In response to a commission by the Biennale di Venezia, Kagel next wrote a homage to the composer to whom his music of the time seems most indebted: Stravinsky. To complicate matters, the text for the solo bass is chosen from Borodin’s Prince Igor (sung in the original Russian), hence the title of the work Fürst Igor, Strawinsky (1982). Stravinsky’s tomb is, of course, located in Venice, and indeed, Prince Igor was premiered in the church in which Stravinsky’s funeral took place, Chiesa di San Michele; as a further parallel, Kagel had even planned to arrive there by gondola. The piece certainly starts in ritualistic fashion with stroked on a piece of wood representing the semanterion used in the Orthodox church; tjere are echoed at the end by an actual semanterion which is paraded through the performance space by a previously hidden performer who is dressed entirely in white
¹.