This ground-breaking study of Stravinsky’s spirituality presents a new view of his music as unified, challenging the current view which describes it as often discontinuous and static. Stravinsky’s spirituality is the origin of his radical restoration of time in music.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acknowledgements -- List of Tables and Illustrations -- Notes on Previously Published Material -- Prologue -- 1 The Stravinsky Legacy? -- 1 ‘Time’ for a New Legacy? -- 2 Being and Time: A Nightingale Sings … -- 1 Stravinsky’s Spirituality … -- 2 … and Musical Inheritance -- 3 Temporality in Znamenny Chant -- 4 Resonance -- 5 Le Rossignol (1908–14) -- 3 From Now to Eternity -- 1 Petrushka (1911) -- 2 Zvezdoliki (1911) -- 2.1 Stravinsky and the Old Believers -- 2.2 Time Qualities in Zvezdoliki -- 4 A Russian Spring -- 1 Time as a Mental Construct -- 2 The Rite of Spring -- 3 Time Qualities in The Rite of Spring -- 5 A Japanese Spring -- 6 Heaven and Earth -- 1 The 025 Motif and Changing Time Qualities -- 7 New Patterns for Old -- 1 Cortical Patterning -- 2 Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914) -- 3 Chant Dissident (1919) -- 4 Pulcinella (1919–20) -- 5 Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) and Cubism -- 6 Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920): Temporal Form -- 7 Time and Form: Jacques Maritain -- 8 Time for Pushkin -- 9 The Object Is Time -- 1 Mental Imaging -- 2 Octet (1923) -- 3 Oedipus Rex (1926) -- 4 Apollo (1928) -- 5 Lourié’s Understanding of Stravinsky -- 10 A Journey to Hyperspace -- 1 1st Movement -- 2 2nd Movement -- 3 3rd Movement -- 4 Music as a Higher Brain Function -- 11 Faith Matters -- 1 Pater Noster (1926) -- 2 Russian Credo (1932) -- 3 Ave Maria (1934) -- 4 Tests of Faith -- 5 Perséphone (1933) -- 6 Darker Times -- 7 Babel (1944) -- 8 Mass (1944–48) -- 8.1 Kyrie -- 8.2 Gloria -- 8.3 Credo -- 8.4 Sanctus -- 8.5 Agnus Dei -- 9 The Poetics of Stravinsky and Maritain -- 12 A Matter of Time -- 13 Stravinsky, Schoenberg and God -- 1 Belief in Divine Authority -- 2 Belief in the Hebrew God -- 3 Belief in Biblical Mythology -- 4 Belief in Catholic Culture -- 5 Devotion to the Word -- 6 Synthesis -- 14 New Wine -- 1 Cantata (1952) -- 2 Stravinsky, Webern and God -- 3 Canticum Sacrum (1955) -- 4 Threni (1958) -- 4.1 De Elegia Prima -- 4.2 De Elegia Tertia -- 4.3 De Elegia Quinta -- 15 Late Harvest -- 1 A Sermon, A Narrative and A Prayer (1961) -- 1.1 A Sermon -- 1.2 A Narrative -- 1.3 A Prayer -- 2 Two Bible Stories: The Flood (1962) and Abraham and Isaac (1963) -- 3 The Flood (1962) -- 4 Abraham and Isaac (1962–3) -- 5 Requiem Canticles (1966) -- 5.1 Prelude -- 5.2 Exaudi -- 5.3 Dies Irae -- 5.4 Tuba Mirum -- 5.5 Interlude -- 5.6 Rex Tremendae -- 5.7 Lacrimosa -- 5.8 Libera Me -- 5.9 Postlude -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1 Victor Ivanovitch Nesmelov: The Science of Man -- Appendix 2 Gisèle Brelet -- Bibliography -- Index.

If, as Robert Craft remarked, ‘religious beliefs were at the core of Stravinsky’s life and work’, why have they not figured more prominently in discussions of his works? Stravinsky’s coordination of the listener with time is central to the unity of his compositional style. This ground-breaking study looks at his background in Russian Orthodoxy, at less well-known writings of Arthur Lourié and Pierre Souvtchinsky and at the Catholic philosophy of Jacques Maritain, that shed light on the crucial link between Stravinsky’s spirituality and his restoration of time in music. Recent neuroscience research supports Stravinsky’s eventual adoption of serialism as the natural and logical outcome of his spiritual and musical quest.

Description based on print version record.