Cantata (Stravinsky)

The Cantata by Igor Stravinsky is a work for soprano, tenor, female choir, and instrumental ensemble (of flutes, oboe, cor anglais, and cello), and was composed from 1951 to 1952. The premiere performance on 11 November 1952 was by the Los Angeles (Chamber) Symphony Society (to whom the work is dedicated), conducted by Stravinsky himself. After writing the opera "The Rake's Progress" Stravinsky had been keen to compose another work to English verse, "but this time in a purer, non-dramatic form". Having collaborated with the poet Wystan Auden on the libretto of "The Rake's Progress", Stravinsky decided to set the anonymous English texts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that Auden had just published. In the programme notes for the first performance, Stravinsky explained the reasons for this choice: "I selected four popular anonymous lyrics [...] which attracted me, not only for their great beauty and their compelling syllabification, but also for their construction which suggested musical construction."

The "Cantata" has a reputation for austerity and difficulty, and so is very little performed and rarely recorded. The vocal virtuosity of certain sections (e.g. the 165 bars of "Ricercar II" ("Tomorrow shall be my dancing day") sung by the tenor solo) and its considerable length of thirty minutes place demands on both performers and listeners.

The piece consists of the following movements:

#A lyke-wake dirge. Versus I. Prelude: "This ae nighte"
#Ricercar I. "The maidens came"
#A lyke-wake dirge. Versus II. First interlude: "If ever thou gav'st hos'n and shoon"
#Ricercar II. Sacred History: "To-morrow shall be my dancing day"
#A lyke-wake dirge. Versus III. Second interlude: "From Whinnymuir when thou may'st pass"
#Westron Wind
#A lyke-wake dirge. Versus IV. Postlude: "If ever thou gav'st meat or drink"

The dirge sections concern a soul's approach to and journey through purgatory. "Ricercar II" sets the carol "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day". "Westron Wind" is a sixteenth-century song.

(Adapted from programme notes from the Harmonia Mundi recording of the work: HMC 801913.)