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of a serene and otherworldly musical style he calls“ tintinnabuli” or“ little bells,” often referred to by others as“ mystical minimalism.” As this deeply religious Russian Orthodox believer explains,“ I work with very few elements— with one voice, with two voices. I build with the most primitive materials— with the triad [ three-note chord ], with one specific tonality. The three notes of the triad are like bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation.” Audience members may remember this very beautiful and pareddown style from past performances by the BSO of his Tabula rasa and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten.
Composed in 1968 before Pärt had adopted this“ tintinnabuli” style, his Credo is something very different. To begin with, it is scored for masses of performers rather than just a few. The piece calls for a large mixed choir, a pianist and an oversized orchestra staffed with five percussionists as well as a timpanist. It is a dramatic battle between two contrary types of music: the dissonant twelve-tone serialist style popular in the 1960s and the classically pure tonality of a J. S. Bach’ s Prelude in C Major from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. In the words of Pärt scholar Paul Hillier,“ Superficially, the work presents a confrontation between the forces of good and evil”—“ good” being represented by the tonal Bach and“ evil” by the twelvetone dissonance.
The words are not the lengthy text of the liturgical“ Credo” from the Mass.
Credo Text and Translation
Credo in Jesum Christum Audivistis dictum Oculum pro oculo Dentem pro dente
Autem ego vobis dico: Non esse resistendum injuriae
Credo Mattheus 5, 38-39
Though they begin with that word, they then move to Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 5:“ You have heard it said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you: do not resist evil.” This avowal of both religious belief and pacifist opposition to violence ignited a storm of protest by Soviet authorities at its 1968 premiere, though the Estonian audience loved the work.
The music begins serenely and tonally with the chorus singing the opening words in a simple harmonic pattern firmly grounded in C Major. When the pianist begins, we recognize the Bach Prelude it is based on. The pianist breaks off suddenly, and the orchestra starts to build from this tonal foundation a 12-tone row, which becomes more and more harsh, and ultimately violent. The chorus attempts to chant the text, but each syllable is assaulted by explosions of the 12-tone theme. This culminates in a passage of complete aleatory chaos, as orchestra and chorus improvise freely at top volume. Very slowly, low drones on the note C bring chaos back toward order. Credo concludes with the pianist returning to Bach, and the chorus triumphantly reasserting its belief in Christ’ s words in resplendent C Major.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two piccolos, two oboes, two clarinets, two bass clarinets, two bassoons, two contrabassoons, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, strings.
I believe in Jesus Christ Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, And a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.
I believe Matthew 5: 38-39
Symphony of Psalms
Igor Stravinsky
Born in Oranienbaum, Russia, June 17, 1882; died in New York City, April 6, 1971
Like many cosmopolitan creative figures, Igor Stravinsky withdrew from his ancestral faith of Russian Orthodox Christianity when he was 18. A worldly and sophisticated man, he believed that organized religion held little relevance for him. But in 1926, when he was 44, he rediscovered his faith and became a more fervent believer than ever before. He became a regular communicant in the Orthodox Church, and his homes were soon filled with icons, votive candles and sacred relics. From this time on, he would see the precise formal construction of his compositions as a necessary reflection of the divine order. And, although it was by no means his only sacred work, his Symphony of Psalms, composed four years later in 1930, became the greatest musical expression of his faith.
Serge Koussevitzky, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, did not originally have a sacred choral composition in mind when he commissioned Stravinsky to write a new symphonic work to commemorate the Orchestra’ s 50 th anniversary in 1930 – 1931. However, the composer was at this point fascinated with the Book of Psalms:“ The Psalms are poems of exaltation, but also of anger and judgment, and even of curses,” he wrote. He chose portions of three Psalms— Psalms 38, 39 and 150— for his new work, using their Latin words as given in the Roman Catholic Vulgate Bible. And Stravinsky stressed the primacy of these Psalms to his whole conception:“[ This ] is not a symphony in which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the Psalms that I am symphonizing.”
The composer wanted a very special sound for this work, one that was based on wind instruments, in this case, woodwinds and brass. Only cellos and double bass were used for strings; violins and violas were eliminated. Stravinsky also banished the mellow-sounding clarinets;
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