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''Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae'', usually referred to simply as ''Threni'', is a musical setting by Igor Stravinsky of verses from the Book of Lamentations in the Latin of the Vulgate, for solo singers, chorus and orchestra. It is important among Stravinsky's compositions as his first and longest completely dodecaphonic work,〔 but is not often performed. It has been described as "austere"〔 but also as a "culminating point" in his career as an artist, "important both spiritually and stylistically" and "the most ambitious and structurally the most complex" of all his religious compositions,〔 and even "among Stravinsky's greatest works".〔 Stravinsky composed ''Threni'' in 1957–1958 for the Venice Biennale, and it was first performed there in September 1958. A performance in Paris two months later was a disaster, attributed to inadequate performers and insufficient rehearsals. It led to mutual recriminations between Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez and Robert Craft. The work was first published in 1958 and first recorded in 1959, in a recording conducted by the composer. As ''Threni'' was intended for concert rather than liturgical use, Stravinsky chose the text freely from the early chapters of the Book of Lamentations. It has three movements: the large central movement is surrounded by two much shorter ones. Ernst Krenek composed a setting of the Lamentations in 1942, and Stravinsky acknowledged that it might have influenced him. He considered it less likely that works by Renaissance composers, including Tallis, Byrd and Palestrina, had influenced him, although he had studied such music. == History == Stravinsky composed ''Threni'' between the summer of 1957 and the spring of 1958,〔 beginning it on 29 August 1957 at the piano of the nightclub in the hotel where he was staying in Venice,〔 and completing it before 27 March of the next year.〔 It was first performed on 23 September 1958 in the hall of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice. Stravinsky dedicated the performance to Alessandro Piovesan, director of the Venice Biennale, who had recently died.〔 The first Paris performance, on 14 November 1958, was disastrous. According to Stephen Walsh, Pierre Boulez failed to fulfil his undertaking to obtain adequate performers, and those that he could obtain broke down several times. The audience response was polite at first, but when Stravinsky refused to return and take a bow, it gradually descended into jeers. Stravinsky said he would never conduct in Paris again.〔 Stravinsky felt humiliated by what he called a "scandalous concert", writing in his diary immediately after the performance that it was the "unhappiest concert of my life" and blaming Boulez for the result.〔 Robert Craft adds that Boulez had promised to rehearse ''Threni'', but failed to do so. Stravinsky nevertheless had a share in the blame for not cancelling the concert despite the pleas of family and friends, including his wife and Nadia Boulanger.〔 Conceding that the performance was a "catastrophe", Boulez nevertheless insisted that he did in fact participate in the piano rehearsals, together with Stravinsky, whom he had tried in vain to persuade to be more firm with the singers. He concluded that Stravinsky "was not a good conductor; he was a terribly lousy conductor", and the problems with the singers were compounded because "the orchestra had been ill-prepared by Craft". While agreeing that the singers were "absolutely awful", Boulez protested they had been chosen not by himself, but by an agent in charge of the Aix-en-Provence festival.〔 Stravinsky himself conducted the first recording in January 1959 with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. This recording has been reissued several times since first being published on LP in 1959, and forms part of the 2007 release of Stravinsky's works by Sony.〔 ''Threni'' was first published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1958. Conducting from this score is difficult because of a shortage of bar lines.〔 Asked by Robert Craft about this, Stravinsky said, "The voices are not always in rhythmic unison. Therefore, any bar lines would cut at least one line arbitrarily". He recommended the conductor to "merely count the music out as he counts out a motet by Josquin".〔 However, a revised edition, with several changes to the barring as well as some corrections, was issued in 1965.〔 Stravinsky had already used twelve-tone technique earlier in the 1950s, both in ''Canticum Sacrum'' (1955) and in ''Agon'' (1957). But neither of these is exclusively dodecaphonic, whereas ''Threni'' is.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Threni (Stravinsky)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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