Igor Stravinsky - Babel (1944) [with score]

Babel - cantata for reciter, male chorus & orchestra Written by Igor Stravinsky in 1944 Thanks to Thomas Van Dun for the preparation of this score video. Performed by John Calicos (recitor), Festival Singers of Toronto (conducted by Elmer Iseler) and the CBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Igor Stravinsky Edition Schott © ’Babel, Igor Stravinsky’s cantata based on texts from Genesis 11:1-9, was composed in Hollywood in winter and spring of 1944. The original idea was not Stravinsky’s, but that of the music publisher and composer Nathaniel Shilkret. Shilkret conceived the idea of a collective composition setting the opening chapters of the book of Genesis and commissioned various composer to provide the music. The Prelude, for example, was assigned to Schoenberg, the Flood to Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Cain and Abel to Darius Milhaud, with Shilkret composing Creation. Babel was premiered on November 18, 1945, in Los Angeles as pa