Canzona for 12 Instruments

Instrumentation

11(eh)1(bcl)1 0100 vibr,pf,hp,vn,va,vc,cb

Year

1971

Duration

14:00

Composed

1/22/1971 - 6/9/1971

Dedication

to the memory of Igor Stravinsky

Commission

for Speculum Musicae

I composed Canzona during the first half of 1971, out of admiration for the aspirations of the recently-formed Speculum Musicae.  Igor Stravinsky died during the time I was working, and my reverence for his work impelled me to dedicate mine to his memory. The Canzona already (I thought) was close in spirit to the chamber orchestra works Stravinsky wrote during the late 1930's and early '40's, but once the work was redefined in my mind as a memorial, other acts of homage began to appear in its details and surface as well. These I think are obvious. For the rest, the Canzona is, in its exterior, a celebration of the instrumental capacities of the ensemble for whom it was destined; and in it interior it carries forward my longstanding concern with goal-directed form

-C.W.