Cantata (Stravinsky)
The Cantata by Igor Stravinsky is a work for soprano, tenor, female choir, and instrumental ensemble, and was composed from April 1951 to August 1952. The premiere performance on 11 November 1952 was by the Los Angeles Symphony Society, conducted by Stravinsky himself. After completing the opera The Rake's Progress, Stravinsky felt the urge to compose another work setting English words, but in a non-dramatic form.
The piece consists of the following movements:
For his texts, Stravinsky chose four anonymous fifteenth- and sixteenth-century poems found in, an anthology of poetry presented to him as a Christmas gift by W. H. Auden, the librettist of his opera, The Rakes's Progress.
The dirge sections concern a soul's approach to and journey through purgatory. In between the verses of the dirge there are two ricercars, and a sixteenth-century song text, "Westron Wind".
