Abraham and Isaac (Stravinsky)
Abraham and Isaac is a sacred ballad for baritone and orchestra by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1962–63. For the Israel Festival, Stravinsky set the biblical story to Hebrew text, even though Hebrew was not his first language. His friend, philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, helped him understand how the words should sound and be shaped musically. The piece began in 1962 and was finished on March 3, 1963, dedicated to the people of the State of Israel. It premiered on August 23, 1964 in Jerusalem, with baritone Ephraim Biran and the Israel Festival Orchestra conducted by Robert Craft.
The music is written for a baritone soloist and a small orchestra: two flutes, an alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, horn, two trumpets, a tenor trombone, a bass trombone, tuba, and a string quintet.
Stravinsky described the work as having five parts, but the score is actually divided into seven sections that flow continuously with changes of tempo. The piece is built from a twelve-note row, shaped into hexachordal rotational patterns. He often uses verticals—columns from these patterns—to create guiding chord sequences. The basic row is: G A♭ B♭ C D♭ A B E♭ D E G♭ F, which is interval-class palindromic, following the sequence of interval classes 1–2–2–1–4–2–4–1–2–2–1.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:42 (CET).