Combination -Interval Cycles in Igor Stravinsky's "Canticum Sacrum"

Abstract

This paper examines Igor Stravinsky's serial practice in Canticum Sacrum (1955), specifically the relationship between the two twelve-tone series employed in the middle three movements. Two disparate investigations eventually led to the formulation of a pair of "ladder of thirds" combination-interval cycles. The "basic" combination cycle is a straight chain of (0134) or (0235) tetrachords, but a "hybrid" version is arrived at from which is drawn a single interlocking derivational scheme holding three upper-level serial structures consisting of the two twelve-tone series and an associated segmentation scheme (mapped into the cantus firmus rhythmic series). A host of findings results from this discovery. Series Two is arrived at by the process of "complementation" and especially confirms the work of theorist Marianne Kielian-Gilbert. Series One is then drawn without variation from the "complementary" scheme revealing an accurate derivational relationship between the two series. This study proceeds to show how the combination cycles are utilized as precompositional major-minor resource structures in a variety of treatments in select passages of the serial as well as non-serial movements in Canticum Sacrum. The analyses illustrate how the palindromic bass line of the organ ritornello in the outer movements can be drawn from the basic combination cycle, and from the hybrid combination cycle, how Stravinsky's two-note stutter mannerism and other patterned pitch-class repetitions are inherent features in the source. The early variants of both series are examined from key transcriptions of Stravinsky's sketches as provided in the work of David Smyth and show that they also can be derived from the hybrid combination cycle, pointing up the systematic variations aspect of the resource. The harmonic implications produced by coupling the hybrid combination cycle and serial derivational schemes are discussed, resulting in a classification system of two Regions each with two Fields and based on the odd and even whole-tone sets. A sub-context throughout the paper focuses on Stravinsky's segmental process primarily realized through rhythmic means and culminates in an analysis of the cantus firmi statements in "Caritas." The study concludes with some thoughts on how the combination cycle resources may have relevance for other works of Stravinsky.