¹ “Der Mittelweg ist der einzige, der nicht nach Rom führt”. (“The middle road is the only one that doesn't lead to Rome”.) Foreword to the Chorsatiren, op. 28.

² It may be added that the likewise introductory “title” of the last movement, “Oratio Jeremiae Prophetae”, does stand in the Vulgate, but does not, however, appear in the Hebraic, Greek and Chaldaean texts.

³ The notion of the “Concordia Discors” finds its origin in the writings of the Italian Giambattista Marino (1579–1625), one of the sources of Italian Mannerism (between late Renaissance and Baroque). It denotes the striving, influenced by a magic natural philosophy and by astrology, to “prove the mysterious unity of the world through a combination of the most disparate fragments of existence”. Vide Gustav René Hocke: “Die Welt als Labyrinth”. “Manier und Manie in der europäischen Kunst”, rowohlt's deutsche enzyklopädie, vol 50/51, 1957.Google Scholar

⁴ Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis Sixti V. Pontificis Maximi. Editio Octava, Ratisbonae, Neo Eboraci et Cincinnatii, MDCCCLXXXXI.

The English quotation is mine.

I should like to express here my gratitude to the Rev. Pius Baumgartner for having kindly procured me one of the rare copies of the Vulgate available in Switzerland.

⁵ The importance Strawinsky attributed to the inward development of the text is shown very clearly by the fact that he concludes with psalm 5, verse 21. The final verse 22 says: “Sed projiciens repulisti nos, iratus es contra nos vehementer”.

⁶ Strawinsky himself has given them the following titles: “De Elegia Prima”, “De Elegia Tertia”: (1) “Querimonia” (2) “Sensus Spei” (3) “Solacium”, “De Elegia Quinta”.

⁷ Threni requires: Choir, 6 solo voices (soprano, alto, 2 tenors, 2 basses). 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets, 1 alto clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 1 sarrusophone, 4 horns, 1 bugle (C alto), 3 trombones, 1 tuba, piano, harp, celesta, timpani, tamtam, strings.

⁸ Our survey, which, for brevity's sake, mentioned just one single part K, may now be completed: K1/2 (crotchet = 60 MM), accompanied by an independent orchestral set, introduces the thematic semitonerepetitions (section one) and the strictly chordal texture (section two); K3 (crotchet = 90 MM), sustained by pedal notes only, takes over the texture, using a similar melodic shape in a different rhythmical context. Here, as later on, the figures (K1, K2, K3 or N1, N2, N3) refer to the respective sections of the tripartite parts.

⁹ I know that this may sound rather sophisticated. The fact remains, however, that the same correspondence can be shown between the intervals of the pseudo-canon in M and those of the “Canon a 2” in “Querimonia”: M1=F2, M2=F1, M3=F3.

¹⁰ I will take the liberty to use henceforth the plural form “rows” instead of speaking of “the row and its derivations”. Winfried Zillig suggests in his footnote to p. 118 of the vocal score of Schoenberg, 's Moses und AwnGoogle Scholar a like use of the term.

¹¹ Keller, Hans: In Memoriam Dylan Thomas. “Strawinsky's Schoenbergian Technique”, Tempo, No. 35, 1955.Google Scholar

¹² Gerhard, Roberto: “Twelve-Note Technique in Strawinsky”, The Score, 06, 1957.Google Scholar

¹³ One might ask, then, for what reason I call this part the exposition, the row being used already (and in a perfectly regular fashion) in the introduction. The answer, put in the most simple terms, would be: if the raison d'être of the introduction were the exposition of the row, Strawinsky certainly would have taken particular care of its audibility. Actually, he has not. Whereas in bar 42 et seq. he has.

¹⁴ The abbreviation would be BS11, the cipher indicating that the basic set was transposed eleven semitones above (or, of course, one semitone below).

¹⁵ See Section 2 (“The Text”) above, pp. 21 ff.