The use of borrowed musical materials in Benjamin Britten's War requiem, and Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles

This study is concerned with the relationship between the compositional practices of some twentieth-century composers and their inherited musical traditions. As we have learned more about contemporary compositional practices and as we have acquired more historical distance from the origins of these styles and practices, it has become apparent that earlier musical traditions have been quite influential in the creation of many twentieth-century compositions. Certain composers have shown a great deal of interest not only in compositions of the immediate past but also in music of a wide variety of historical eras. Furthermore, this interest has frequently resulted in the borrowing of musical elements from these areas and intergrating them into new musical works. It is not uncommon to find melodies fashioned after plainchant or textures patterned after Baroque models or forms which approximate Classical examples.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance of borrowed musical materials in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem and Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles and to compare the two works with regard to those borrowings. Analyses of these works were made in order to locate examples of borrowed materials. This thesis contains discussions of those borrowed materials with regard to (a) the structural levels at which they are found and the manners in which they function at those levels, (b) their dramatic significance or use, and (c) their origins (where possible), citing period, style and composer.

1i

1ii The borrowed material in the War Requiem and the Requiem Canticles comes from a wide variety of sources. Historically, the sources range from antiquity to modern times. Stravinsky borrowed more from the pre-Gregorian era than Britten, but both composers used elements of medieval chant. Materials from the Baroque era are abundant in the War Requiem (e.g. the chorale and the recitative, the combination of certain types of texts and specific musical elements), and they are also important features in the Requiem Canticles(e.g. the chorale and the chiasmic structure). Both compositions belong to the concert Requiem tradition. . Britten's composition is much too large and too dramatic for liturgical services; furthermore, it includes nonliturgical texts. Stravinsky's work uses only fragments of the liturgy and is framed by instrumental movements. Both compositions contain some elements borrowed from earlier composers of the twentieth century. Stravinsky used the twelve-tone technique, which had been established by Schoenberg and Webern, while Britten employed certain symmetrical scale patterns and mirror inversions of chromatic materials, which were characteristic of Bartók.

Borrowed elements appear on all structural levels of both the War Requiem and the Requiem Canticles. The several movements of each work are unified by means used by other composers in other works. Within many movements borrowed forms and procedures are used, and several melodic motifs, rhythmic figures, timbres, accompaniment patterns, and other constructs used in these works had their origins in other compositions.

Borrowings also contribute to the dramatic expression of each work. Many elements are used because they are associated with a previous context. Musical material can acquire some meanings from the context in which it is found. In borrowing musical elements from one context and placing them in another, a composer also borrows some of the meaning of that previous context. Depending on the degree of familiarity of the elements borrowed, the former meaning can enhance the drama of the new composition. Several elements are borrowed for their extra-musical references. Bells, fanfares, and marches contribute to the expressive quality of the music because of their association with nonmusical situations.