Dvořák: Te Deum, Op. 103, B 176 (with Score)

Antonín Dvořák:
Te Deum, Op. 103, B 176 (with Score)
Composed: 25 June - 28 July 1892
Soprano solo: Eva Urbanová
Baritone solo: Roman Janál
Conductor: Vladimír Válek
Orchestra: Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Chorus: Prague Philharmonic Choir
00:00 1. Allegro moderato, maestoso (G major)
05:41 2. Lento maestoso (E-flat major)
10:41 3. Vivace (B minor)
13:02 4. Lento (B major - G major)
Three months before Dvořák's departure for the United States, the president of New York’s National Conservatory of Music, Jeannette Thurber, asked the composer to write a new work. She requested a cantata with which Dvořák would introduce himself to American audiences and which would also be suitable for performance during the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in October 1892. She promised to send an appropriate English text for the cantata forthwith. However, the departure date was fast approaching and no text had materialised, so Dvořák decided to write his cantata to a text that had been recommended to him as an alternative, a Latin liturgical hymn in celebration of God, Te Deum laudamus. (It was only later, when the composer was already working on his cantata, that he received the text that was originally pledged - the poem The American Flag by American poet Joseph Rodman Drake. Dvořák later set this poem to music as well).
The cantata for mixed choir, orchestra and two solo voices (soprano and bass) is ceremonial, uplifting and joyful in character, and its four parts follow the formal arrangement of a classical symphony. The work is unified through quotations of several of the main themes in all four parts, and the musical ideas at the close of the work thematically draw on those from the introductory part. While the text is religious, Dvořák treats it in a highly “secular” manner, using a number of approaches which are decidedly unusual in sacred music (for example, the almost barbarian entry of the solo timpani in the introduction). One of the most spectacular of Dvořák’s works, the Te Deum heralds the beginning of the composer’s American period, even though the entire piece was written on Czech soil. Seemingly, Dvořák deliberately sought some kind of “American” stylisation, at least to the extent afforded by his limited knowledge of American musical culture at that time. We will notice this particularly in the third movement, whose striking rhythmical theme set to an ostinato accompaniment shares traits with Indian folklore, which Dvořák would have experienced in Prague in 1879 during a performance by a group of Iroquois Indians.
www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/work...

[@filipjandus4537]

On of the Dvořák's best works. And one of the finest music ever!

[@piano1500]

I had the privilege of performing and recording this piece with the NJ Symphony while in college.

[@chadweirick67]

I didn't know this piece while it has one heck of an intro doesn't it

[@pietervoogt]

I like the change to the minor parallel after 1:15 very simple trick but it works for me. Sounds Slavic to me too but I am no expert about that

[@isaacparra2071]

◑ 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊 ◐