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"Epitaphium" is a short
chamber-music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
composition by
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
, for flute, clarinet, and harp. The score was composed in 1959 and is inscribed in German, "Für das Grabmal des Prinzen Max Egon zu Fürstenberg" (For the tombstone of Prince (1896–1959)). A performance last for less than two minutes.


History

Stravinsky had been the honoured guest of Prince Max Egon zu Fürstenberg, patron of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, during the 1957 and 1958 festivals. When the prince died in April 1959, Stravinsky was asked to write a short composition in his memory. The result was "Epitaphium", which received its premiere on 17 October 1959, on one of that year's three concerts, each of which included a newly composed musical tribute to the prince. The other two pieces were by
Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...
(''Tombeau'', for soprano and instrumental ensemble, which later became the final movement of '' Pli selon pli'') and Wolfgang Fortner (''Parergon zu den Impromptus'', for soprano and orchestra).) In the history of Stravinsky's compositional style, the "Epitaphium" is important as the first work in which he ordered the harmony serially throughout. In earlier works he had used twelve-tone rows for melodic construction, with only the occasional harmonic exception.


Analysis

"Epitaphium" began as a duet for two flutes, and can in fact be played as a flute duet, though the scoring was soon changed to flute and clarinet when Stravinsky learned that his piece was to share a program with Anton Webern's ''Fünf geistliche Lieder'', Op. 15, which include those two instruments. Stravinsky began by composing a melodic-harmonic phrase purely by ear, and only in the midst of writing it saw the potential for a serial pattern, toward which he then turned his attention. The musical problem that first attracted him in the two-part
counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
had to do with the harmonic use of minor seconds. Once he had completed the first little twelve-tone duet, Stravinsky hit on the idea of composing a series of funeral responses between treble and bass instruments. He chose the harp as bass instrument in order to achieve a muffled effect, and because he found the low notes the most beautiful on the instrument. The completed form is a sort of hymn, which Stravinsky likened to the '' Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary'' by
Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest E ...
. There are four antiphonal strophes each in the harp and in the treble instruments, with each strophe containing one complete row statement: P, I, R, and RI in the harp, and P, RI, R, and I in the flute-clarinet duo. The resulting alternation of eight musical blocks dominates the form, though its force is counteracted by significant motivic connections among the blocks. The prime form of "Epitaphium"'s row is C, A, D, E, C, B, F, F, D, G, G, A. The first
hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six-note series, as exhibited in a scale (hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial theor ...
is closely related to the opening of '' The Firebird'', while the intervallic makeup of the entire series shows affinities with the row used by Boulez in '' Structures'' for two pianos and the one in Stravinsky's own Double Canon, written in the same year as "Epitaphium". The row occurs only in its untransposed form, which is typical of Stravinsky's smaller twelve-tone pieces.


References

Sources * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Douw, André. 1995. "Closing the Circle: Stravinsky's 'Epitaphium' ". ''Muziek & Wetenschap'' 5, nos. 1–2:100–128. * Locanto, Massimiliano. 2002. "Pensiero musicale e procedimenti costruttivi nell'ultimo Stravinsky". PhD diss. Pavia: University of Pavia.


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Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...
* , (flute), Sepp Fackler (clarinet), Hildegard Heckel (harp) {{Authority control 1959 compositions Compositions by Igor Stravinsky Twelve-tone compositions Chamber music compositions