The Composition
Igor Stravinsky composed the Symphony of Psalms between January and August 1930, completing the score on 15 August 1930 (the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos in the Orthodox calendar - a date Stravinsky noted on the manuscript). The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is scored for a mixed chorus (SATB, with children's voices preferred for the soprano and alto parts) and an orchestra that deliberately omits violins, violas, and clarinets - creating a lean, austere sonority dominated by winds, brass, lower strings (cellos and basses), two pianos, harp, and timpani. The work is in three connected movements and lasts approximately 23 minutes. Stravinsky inscribed the score: 'Cette symphonie composée à la gloire de DIEU est dédiée au Boston Symphony Orchestra' (This symphony composed to the glory of GOD is dedicated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra).
Biblical Text
Stravinsky set texts from the Latin Vulgate translation of three psalms. The first movement sets Psalm 38:13-14 (Vulgate 38:13-14): 'Exaudi orationem meam, Domine, et deprecationem meam; auribus percipe lacrimas meas' (Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears). The second movement sets Psalm 39:2-4 (Vulgate 39:2-4): 'Expectans expectavi Dominum, et intendit mihi. Et exaudivit preces meas; et eduxit me de lacu miseriae' (I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit). The third movement sets the entirety of Psalm 150: 'Laudate Dominum in sanctuario ejus' (Praise the Lord in his sanctuary). Stravinsky chose the Vulgate Latin deliberately, preferring what he called 'a language not dead but turned to stone' - a medium that would distance the text from personal emotional expression and give it the quality of ritual incantation.
The Creator
Stravinsky was 48 years old and living in Paris when he composed the Symphony of Psalms. He had returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1926, after decades of religious indifference, a conversion he described as a genuine spiritual transformation rather than a cultural gesture. He attended Orthodox services regularly and kept icons in his home. The period of the Symphony of Psalms coincided with one of his most productive creative phases and with his engagement with neoclassicism - the aesthetic of objectivity, formal clarity, and emotional restraint that he had adopted after the Romantic excesses of his early ballets. Stravinsky described the symphony as 'not a symphony about the psalms but a symphony using psalms to make a symphony' - yet the depth of his engagement with the texts suggests more than structural convenience. He later said that the slow conclusion of the third movement was the closest he ever came to expressing a state of prayer in music.
Musical Analysis
The first movement opens with a famous E minor chord struck by the two pianos, followed by an angular, driving ostinato in the winds that creates an atmosphere of urgent supplication. The chorus enters with stark, declamatory phrases on the psalm text. The rhythmic language is characteristic of Stravinsky: constantly shifting meters, additive rhythms, and asymmetric phrase structures that keep the listener in a state of heightened attention. The second movement begins with an extraordinary orchestral fugue: a four-voice instrumental fugue built on a subject in C minor that Stravinsky described as 'the prayer that was being answered.' The chorus enters midway through with 'Expectans expectavi Dominum,' transforming the fugue into a chorale-like texture of tremendous power. The third movement is the heart of the work. It opens with a slow, hypnotic alternation between two chords (C major and E-flat major) - the famous 'chord of praise' - while the chorus intones 'Laudate Dominum' in a chant-like monotone. The movement gradually builds in rhythmic energy through a fast central section that sets the psalm's catalogue of instruments ('Laudate eum in sono tubae, laudate eum in psalterio et cithara'), before returning to the opening chords in a long, luminous coda. The final pages - a slow oscillation of the two chords with the chorus singing 'Laudate Dominum' over a sustained pedal - achieve a quality of rapt stillness that Stravinsky called 'the calm of praise.'
Theological Content
The three psalms trace a theological arc from lament (Psalm 38: the cry of the afflicted) through deliverance (Psalm 39: God hears and rescues) to praise (Psalm 150: universal adoration). This arc mirrors the structure of the Psalter itself, which moves from the individual's cry to the cosmic praise of the final Hallel psalms. Stravinsky's treatment is notable for its objectivity: the music does not attempt to express personal emotion but rather to create what he called 'an act of communion with the Spirit.' This approach reflects the Orthodox theological tradition of prayer as participation in the divine rather than expression of the human. The use of Latin rather than a vernacular language reinforces this liturgical objectivity. The concluding Psalm 150, with its command to praise God with every instrument and 'everything that hath breath,' becomes in Stravinsky's setting not an explosion of joy but a sustained, contemplative affirmation - praise as a state of being rather than an emotional response.
Performance History
The official premiere took place on 13 December 1930 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a chorus from the Cecilia Society, conducted by Koussevitzky, in Symphony Hall, Boston. However, an earlier performance had been given on 30 November 1930 in Brussels by the Orchestre Symphonique de Bruxelles under Ernest Ansermet, which technically makes it the world premiere (to Koussevitzky's irritation). Stravinsky himself conducted the work many times and made two recordings: one in 1931 and a famous stereo recording with the CBC Symphony Orchestra in 1963 (Columbia Records). The work was received with some bewilderment at its premiere - audiences expecting the rhythmic violence of The Rite of Spring were unprepared for its austerity - but it quickly established itself as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century sacred music.
Cultural Impact
The Symphony of Psalms is widely regarded as the greatest sacred choral-orchestral work of the twentieth century. It demonstrated that modernist compositional techniques - rhythmic complexity, dissonant harmony, instrumental austerity - could serve sacred purposes without compromise or sentimentality. The work influenced subsequent sacred compositions by Messiaen, Britten, Penderecki, and Part. Its concluding Psalm 150 became a model for how contemporary music could achieve the quality of liturgical contemplation. The work also marked a significant cultural moment: the return of one of the century's most important composers to religious faith, at a time when artistic modernism was often associated with secularism.
Controversies
The work challenged expectations on multiple fronts. Critics debated whether it was truly a 'symphony' (it has no sonata-form movement), whether Stravinsky's neoclassical style was adequate to sacred subject matter, and whether the deliberate emotional restraint represented depth or coldness. The Orthodox content of Stravinsky's faith has been debated: some scholars see the work as a genuine expression of Orthodox spirituality, while others regard the religious framing as one element in a broader aesthetic project. The use of children's voices for the upper choral parts, which Stravinsky specified, is often compromised in practice by the use of adult sopranos and altos. The question of tempo in the final movement - how slow the concluding coda should be - has generated significant interpretive variation among conductors.
Legacy
The Symphony of Psalms has been recorded over 40 times and is a staple of the choral-orchestral concert repertoire. It is regularly programmed alongside other major psalm settings from Bach to Bernstein. The work's influence on twentieth and twenty-first century sacred music is immeasurable: it proved that sacred music could be modern without being compromised, and contemplative without being sentimental. Stravinsky's own 1963 recording remains a benchmark. The work's inscription - 'composed to the glory of God' - has become one of the most quoted statements of artistic purpose in twentieth-century music.
Recommended Recordings
1. Igor Stravinsky with the CBC Symphony Orchestra and Festival Singers of Toronto (Columbia/Sony, 1963) - the composer's own definitive recording, with characteristic rhythmic precision and a concluding Psalm 150 of extraordinary stillness. 2. Leonard Bernstein with the London Symphony Orchestra and English Bach Festival Choir (Deutsche Grammophon, 1972) - a more emotionally engaged reading than Stravinsky's own, with greater warmth and a slower, more luminous coda. 3. Robert Craft with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Naxos, 2008) - Craft, Stravinsky's longtime assistant, brings deep familiarity with the composer's intentions and a lean, transparent orchestral sound.