Stravinsky called the Requiem Canticles his "pocket Requiem"—suggesting both a distillation of the Latin mass for the dead and a stylistic summation of his sixty-year career. Completed in Hollywood in August 1966, this work recalls many of the stylistic touchstones of Stravinsky's career, from the insistent repetitions of Le sacre du printemps (1911 - 13) and the keyboard writing of the Symphony in Three Movements (1942 - 45) to the cimbalom flourishes of Rénard (1915 - 16) and the tolling bells of Les noces (1914 - 17). It also represents the culmination of his voyage into the language of serialism, against which he had developed a deep-rooted prejudice until the final stages of his career.

As in his other late serial-influenced works, Stravinsky does not avoid suggestions of a tonal center in the Requiem Canticles. Rather, his rows tend to generate a melodic feeling, often with just a hint of the underlying serial structure. Regardless, Requiem Canticles is a complex and enormously varied work. Stravinsky had originally intended it to be entirely orchestral, but later decided to introduce a formal text, which includes portions of the Proper of the Requiem mass. He incorporates parts of the opening Gradual, parts of the sequence Dies irae, and most of the final responsory, Libera me. In its own rarefied way, the text painting in the Dies irae is as vivid as that in Verdi's Requiem.

Purely instrumental movements frame the work. The first movement is a Prelude for strings, the middle (fifth) movement is a woodwind interlude (which Stravinsky himself referred to as the "formal lament"), and the last movement is a Postlude in which static wind, piano, harp, and horn chords punctuate faster-moving chords on celesta, bells, and vibraphone. Also worth noting is Stravinsky's striking use of silences. The Postlude, for example, includes twelve measured beats of silence, representing the twelve hours of the day.

Requiem Canticles was premiered at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey in October 1966.



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