From the Project for a Passion selon Saint Marc to the Realization of the Canticum Sacrum: The Events Surrounding Stravinsky's Venetian

The article concerns the commission that was made by the Biennale di Venezia to Stravinsky in the ‘50s which led to the composition of the Canticum Sacrum. The discovery of the correspondence between the composer, the artistic director Alessandro Piovesan and the organisers of the Venetian Festival allows to reconstruct the events that led Stravinsky to change his initial plans for a Passion selon Saint Marc in favour of a short Canticum, a smaller scale work which would be more experimental. The objections, which concerned above all the limited size of the piece, were repeated several times by Piovesan, but were all disregarded by Stravinsky. In the light of the eight letters deposited in the Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee (ASAC) of Venice, the circumstances bringing about Stravinsky’s refusal – a refusal that also led to a readjustment of the fee offered by the Biennale – can be fully understood. The references to recent studies by David H. Smyth, Akane Mori and Jonathan Kramer regarding the identification of palindromic and proportional structures in the Canticum, offers further proof sustaining Stravinsky’s declaration that to enlarge the piece would have been impossible. These events confirm the composer’s unbending determination to undertake a new experimental stylistic direction already tried out in pieces like the Three Songs from William Shakespeare and Agon.