Stravinsky - Canticum Sacrum (1955) [with score] BETTER PERFORMANCE

Canticum Sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis - for two voices, orchestra and choir Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Philip Jones Ensemble, cond. Simon Preston ’When Alessandro Piosevan, representing the Venice Biennale International Festival of Contemporary Music, asked Stravinsky to compose a new work for the festival, the composer went him one better. Stravinsky not only accepted the commission, but also dedicated the new work to Venice’s patron saint, St. Mark, and structured the work expressly for performance in the saint’s famous cathedral. In composing Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci Nominis (1955), Stravinsky made many a number of accommodations for performance in St. Mark’s. He followed complex textures with quieter music to let the sound clear, used antiphonal devices in the spirit of the early Baroque composer Giovanni Gabrieli (onetime organist at St. Mark’s), and emulated church modes within a serial context. In addition, the five movements are lai