Introitus (1965)

Compiled by Andrew Kuster

Background considerations for Introitus

Stravinsky's third-to-last composition, Introitus is dedicated to the memory of his friend T. S. Eliot. The work is under four minutes long, and calls for two-part men's chorus (TB), harp, piano, tam-tams, timpani, solo viola, and solo contrabass.

Stravinsky writes about Introitus: "In this small parting song for the great poet, the Introitus of the Latin Requiem Service is intoned by tenors and basses to an accompaniment of string and percussion instruments restricted to male-voice range. I composed the vocal line straight through, the first five words of the text coming to my ear in the twelve pitches of a series.

"The only novelty in serial treatment is in chord structure--the chant is punctuated by fragments of a chordal dirge--but choice was more important than any principle of 'serialization'. The four melodic versions of the pitch orders are sung as a cantus firmus and in the form of a recessional, which is a small ritual the poet might have liked. When, with the fourth phrase, the trapezium shape is complete, the two choral parts unite and the last sentence is sung in counterpoint. The music of 'et lux perpetua' is a quotation of my setting of Auden's line 'The Heavens are silent' [from the Rake's Progress].

"The only instrumental novelty is the incidence of the complete series in timpani coperti. The main function of the viola and string bass is to support and clarify the tuning of these funeral drums.

"The score was completed February 17, 1965, and performed in Chicago the following April 17." (Stravinsky, Igor. Themes and Conclusions. London: Faber and Faber, 1972. p.66)

T. S. Eliot died on 4 January 1965. Robert Craft conducted the first performance with players from the Chicago Symphony.

The tempo is quarter-note = 56 throughout. The piano, harp and tam-tams frame statements of the text by singers, timpani and strings with small refrains. The serial manipulation is straightforward.

The text is taken from the Introit of the Missa pro defunctis (Requiem Mass). To honor T. S. Eliot, Stravinsky changes the Latin "eis" "them" to "ei" "him". The first two lines are repeated at the outset, and return at the end of the work.

Structure of Introitus

Stravinsky uses rows horizontally (melodically) in the vocal parts, and uses set rotation in the instrumental parts. The Prime form of the row of Introitus is taken from the first aggregate sung by the tenors beginning in M. 3. The standard twelve-tone matrix for the work is given in Table 2.

  int:   +5   +1   -2   +4   +1   -6   -1   -1   -3   +1   -4   

      I-0  I-5  I-6  I-4  I-8  I-9  I-3  I-2  I-1  I-10 I-11 I-7  

P-0   Ab   C#   D    C    E    F    B    Bb   A    F#   G    Eb   

P-7   Eb   Ab   A    G    B    C    F#   F    E    C#   D    Bb   

P-6   D    G    Ab   F#   Bb   B    F    E    Eb   C    C#   A    

P-8   E    A    Bb   Ab   C    C#   G    F#   F    D    Eb   B    

P-4   C    F    F#   E    Ab   A    Eb   D    C#   Bb   B    G    

P-3   B    E    F    Eb   G    Ab   D    C#   C    A    Bb   F#   

P-9   F    Bb   B    A    C#   D    Ab   G    F#   Eb   E    C    

P-10  F#   B    C    Bb   D    Eb   A    Ab   G    E    F    C#   

P-11  G    C    C#   B    Eb   E    Bb   A    Ab   F    F#   D    

P-2   Bb   Eb   E    D    F#   G    C#   C    B    Ab   A    F    

P-1   A    D    Eb   C#   F    F#   C    B    Bb   G    Ab   E    

P-5   C#   F#   G    F    A    Bb   E    Eb   D    B    C    Ab   

The rows employed for the entire work are given in Table 3. Characteristic of Stravinsky's other twelve-tone works, the standard four rows are sung by the voices: Prime, Retrograde, Inversion, and Retrograde Inversion beginning with the last note of the Prime form.

The object formed by this row has the same first and last row notes as the object of The Flood. However, because Stravinsky only employs a few rows, and these forms are generated from the first and last notes of the Prime form of the row, projecting the object is not useful for the present analysis. Rather, the analyst simply needs a small graphical representation of the rows used, as shown in Table 4.

                                 Bb
                                 F
                                 E
                                 F#
                                 D
                                 C#
                           ^     G
                           |     Ab
                         RI-2    A
  P-0 ->                         C
                                 B
Ab C# D  C  E  F  B  Bb A  F# G  Eb
Eb
D                        <-  R-0   
E     I-0
C      |
B      v
F
F#
G
Bb
A
C#