Pater Noster
Posted in Classical, Religious, Choral on Jul 16th, 2009 1 Comment »
I’ve never really understood the music of Igor Stravinsky. I like bits of it - ‘The Firebird’ and the exciting bits in ‘The Rite of Spring’, but the rest has rather passed me by. His music is more approachable that a lot of modern music, but I felt there was something arid about it, and slightly phoney. I know what I mean, but having recently listened to some of his religious music (’The Symphony of Psalms’ particularly) I know I haven’t got it quite right. There is something honest and deeply felt here which I hadn’t recognised before. There is no showing off - but trying to recapture a distant, hidden part of himself.
Here’s a short choral work, his ‘Pater Noster’. It lasts two minutes - about as long as it takes to read the prayer properly and mean it. In it there is an echo of Stravinsky’s Russian past, seen without nostalgia. It hasn’t the technicolor of Russian Orthodox choral music (see here for a comparison) but it is simple, clear, uncluttered and very beautiful.
It is sung by the Westminster Cathedral Choir conducted by James O’Donnell.
