Cantata (Stravinsky)

The Cantata by Igor Stravinsky is a work for soprano, tenor, female choir, and instrumental ensemble (of two flutes, oboe, cor anglais (doubling second oboe), and cello), and was composed from April 1951 to August 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 completing the opera The Rake's Progress, Stravinsky felt the urge to compose another work setting English words, but in a non-dramatic form (White 1979, 468–69).

The piece consists of the following movements:

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.

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