This work was commission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which is remarkable given it has no parts for violins or violas.
It’s a choral symphony in three movements using psalm texts.
The first movement uses verses 13 and 14 of Psalm 38 (Have mercy on me), and is E minor and quasi-modal, although Stravinsky said this wasn’t part of his thinking. There’s some animated woodwind writing, and an insistent semitone figure on ‘Exaudi’. The second movement is a double fugue using verses from Psalm 39.
Of the third movement – an ethereal setting of the exultant Psalm 150 – Stravinsky said:
The allegro in Psalm 150 was inspired by a vision of Elijah’s chariot climbing the Heavens; never before had I written anything quite so literal as the triplets for horns and piano to suggest the horses and chariot.
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