Not quite true about it originally being a chorale - Stravinsky wrote a chorale for Debussy, which exists in its entirety within the symphony. It's broken up in an episodic from that jumps between the chorale and 3 or 4 other main sections. The entire piece is still dedicated to Debussy, and eventually everything else fades out leaving just the dense harmony of the chorale, but it's interesting to note that the chorale came first (but never published or anything to my knowledge) and was then worked into a larger piece.
|