Stravinsky's Cantata (1951 - 52) was written not long after the completion of the composer's final, and greatest, opera, The Rake's Progress (1948 - 51). The text comes from four anonymous, secular English lyrics from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Each of the work's seven sections, with the exception of "Westron Wind" (VI), makes use of canon in some way. It is important to note the title "Ricercar," which specifically denotes a contrapuntal form, for sections II and IV. (However, as Stravinsky points out in a program note, it is not used here in its common meaning as a fugue.) The Cantata is, in fact, typically Stravinskian in its rigorous use of counterpoint. Much of the work also includes a mixture of tonal and modal harmony, another important aspect of the composer's style.

While the use of canon looks back to the tradition of Bach, another dimension of the Cantata is its more modern language, including quasi-serial, Webern-inspired manipulations of musical material which anticipate Stravinsky's embrace of such techniques in the last stage of his career.



© All Music Guide