page_title: Antonín Dvořák
section_title: Choral works
hierarchical_section_title: Antonín Dvořák / Works / Choral works
caption_attribution_description: English: The title page of the score of Stabat Mater. The remembrance of the performance in Worcester on 12 September, 1884.
context_page_description: Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer, one of the first to achieve worldwide recognition. Following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana, Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák's own style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them".
  Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being an apt violin student from age six. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special success, in 1873, when he was aged 31. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to a prize competition in Germany, but did not win, and the unreturned manuscript was lost until rediscovered many decades later. In 1874 he made a submission to the Austrian State Prize for Composition, including scores of two further symphonies and other works. Although Dvořák was not aware of it, Johannes Brahms was the leading member of the jury and was highly impressed.
context_section_description: To Dvořák's main choral works belong his setting of Stabat Mater (the longest extant setting of that text), his Requiem, his setting of the Te Deum and his Mass in D major.
  The Stabat Mater, Op. 58, is an extensive (c. 90 minutes) vocal-instrumental sacred work for soli (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), choir and orchestra based on the text of an old church hymn with the same name. The first inspiration for creating this piece was the death of the composer's daughter, Josefa.
  Antonín Dvořák composed his Requiem in 1890, at the beginning of the peak period of his career. Dvořák was a deeply religious man, and this work reflects his faith and spirituality. The premiere of the work took place on 9 October 1891 in Birmingham, conducted by Dvořák himself, and was "very successful". It had an outstanding success in Boston 30 November 1892: "the composer was frequently applauded between numbers and given a most enthusiastic ovation at the end.". In Vienna it was greeted, belatedly, in 1901: "The Vienna performance in March 1901 was a triumph of Dvořák's music, as if the Viennese public wished thereby to make up for their earlier, sometimes cool reception of his works."
  The Te Deum, Op. 103, is a cantata for soprano and baritone solo, choir and orchestra to the Latin text of the famous hymn Te Deum (God, we laud You). It was composed in 1892 and dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. The composition had been completed before Dvořák moved to America and was commissioned by Jeanette Thurber in 1891, when the composer accepted a position as director of her school. The composition, which is on a more intimate scale than the Stabat Mater and Requiem, was premiered at Dvořák's first concert in New York on 21 October 1892.
  The Mass in D major (originally numbered as Op. 76, finally as Op. 86) was originally intended for organ, solo voices and small choir. The work was given its final shape in the year 1892 when, in response to a request from the Novello publishers of London, Dvořák arranged his Mass for a symphony orchestra.
  The oratorio Saint Ludmila was a huge success in Bohemia and Moravia, sung at events in Dvořák's honor in 1901 and 1904. Its text, in Czech, may have limited its audience among non-Czech speakers. The piece had a considerable success in England in October 1886, with an audience on the 15th "in raptures... the critics praised the music in the warmest terms", and on the 29th, there was a "large and equally enthusiastic audience, and once again the critics were full of praise", but a drawback was that the libretto, specifically its translation into English, was "regarded on all sides as unsatisfactory".
  The cantata The Spectre's Bride, Op. 69, B. 135, performed in 1885 at the Birmingham, England, Musical Festival, was the greatest success in Dvořák's career up to that point.
caption: Title page of the score of Stabat Mater, with signatures of performers
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