This work's score omits violas, clarinets, and violins, and its three movements were written to symbolize the hortatory virtues love, hope, and faith because the composer had just converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.
This work's opening E-minor chord is oddly articulated so most of the orchestra plays G rather than E and B, the chord's root and fifth which are usually emphasized when writing a triad, which prefigures the movement's shocking end on a G-major chord. In this work's second section an instrumental fugue beginning on the oboes clashes with a "human fugue" of a capella singers in what the composer called "an upside down pyramid of fugues" before they unite to form a double fugue on the line, "Et immisit in os meum canticum novum." The composer's memoir Dialogues and a Diary revealed the triplets for trumpets and piano in the "allegro" section of the third movement represent horses carrying a chariot up to Heaven. This work's score omits violas, clarinets, and violins, and its three movements were written to symbolize the hortatory virtues love, hope, and faith because the composer had just converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. Commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for 10 points, name this choral symphony taking its Latin text from its namesake biblical book, composed by Igor Stravinsky.
This work's opening E-minor chord is oddly articulated so most of the orchestra plays G rather than E and B, the chord's root and fifth which are usually emphasized when writing a triad, which prefigures the movement's shocking end on a G-major chord.
Symphony of {Psalms}