Symphony of Psalms: Movement III

• In 1910, Stravinsky became famous for the Firebird.
• Became notorious three years later for The Rite of Spring, which caused a riot because of its often harsh dissonant music, and is now regarded as one of the most important compositions of the 20th century.
• With the onset of the First World War he started writing small scale works, and eventually became a prominent figure in the neo-classical style.
• His reworking of the 18th Century work Pulcinella composed in 1920 is one of the most important example of neo-classical music.
• The 'Symphony of Psalms' was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its 50th anniversary celebrations.
• The style is not easily classified as it contains Baroque, jazz and traditional Russian orthodox church music features, as well as 20th century music elements.

Neo-classical elements include...

• Many tonal characteristics, such as frequent return to a C major chord, e.g. on the word Dominum in bar 7.
• The short imitative section at bar 150 evoking the age of Handel.

Jazz elements include...

• Instrumentation dominated by woodwind, with no upper strings.
• The pizzicato double bass ostinato reminscent of jazz walking bass.
• Frequent syncopation, particularly in faster sections, e.g. from bar 25.

Russian Orthodox Church Music elements include...

• The chanting effect at the beginning.
• The emphasis on the choral sound.
• The often slow, static music which evokes ancient church rituals, e.g. from bar 163.

20th Century elements include...

• Frequent dissonance, e.g. opening vocal chords.
• Use of bitonality, e.g. the choral music at the start suggest E flat major, whilst piano and harp chords outline C major.

• Large symphony orchestra, but with no violins, viola or clarinet.
• 5 trumpets, including high pitched trumpet in D.
• Quintuple woodwing including 5 flutes.
• Double bass plays pizzicato frequently.
• Also two pianos and a harp.
• Voices are arranged in the traditional four voice frouping of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass.
• Stravinsky originally intended for all voices to be sung by male voices, including boy trebles, but this didn't happen at first performances.

• Psalm text in Latin is generally syllabic, like the opening Alleluia.
• Stravinsky often does a kind of reverse word painting, e.g. at the mention of trumpets, they are barely audible; the word cymbals is not accompanied by cymbals in the orchestra, but is actually sometimes set to very quiet choral music.
• Words and phrases are often repeated, e.g. laudate sum.
• Sometimes words are broken up by rests in the manner of French hocket, e.g. from bar 65.
• Individual syllables are often accented for the rhythmic effect, rather than for meaning, e.g. bar 104.

• The opening section includes homophony for the voices, e.g. on the word Dominum.
• At the first 'laudate' words, tenors and basses sing in octaves.
• There is two part vocal texture for sopranos and altos at bar 53.
• The imitative section for four voice parts beginning at bar 150 is sometimes loosely doubled by instruments.

• This is the third and final movement.
• The movement begins and ends with the same music, the slow moving Alleluia sections, which also occurs briefly in the middle of the movement.
• A faster section dominated by a 6 note repeate motif starts in bar 24, and this idea dominates the movement as a whole.
• Sopranos have a new theme in bar 53 which is based on the 'laudate' theme from bar 4, and this theme is extended and developed until the music reaches a Tutti climax in bar 144, leading nicely into the imitative section in bar 150.
• A slow chanted section which is marked molto meno mosso has all the voices singing together, interrupted by a series of repeates notes sung by the tenor and bass in octaves, before the final alleluia section returns.

• There are tonal elements, for instance the C major chord in the final three bars. 
• The section at bar 150 starts by emphasising tonality of D major, before outlining chords of G major, E minor and A minor.
• Bitonality is another feature, for example in the opening where the voices suggest E flat major, while the piano music is in C major. 

• Non functional - no sense of building towards cadences, 7th chords don't suggest a need to resolve onto another chord. 
• Dissonance, for example on the third syllable of 'alleluia' in bar 3, where the G in the bass clashes against the A flats. 
• There are also simple consonant chords too, for example the root position C major chord at the end. 
• Many harmonic effects are a result of the ostinatos, for example the repeated four note motif, each a fourth apart, which plays towards the end of the movement (from bar 163) and creates a variety of chordal sounds above. 

• One of the most distinctive melodic features is the use of repeated notes, e.g. at the start of the second section with the six repeated notes idea from bar 24. 
• Many other passages have smooth flowing conjunct music, such as in the opening Alleluia section. 
• Sometimes a melody line comprises of only two notes, for example the section where the altos and sopranos sing together at bar 53. 
• The altos have a very narrow range melodically. 
• As the music builds towards a climax the sopranos sing part of a whole tone scale, in bars 62-63. 
• Sometimes the voice outlines chords, such as the D major chord at bar 150. 
• At climax points, intervals become larger, such as the diminished 7th and diminished octave at bar 161 in the soprano part. 

• Sometimes the music is very static, moving in minims and crotchets at a slow tempo. 
• Other times the music is intensely rhythmic, e.g. at the beginning of the second section in bar 24 where there are repeated quavers and 'walking' bass line in crotchets. 
• Syncopation is frequent, in the second section, where weak beats and off beats are often emphasised. 
• In the second section, as the music builds up there are many triplet quavers in the orchestra music. 
• There are occasional changes of time signature. 

Woodwind:

• 5 flutes
• Piccolo
• 4 oboes
• Cor anglais
• 3 bassoons
• Double bassoon
• 4 horns in F
• Trumpet in D
• 4 trumpets in C
• 2 trombones
• Bass trombone
• Tuba
• Timpani
• Bass drum
• 4 voices
• Harp
• 2 pianos
• Cello
• Double bass