. The poetry ends in exactly the same place as it began: identical with the Dirge's opening stanza.
The Dirges are formal pillars, providing the strongest possible unity in the course of the Cantata: the unity coming from exact repetition. In each of the four statements of the Dirge the opening seven-bar instrumental prelude is repeated exactly. The music for the voices is exactly identical for the poetry which is repeated in each verse ("every night and all" and "and Christ receive thy saul", but adjusted each time to fit the poetry which changes due to different syllablication from verse to verse.
Stravinsky in White, 469: "[Cantata] begins with a short instrumental prelude in the Phrygian mode, followed by the Lyke-Wake Dirge, a chorus whose seventeen bars, also modal except for the final cadence to D major, are repeated exactly to accommodate both the first and second stanzas. The next four stanzas of the Dirge are heard as first and second interludes, before and after the solo pieces for soprano and tenor. The music for all nine stanzas of the Dirge is the same, and the instrumental prelude is repeated before the third, fifth, and seventh stanzas. Then, after the duet for soprano and tenor, the last three stanzas form a postlude, with the rhythm of the last stanza changed slightly, and the whole ending on an instrumental cadence to the 6/4 position of A major. Throughout, the chorus is in either two- or three- part harmony, with the sopranos and altos dividing alternately to form the third part."
Complete Text of The Lyke-Wake Dirge:
This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
Every nighte and alle,
Fire, and sleete, and candle lighte;
And Christe receive thye saule.
When thou from hence away are paste,
Every nighte and alle,
To Whinny-muir thou comest at laste,
And Christ receive thye saule.
If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon,
Every nighte and alle,
sit thee down and put them on,
And Christe receive thye saule.
If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gavest nane,
Every nighte and alle,
The whinnes shall pricke thee to the bare bane,
And Christ receive thye saule.
From Whinny-muir when thou mayst passe,
Every nighte and alle,
To Brigg o' Dread thou comest at laste,
And Christe receive thye saule.
From Brigg o' Dread when thou mayst passe,
Every nighte and alle,
To purgatory fire thou comest at laste,
And Christ receive thye saule.
If ever thou gavest meat or drink,
Every nighte and alle,
The fire shall never make thee shrinke,
And Christe receive thye saule.
If meat or drinke thou never gavest name,
Every nighte and alle,
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane,
And Christ receive thye saule.
This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
Every nighte and alle,
Fire and sleete and candle lighte,
And Christe receive thye saule.
The prelude: uses the first two verses of the Like-Wake dirge.
(highest pitch on "candlelighte" and "thou")
Soprano solo, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; eighth-note=69 throughout, ends G open fifth add 2nd.
Written immediately after the completion of The Rake's Progress in Spring 1951, "The maidens came" was the earliest part of Cantata that Stravinsky composed. The poetry of this Ricercar is full of arcane references to the infant in the womb, alchemy, and eroticism. It closes with an homage to Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Stravinsky's sectional composition capitalizes upon the changes of subject matter in the course of the poem.
Stravinsky in White, 469-70: "The Maidens Came is a Ricercar for Soprano and instrumental quintet. I use the term 'Ricercar' not in the sense that Bach used it to distinguish certain strict alla breve fugues, as for example the six-part Ricercar in the Musical Offering, but in its earlier designation of a composition in canonic style. In The Maidens Came, the canonic structure is obvious. In the first section, the English horn inverts the motion of the canon proposed by the flute. In the second section, the flute inverts a canon with the voice, while in the fourth bar the oboe takes up the canon in the original form, at the unison. Sectionally, in terms of A and B, the form of the piece could be charted like this: A, B, A, B, A, recitative, C (prayer). A is a section of ten bars in D minor, whose strong modal feeling is undissipated even by a strong cadence to A major in the fifth bar and a return to D in the tenth. B is in G minor, but with a modal feeling. The second A and the second B are shorter sections which recapitulate and develop. The final A begins with the first flute following the voice part with a canon at the octave, at the distance of an eighth note, which canon is simultaneously inverted in the oboe two octaves below. This is followed by a strict recitative, Right mighty and famus Elizabeth, etc. The last twelve bars have the function of a coda; they are a prayer, based on a tonal-modal A, which is only strengthened by the pull to B in the sixth and seventh bars (which the listener will recognize by the parallel fifths in the flutes). A cadence to A is followed by an Amen which has a Plagal flavor because of harmonic fourths in the wood-winds and the final melodic fourths in the voice."
Text of The maidens came:
The maidens came [A 4/8 dolce]
When I was in my mothers bower.
I hade all that I wolde.
The baily berith the bell away, [B 3/8, 2 flats in key sig.]
The lilly, the rose, the rose I lay, [inst. canons w/ mirror]
The silver is whit, red is the golde,
The robes thay lay in fold;
The baily berith the bell away,
The lilly, the rose, the rose I lay;
And through the glass window [A 4/8, natural key sig.]
Shines the sone.
How shuld I love and I so young?
The baily berith the bell away, [B' 3/8, 2 flats, truncated]
The lilly, the rose, the rose I lay.
For to report it were now tedius: [A' 4/8, natural key sig.]
We will therfor now sing no more ["games" in mirror canon]
Of the games joyus.
Right mighty and famous [Recitative]
Elizabeth, our quen princis,
Prepotent and eke victorius,
Vertuos and bening, [C Prayer Coda 4/8]
Lett us prey all
To Christ Eternall,
Which is the heavenly King,
After ther liff grant them
A place eternally to sing. Amen.
The baily befith the bell away means "The baliff carries the prize away." Auden, 428.
Bening means "Benign." Auden, 428.
3-part Women's Chorus, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; tranquillo, 2/4 throughout, quarter-note=52; same music as Versus I, adjusted for new text.
The first interlude employs the third and fourth verses of the dirge. Highest notes on "them" and "bare."
Tenor solo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, Violoncello.
Stravinsky's contrapuntal showpiece in the Cantata is also its central, longest, and most vocally challenging movement. Within this Ricercar Stravinsky uses extensive contrapuntal procedures such as inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion, in a manner different than any he had employed before. [See Colin Mason, "Serial Procedures in the Ricercar II of Stravinsky's 'Cantata'," Tempo 61/62. Spring and Summer 1962: 6-9.] The serialization in the Ricercar II, along with the quasi-serial Dirge Canons of In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), are logical stops on the path to Stravinsky's first twelve-tone work, Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis (1956). Stravinsky wrote the Ricercar II from 8-22 February 1952.
The poetry of this Sacred History tells the entire story of Christ, from his birth to his ascension into heaven.
Stravinsky in White, 470-71: "Tomorrow will be my dancing day, for tenor, cello, and flutes and oboes in pairs, is also a Ricercar in the sense that it is a canonic composition. Its structure is more elaborate than that of The Maidens Came. The piece begins with a one-bar introduction by the flutes and cello, the statement of the canonic subject which is the subject of the whole piece. This subject is repeated by the tenor, over a recitative style accompaniment of oboes and cello, in original form, retrograde form (or cancrizans, which means that its notes are heard in reverse order--in this case, in a different rhythm), inverted form, and finally, in retrograde inversion. The second and third Cantus Cancrizans repeat respectively all and part of the first, but vary rhythmically; the second also adds imitation in the instrumental parts. The first two Ritornelli are each four-bars of 2/4; the last nine Ritornelli are each three bars of 3/4. The first two differ from the last nine in harmony, melody, and instrumentation (the two are scored for flutes and cello, and the nine for flutes, one oboe and cello), but give the same sense of refrain.
"The fourth and sixth canons are nine bars long, the others are twelve bars long. The instrumentation of all of the canons is two oboes and cello. In the first canon, the second oboe proposes the original subject and the first oboe takes it up at the minor third above, while the tenor sings it in inverted form. The second canon begins with the voice singing the Cantus in cancrizans form, but transposed down a tone, with the first oboe, also in cancrizans form, but a minor third below; the cello is in original form a fourth below. The third canon is identical with the first. In the fourth canon the first oboe follows the second at the interval of a second while the voice transposes the Cantus in inverted form down a minor third to A. In the last three bars, the cello, which has been accompanying with a new rhythmic figure, plays the Cantus in F, original form, while the voice and first oboe play it in A, original form. The fifth canon is identical with the first. The sixth begins with the Cantus in the voice in original form, while the canon in the oboe, also in original form, florid and agitato, imitates the rhythmic figure of the cello which is playing the Cantus in inverted form. The seventh canon differs from the first only by some rhythmic variation in the voice part. In the eighth canon the voice has the Cantus first in cancrizans and then in original position, against which the oboe has it in retrograde inversion and the in cancrizans. While the oboe plays it in cancrizans, the cello plays it in retrograde inversion. Then in the second half of the canon everything is transposed up a half step to C sharp major, where the cello has the Cantus in original form, and the second oboe in cancrizans. The last canon is identical to the first."
Text of To-morrow shall be my dancing day:
To-morrow shall be my dancing day, [Cantus cancrizans 1]
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance. [Ritornello 1]
Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love, [Cantus cancrizans 2]
This have I done for my true love.
Then was I born of a Virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance;
Thus was I knit to man's nature,
To call my true love to my dance. [Ritornello 2]
Sing, oh! etc. [Cantus cancrizans 3]
In a manger laid and wrapp'd I was, [Canon 1]
So very poor, this was my chance,
Betwixt an ox and a silly poor ass,
To call my true love to my dance. [See note about refrain. Ritornello 3]
Then, afterwards baptized I was, [Canon 2]
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father's voice heard from above,
To call my true love to my dance. [Ritornello 4]
Into the desert I was led, [Canon 3 (like Canon 1)]
Where I fasted without substance;
The Devil bade me make stones my bread,
To have to break my true love's dance. [Ritornello 5]
The Jews on me they made great suit, [See note about text. Canon 4]
And with me made great variance,
Because they lov'd darkness rather than light,
To call my true love to my dance. [Ritornello 6]
For thirty pence Judas me sold, [Canon 5 (like Canon 1)]
His covetousness for to advance;
Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold,
The same is he shall lead the dance. [Ritornello 7]
Before Pilate the Jews me brought, [See note about text. Canon 6]
Were Barabbas had deliverance,
they scourg'd me and set me at nought,
Judged me to die to lead the dance. [Ritornello 8]
Then on the cross hanged I was, [Canon 7 (like Canon 1)]
Where a spear to my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance. [Ritornello 9]
Then down to Hell I took my way [Canon 8]
For my true love's deliverance,
And rose again on the third day
Up to my true love and the dance. [Ritornello 10]
Then up to Heav'n I did ascend, [Canon 9 (like Canon 1)]
Where now I dwell in sure substance,
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the gen'ral dance. [Ritornello 11]
In Auden's publication of this poem, the text of the refrain, "Sing oh! etc." is not printed out after the third verse. It is noteworthy that Stravinsky changes compositional procedure at vs. 3. Whether he was aware that the refrain was to repeat with successive verses or not, Stravinsky has created a musical form based exclusively on this single publication of the Dancing Day text.
Performers are urged to change the anti-Semetic text "The Jews" to "My Enemies," as Robert Craft has done in his definitive recording.
3-part Women's Chorus, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; tranquillo, 2/4 throughout, quarter-note=52; same music as Versus I and Versus II, adjusted for new text.
The second interlude employs the fifth and sixth verses of the dirge.
Soprano and Tenor soli, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; three flat key sig., 4/4 almost throughout, quarter-note=136.
This duet is the only secular poetry in the Cantata; Westron Wind is an ancient love lyric. The words of Westron Wind recall the stormy mood of the Dirge, and imply a reference to the bed from the bower (or bed-chamber) mentioned in the second movement. The music speedily gallops along in complete contrast to the restraint of the rest of the Cantata.
Stravinsky in White, 471: "Westron Wind is a duet in simple song-form for soprano and tenor accompanied by the instrumental quintet with the second oboist playing the English horn. Though it contains much imitation, it eschews in its sweep the formal canons of the other pieces. The cello's characteristic ostinato song-style accompaniment, the staccato pianissimo at the end, and the exactly recapitulated first part are features of this piece."
Text of Westron winde:
Westron winde, when will thou blow,
The smalle raine down can raine?
Crist, if my love wer in my armis,
And I in my bed againe.
3-part Women's Chorus, 2 Flutes, Oboe, English Horn, Violoncello; tranquillo, 2/4 throughout, quarter-note=52; same music as Versus I, Versus II, and Versus III, adjusted for new text.
The postlude includes the final three stanzas of the dirge, the last of which is an exact repeat of the frist stanza.
The instrumental parts and conductor's score can be obtained by rental through Boosey and Hawkes. The instrumental parts are not available for purchase. Piano and vocal scores are available (B&H 17247) at $25 each. Miniature full scores are also avialable (B&H 17245). There are no separate choral scores available.