Featured Book: The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross (continued)

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Ross writes in Chapter 3, "Dance of the Earth": "Stravinsky … asked Cocteau to write a French-language adaptation of the story of Oedipus. He then had Cocteau's text translated into Latin. 'The choice [of Latin],' Stravinsky later wrote, 'had the great advantage of giving me a medium not dead, but turned to stone and so monumentalized as to have become immune to all risk of vulgarization.' … 'Kaedit nos pestis' — 'Plague is upon us' — the chorus chants at the opening, over five booming chords in the key of B-flat minor. On its own, the core progression would sound a bit creaky and cliched. What adds drama is the bass line, which sticks to the notes of the B-flat-minor chord but gnashes against the changing chords above. The impression, here and throughout the work, is of damaged, decaying grandeur — like acid streaks on cathedral marble. … Stravinsky's alertness to the rhythm of words puts bounce and thrust into the archaic Latin text. The word 'moritur,' coming at the end of the three opening gestures, sets in motion a purring triplet figure that propels the work to the end" (pp. 116-117).