Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

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chorus and orch. (1925); Great Is the Lord a cantata setting of Psalm

48 for chorus, orch., and org. (1933); Forsaken of Man, a cantata

for chorus and org. (1939); Canticle of the Sun, a cantata for chorus

and orch. that garnered him a Pulitzer Prize (1944); Christ Reborn,

a cantata for chorus and org. (1950); The Throne of God, for chorus

and orch. (1956); The Ark of the Covenant, a cantata for chorus and

org. (1961); Solomon’s Garden, for chorus and orch. (1964); La

corona, for chorus and orch. (1965, not completed); not to mention

more than 100 anthems, several communion services, and many

canticle settings.

SPIRITUAL. A religious communal song, associated with American

revivalism from about 1740 to 1900. Heartfelt texts and folk-like

melodies differentiated it from traditional hymns and metrical

psalms, the semantic distinction evidently originating from two

parallel biblical passages (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16) and

reflected in publications such as Joshua Smith’s Divine Hymns and

Spiritual Songs (c. 1784, 2nd ed. 1793).

Spirituals were cultivated in rural America by both whites and

blacks. “White spirituals” included the variants of folk hymn, reli-

gious ballad, and camp-meeting spiritual. While all are characterized

by subjective, experientially oriented texts, the camp-meeting type

tends to be especially fervent, for revival meetings of the time empha-

sized religious ardor over doctrinal considerations. Blacks and whites

intermingled within such outdoor camps (while conducting separate

religious meetings), evidently exchanging musical elements and in-

fluences, for white and black spirituals exhibit similar characteristics:

modally inflected melodies, simplicity, frequent repetition, refrains,

and tag lines. These traits allowed large groups of people with little

literary or musical sophistication to learn the songs easily—presum-

ably often by means of “call-and-response” presentation.

While many white spirituals were passed on orally, some were

also preserved in the shape-note collections used in rural singing

schools. The genre never became popular in urban areas.

The “black spiritual” grew out of African American congregational

worship in the Deep South; many were also sung as work songs. Not

surprisingly, the conditions of slavery inspired many songs about

death and heaven. Many were, in fact, codified expressions of pro-

test. Thus “Canaan” represented not only heaven but also the free

412 • SPIRITUAL

North, and the “River Jordan” not only the line between this life and

the hereafter, but also a body of water (such as the Ohio River or Mis-

sissippi River), which had to be crossed on the flight to freedom.

While many spirituals are imbued with a sense of melancholy,

others are buoyant, rhythmic, and often syncopated; frequently they

are in a call-and-response form, in which a leader exhorts followers

to renewed faith (e.g., “Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel?”). In perfor-

mances of the time, the third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees were

often inflected by flatting. Clapping was common, and special vocal

effects (e.g., a vocal rasp or the use of shrill falsetto) were added for

emotional impact.

Whether or not the black spiritual had roots in African tribal music

has been the subject of some scholarly debate. However, one accompa-

nying element is universally attributed to African ancestry: the planta-

tion “ring shout,” an ecstatic circular dance with hand-clapping.

After the abolition of slavery in America, black spirituals were

introduced to a wider audience by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a touring

ensemble (from 1871) who began adding harmonized arrangements

of spirituals to their programs. These were very popular, leading to

considerable international renown for the group. The burgeoning in-

terest in the black spiritual, reinforced by publication, made the genre

a staple in the standard choral repertory. In the process, however, the

spiritual’s spontaneous performance traditions were lost.

While the spiritual’s popularity continued to increase into and

during the 20th century, especially in the hands of such skilled com-

posers and arrangers as Henry Thacker Burleigh, Jester Hairston,

Moses Hogan, and André Thomas, its role in black churches waned,

being supplanted increasingly (under the influence of ragtime, blues

and jazz, and the rise of Pentacostalism) by the instrumentally ac-

companied black gospel song. The latter had originated in the meet-

ings of such white revivalists as Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey;

nevertheless, it achieved a distinctive “black” countenance through

the extensive use of syncopation.

SPOHR, LOUIS (5 APRIL 1784–22 OCTOBER 1859). German

composer and violinist. While he undertook frequent international

tours throughout his career (first as a violinist, then as a conductor),

he also held several permanent positions, including that of Konzert-

meister in Gotha (1805–12), director of the orchestra at the Theater

SPOHR, LOUIS • 413

an der Wien (1813–15), Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt theater

(1817–19), and Kapellmeister in Kassel (from 1822 until his retire-

ment). In Kassel, he was primarily in charge of opera. However, he

also directed an established series of subscription concerts. To facili-

tate the performing of choral works, he founded the Cäcilienverein,

a singing society. As a composer, while operating within traditional

Classical forms, he amalgamated various French and German ele-

ments: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s late chromaticism intensified,

Luigi Cherubini’s bold harmonic colors, and a rhapsodic lyricism

learned from the French school of violin playing (founded by the in-

ternationally famous violinist, Giovanni Battista Viotti [1755–1824]).

The overall result was a flexible emotional expressiveness—the very

quality prized above all by the Classical aesthetic.

Spohr was particularly popular in England, where he appeared

on five separate visits (1839–53). With Felix Mendelssohn, he was

regarded in Germany and England as the upholder of the Classical

tradition. He was widely regarded as a skilled and effective conduc-

tor, leading to frequent invitations to lead music festivals.

Spohr’s choral compositions form a significant part of his output.

His oratorios, which were considered unsurpassed in their day,

include Das jüngste Gericht (1812), Die letzten Dinge (1826), Des

Heilands letzte Stunden (Passion oratorio, 1835), and Der Fall Baby-

lons (1840). Other works include a mass, op. 54, for five solo vv.

and double chorus (1821); six psalm settings (one set of three [op.

85], for unaccompanied double chorus); a Jubilate, for S, chorus, vn.

solo, and orch. (1815); two settings of Vater unser [Lord’s Prayer]

(1829, 1845), the later one for a double chorus of male voices and

wind orch; Selig alle, die im Herrn entschliefen, for male voices

(1844); and an incomplete requiem, for solo voices, chorus, and

orch. (1858). Among a half-dozen secular works with accompani-

ment are two with 4-hand piano: Schill, for male voices (1840), and

the festival song O sel’ge Zeit, for mixed chorus (1850). Another

festival song, Es schwebt im lichten Strahlenkranze, calls for S, cho-

rus, vn., and pf. (1832, pub. with new text in 1887). The unaccom-

panied sacred works are very taxing. They appear to be influenced

by Spohr’s contact with Anton Thibaut, a legal scholar and amateur

musician who directed an amateur chorus in Heidelberg, performing

works from the 16th to 18th centuries in an attempt to stimulate an

interest in the sacred styles of earlier music. Also surviving are 33

414 • SPOHR, LOUIS

partsongs (some of them published in sets), more than half of them

specifically for male voices.

SPRECHGESANG [SPRECHSTIMME]. A type of vocal production

lying between speech and song (employing approximate pitches). It

was invented by Arnold Schoenberg.

STABAT MATER DOLOROSA [LAT. “SORROWFULLY HIS

MOTHER STOOD”]. A medieval poem, traditionally attributed to

the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306), and used in the Roman

Catholic rite from the late 15th century as a sequence and office

hymn. Although the Council of Trent (1543–63) removed it from

the liturgy (along with most other sequences), Pope Benedict XIII

restored it in 1727.

Among the earliest musical settings are those by John Browne,

William Cornysh, and Richard Davy in the Eton Choirbook; sub-

sequent notable settings in the stile antico include those by Josquin

des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and Orlande de Lassus

(the latter two both in eight parts). Later settings (many with orches-

tral accompaniment) include ones by Marc-Antoine Charpentier,

Antonio Caldara, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (for soprano and

alto soloists), Joseph Haydn, Gioacchino Rossini, Franz Liszt

(part of his oratorio Christus), Giuseppe Verdi (as the second of his

Quattro Pezzi Sacri), Charles Gounod, Antonín Dvorˇák, Giuseppe

Verdi, Charles Villiers Stanford, Karol Szymanowski, Zoltán

Kodály, Virgil Thomson, Francis Poulenc, Vincent Persichetti,

Krzysztof Penderecki (later incorporated into his St. Luke Passion),

Arvo Pärt, and others.

STAINER, [SIR] JOHN (6 JUNE 1840–31 MARCH 1901). English

organist, composer, and scholar. He was a chorister at St. Paul’s

Cathedral, then held positions as organist at St. Michael’s College,

Tenbury (1857–60), and Magdalen College, Oxford (1860–72), be-

fore returning to St. Paul’s as organist (1872–88). His contributions

to Anglican church music included raising musical standards at the

cathedral, editing early music manuscripts in the Bodleian Library,

Oxford, and composing 22 services (4 of them chant services), more

than 150 hymn tunes, numerous anthems, 3 cantatas, and 2 ora-

torios, the most famous of which is The Crucifixion. He also wrote

some madrigals and partsongs.

STAINER, JOHN • 415

STAMITZ, JOHANN WENZEL ANTON (BAPTIZED 19 JUNE

1717; BURIED 30 MARCH 1757). Bohemian composer and vio-

linist. A leading Classical symphonist, he established the reputation

of the court of the Elector of Palatine at Mannheim as a center of

orchestral performance and composition. Best remembered for his

instrumental works, he also wrote a handful of liturgical works with

orchestra, among them, a mass and two litanies.

STANFORD, [SIR] CHARLES VILLIERS (30 SEPTEMBER

1852–29 MARCH 1924). Irish composer, teacher, and conductor.

With Hubert Parry he led the revival of English music at the end of

the Victorian era. A prolific composer, he steadfastly resisted modern

trends, preferring a lyric, diatonic style. His influence was extended

through several generations of British composers who studied with

him at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University, among

them, Charles Wood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst,

Coleridge-Taylor, Frank Bridge, John Ireland, Arthur Bliss, and

Herbert Howells. An active conductor, he directed the Cambridge

University Musical Society (1873–93), the Bach Choir (1886–1902),

orchestra concerts and opera performances at the Royal College of

Music (after his appointment there in 1883), the Leeds Philharmonic

Society (1897–1909), and the Leeds Triennial Festival (1901–10).

Stanford’s choral compositions include more than 30 works with

orchestra, many of them written for provincial music festivals. Ex-

amples of sacred works with orchestra include 2 oratorios, 2 masses,

2 psalm settings, 1 requiem, 1 Te Deum setting, and a Stabat mater.

Secular works with orchestra (many of them with a nautical theme)

include Elegiac Ode, op. 21 (1884); the choral ballad The Revenge,

op. 24 (1886); Songs of the Sea, op. 91, for baritone and male chorus

(1904); the choral overture Ave atque vale, op. 114 (1909); and Songs

of the Fleet, op. 117, for baritone and mixed chorus (1910). Some 60

additional sacred works include 6 services (one originally conceived

for orchestra) as well as anthems and canticles (most of these with or-

gan), not to mention hymn tunes, carols, and chants. Especially well

known are the Latin motets, op. 38: Justorum animae (4 vv.), Coelos

ascendit hodie (8 vv.), and Beati quorum via (6 vv.). He also wrote

more than 120 individual partsongs. Especially noteworthy among

these are three sets dating from 1910: opp. 110, 119, and 127 (the first

comprising four songs, the latter two having eight each). Perhaps the

most famous single piece is op. 119, no. 3—The Bluebird.

416 • STAMITZ, JOHANN WENZEL ANTON

STILE ANTICO [IT. “OLD STYLE”]. A historically conscious term

designating polyphony written in the manner of Giovanni Pierluigi

da Palestrina and other conservative composers of the High Renais-

sance. Its opposite is stile moderno, used to refer to sacred music

written after 1600 in an up-to-date style. Music that blends newer and

older elements was said to be in the stile misto (mixed style).

STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ (22 AUGUST 1928–5 DECEM-

BER 2007). German composer, considered to be the leader of the

electronic avant garde. He was also a pioneer in the application of se-

rial technique to all musical parameters, in the techniques of indeter-

minacy, and in musical spatialization. His catalog of works includes

more than 40 choral pieces, many of which have been extracted from

Licht, an ambitious cycle of seven operas for the days of the week.

Almost all of his scores and recordings are available exclusively from

Stockhausen-Verlag.

STOLTZER, THOMAS (BORN C. 1480; DIED EARLY 1526).

German composer. From 1522 until his death, he was director of mu-

sic to the King of Hungary in Ofen (now Budapest). He wrote Latin

motets and other Roman Catholic liturgical music, as well as some

German-texted works (suggesting sympathy with the Lutheran

Reformation). His music was widely disseminated; it was especially

popular in Saxony. Surviving works include 4 chorale-based masses

(without Credos), a three-voice Kyrie movement, 5 Magnificats,

some 55 other Latin motets (many incomplete or fragmentary), some

40 Latin hymns, 19 Latin psalms (5 of them fauxbourdon settings),

4 German psalms (for five and six voices), 4 sacred Lieder, and 10

secular ones. Most of his compositions are for four voices, and they

are usually based on a cantus firmus. His earlier motets show the in-

fluence of Heinrich Finck (with whom he may have studied), while

his later ones employ techniques of imitation and contrast typical of

late Franco-Flemish polyphony. Many use numbers in a symbolic

way. His 14 Latin and 4 German psalm motets are considered his

greatest compositions.

STÖLZEL, GOTTFRIED HEINRICH (13 JANUARY 1690–27

NOVEMBER 1749). German composer and theorist. He studied

theology at the University of Leipzig, then worked as a music teacher

in Breslau. In 1713 he traveled to Italy, where he met Francesco

Gasparini and Antonio Vivaldi in Venice, and Domenico Scarlatti

STÖLZEL, GOTTFRIED HEINRICH • 417

in Rome. On his return journey he traveled via Innsbruck and Linz to

Prague (1715), where he was active for three years, composing dra-

matic works, oratorios, masses, and instrumental music. Declining

an offer from the court at Dresden, he went to Bayreuth, where he

wrote music for the 200th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation

(1717). By 1718 he was court Kapellmeister in Gera. That same year

he applied unsuccessfully for a position at the court in Sondershau-

sen. Shortly thereafter he secured a similar position at Saxe-Gotha.

The appointment was made on February 24, 1720, and he remained

in Gotha until his death.

Stölzel’s reputation was widespread. Contemporary writings name

him as a leading German composer. Johann Sebastian Bach him-

self evidently valued his music, for he included Stölzel’s Partita in G

minor (adding his own trio to the minuet) in his Clavier-Büchlein for

W. F. Bach, and the aria “Bist du bei mir” (now attributed to Stölzel)

in his 1725 Clavierbüchlein for Anna Magdalena.

Stölzel’s output was prodigious. Although much of it has been lost,

his oeuvre originally included at least 12 liturgical cantata cycles

(some of them double cycles), 7 Passions, Latin church works,

secular cantatas, 18 dramatic works (operas, pastorales, etc., almost

all with German libretti), and a great deal of chamber music. He

also wrote a treatise on canon (published during his own lifetime)

and Abhandlung vom Recitativ, the first major treatise on recitative.

Surviving works are found largely in copies made for the court at

Sondershausen. They include two Passion oratorios (one a setting of

the Barthold Heinrich Brockes’s libretto), masses (mostly missae

breves), a German Te Deum, a Magnificat, more than 440 sacred

cantatas (10 fragmentary), 12 secular cantatas, and other pieces.

STRADELLA, ALESSANDRO (3 APRIL 1639–25 FEBRUARY

1682). A prolific Italian composer with a colorful biography, who

wrote much vocal music. Surviving works include 6 oratorios, 18

sacred Latin motets (for one to four voices with instruments), and

8 madrigals (with or without continuo). Most of some 175 extant

cantatas are for solo voice and continuo.

STRAUSS, RICHARD (11 JUNE 1864–8 SEPTEMBER 1949).

German composer and conductor. Best remembered for his tone

poems and operas, he employed sensuous orchestration and Wagne-

rian chromatic harmony for unsurpassed pictorial and psychological

418 • STRADELLA, ALESSANDRO

expression, while often adhering to Classical forms. Despite late

Romantic influences, he was averse to the concept of transcendent,

metaphysical ideals. He thus parted ways not only with Richard

Wagner, but also with Gustav Mahler and the younger Arnold

Schoenberg, composing a body of contrasting works that convey the

profundities, ambiguities, and inconsistencies of modern life, of an

earthbound humanity struggling to rise above religious superstition.

Strauss’s surviving choral works, while not well known, are

significant. Among nine accompanied compositions are Wandrers

Sturmlied, for 6 vv. and orch. (1884, inspired by Johannes Brahms’s

Gesang der Parzen); the expansive cantata Taillefer, op. 52, for S,

T, Bar., 8 vv., and orch. (1903); Bardengesang, op. 55, for 12 male

vv. and orch. (1905); Hymne, for four female vv., brass band, and

orch. (1897); Die Tageszeiten, op. 76, for TTBB and orch. (1928);

and Olympische Hymne, for SATB and orch. (1934, associated with

the 1936 games in Berlin). Half of his 18 unaccompanied works are

for male chorus; among them are Zwei Gesänge, op. 34, for 16 vv.

(1897); Drei Männerchöre, op. 45 (1899); Zwei Männerchöre, op. 42

(1899); Sechs Volksliedbearbeitungen (1906); Cantate (1914); and

Drei Männerchöre (1935). Other notable works include Deutsche

Motette, op. 62, for S, A, T, B, and 16 vv. (1913)—whose extreme

ranges and chromatic counterpoint make the piece notoriously dif-

ficult; and An den Baum Daphne, for 9 vv. (1943)—which reuses

themes from the opera Daphne.

STRAVINSKY, IGOR (5/17 JUNE 1882–6 APRIL 1971). Russian-

born composer, conductor, pianist, and writer. He became a citizen

of France in 1934, and of the United States in 1945. Born to a lead-

ing Russian operatic bass, he developed a lifelong appreciation for

the interaction of music with theater and literature. In 1902, after

showing some compositions to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the latter

took him on as a private student, tutoring him in orchestration and

serving generally as his mentor. Widespread, almost instant, renown

came with three ballets written for the impresario Sergey Diaghilev

and his Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and

the Rite of Spring (1913), all of which were first performed in Paris.

His earliest surviving choral piece was completed in 1912. Entitled

Zvezdolikiy (Le roi des étoiles) [Star-Face], for male chorus and large

orchestra, it was not premiered until 1939.

STRAVINSKY, IGOR • 419

Cut off from Russia by World War I, Stravinsky and his fam-

ily stayed in Switzerland. With the Russian Revolution of 1917, it

became clear that his exile would be permanent. A preoccupation

with his homeland evidently led to the composition of Podblyudnïye

[Four Russian Peasant Songs], for female voices (1914–17; rev. for

equal vv. and 4 hns., horns, 1954); and the ballet cantata Svadebka

(Les noces) [The Wedding], for S, Mez., T, B, SATB, 4 pf., and perc.

ens. (begun 1914; its “neo-Classical” instrumentation completed

1923), which is similarly based on Russian folk idioms and peasant

folksongs.

In 1920 Stravinsky and his family moved to France. Rethinking is-

sues of style, Stravinsky began favoring structure over individualistic

expression of emotion, invoking the musical past, but with modern

harmonies and rhythmic construction. This new neo-Classical ori-

entation (lasting until 1951), was evidently related to a “religious

conversion,” which led him to return formally to the Orthodox com-

munion in 1926. His new interest in religious ritual can be detected

in Oedipus Rex, an opera-oratorio on a Latin text for nar., solo vv.,

male chorus, and orch. (1927, rev. 1949); and it is made explicit in

both Otche nash, an unaccompanied Slavonic setting of the Lord’s

Prayer (1926, rev. as Pater noster, 1949) and Symphony of Psalms,

for mixed choir and orch. (1930). Other works of the time include the

Slavonic Simvol verï [Symbol of Faith] (1932, rev. as Credo, 1949)

and Bogoroditse devo [Blessed Virgin] (1934, rev. as Ave Maria,

1949). Both are for unaccompanied mixed choir. In 1934 he com-

pleted Perséphone, a melodrama in three scenes for spkr., T, SATB,

and TrA, a work whose arbitrary inflection of the text offended the

librettist, André Gide.

Throughout these years Stravinsky traveled on concert tours to

sustain an income, conducting or playing his own works. In the fall

of 1939, having experienced bereavement during the previous year

in the deaths of his daughter, wife, and grandmother, he emigrated to

the United States In 1940 he remarried; a year later the couple settled

in Los Angeles. Forced into a new economic paradigm, he wrote

works for the marketplace, among them, the short biblical “cantata”

Babel, for male nar., male vv., and orch. (1944), intended as part of

a composite work called Genesis Suite, a project instigated by Na-

thaniel Shilkret (a recording conductor for RCA Victor), for which

Arnold Schoenberg provided the prelude, and Darius Milhaud, the

420 • STRAVINSKY, IGOR

movement Cain and Abel. Here, too, Stravinsky insisted on writing

nonrepresentational, objective music.

A longing for his homeland evidently led him back to ritualistic

sacred music. His Mass, for TrATB, 2 ob., eng. hn., 2 bn., 2 tpt.,

and 3 trbn. (1944–48), is for the Roman rite rather than the Orthodox

one (since the latter forbids instruments), and employs deliberately

archaic elements and techniques, including chant, fauxbourdon, tro-

ping, and antiphony. In keeping with the work’s liturgical purpose,

the composer specified children’s voices for the treble parts. The

work deliberately avoids emotional expression; indeed Stravinsky

intended it as a corrective to the sentimentalism of Wolfgang Ama-

deus Mozart’s masses, some of which he had recently encountered.

Stravinsky’s musical style and cultural orientation took a major

turn under the influence of Robert Craft—a young New Yorker and

advocate of Schoenberg’s music, who became Stravinsky’s personal

assistant and constant companion, living with the family from the

end of 1949. Craft’s influence on the composer soon became obvi-

ous. In 1952 Stravinsky wrote Cantata, for S, T, female vv., 2 fl.,

ob., ob. and eng. hn., and vc. The work demonstrates his awakening

interest in serialism—evident its canonic procedures, which include

both retrograde and inverted motion. Canticum sacrum, for T, Bar.,

chorus, and orch., followed in 1955. It was one of Stravinsky’s first

pieces to use a 12-note row. Commissioned by the Venice Biennale,

it was premiered in San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) the following

year. Its five-movement, symmetrical structure (perhaps influenced

by the cathedral’s five-domed architecture), is made explicit by

outer movements that mirror each other in retrograde fashion, and a

triptych of movements—exhortations to the virtues of charity, hope,

and faith—forming a central arch. As a companion piece, Stravinsky

wrote Chorale Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch” by J. S. Bach,

an arrangement for mixed chorus and orchestra of Bach’s original

organ work, but with enriched harmonic structure and contrapuntal

texture.

A fascination with Carlo Gesualdo resulted in Tres sacrae can-

tiones, for mixed chorus (1957–59), a reconstruction of three motets

for which Stravinsky supplied the sextus and bassus parts. In 1958

he completed Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae, for

S, A, 2 T, 2 B, chorus, and orch. It was his first piece based entirely

on a 12-tone row. The work’s dark orchestration (which sees the

STRAVINSKY, IGOR • 421