Notes on Stravinsky's Abraham and Isaac

Abstract

Thirteen years after the appearance, in 1950, of Schoenberg's Hebrew setting of Psalm 130, De Profundis, Op. 50B, Stravinsky has composed his latest Biblical work, on the text in Genesis 22: 1-19, in its original language. It can be assumed that both these works are destined occupy a special niche in the pantheon of midtwentieth-century music, not only by reason of their evident beauty, but because facts of our time's history led their composers, independently, express an awareness of, and admiration for, a country born in our day and attached our consciousness. Stravinsky has dedicated Abraham and Isaac to the people of the new State of Israel, and Schoenberg, in a letter dated May 29, 1951, wrote concerning the De Profundis, . .. I plan make this, together with two other pieces, a donation Israel...)