Biblical Songs, Op. 99

Antonin Dvořák’s works capture the essence of central European (Bohemian) folk traditions melded to a cosmopolitan or “high art” style of concert music. Ironically, some of his most famous pieces—the New World Symphony in E Minor, the powerful B-minor Cello Concerto—were written in the United States, where he lived in the 1890s as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Despite the demands of his administrative post, Dvořák found these American years to be particularly fruitful; witness the above mentioned symphonic works, as well as the ten Biblical Songs, written in March 1894.
Spiritual earnestness ran deep within Dvořák, so the idea of composing musical settings based on the Book of Psalms had likely been with him for some years. But several prominent losses—the deaths of Tchaikovsky and Gounod, two of Dvořák’s rivals; the passing of Hans von Bülow, a conductor and close friend who championed Dvořák’s music throughout Europe; and the news from back home of his father’s impending demise—; these events all helped quicken the impulse to set the Biblical Songs. Tonight we hear a selection of five from the set, nos. 3, 4, 6, 8, and 9.
Song 3, setting the opening lines of Psalm 55 (“Hear, oh hear my prayer”), explores a mood of gentle entreaty with steady pulsing chords in the accompaniment, while stronger emotions emerge through ascending chromatic melodic motion, already hinted at in the brief piano prologue. Dvořák uses the pitch G as a kind of anchor to which the vocal line returns again and again. The same strategy is used in song no. 4 (Psalm 23), which opens as a recitative anchored on the pitch B. The piece typifies the composer’s genius for a simple folk style, unencumbered by layers of harmonic twists and turns, and which thus allows the clarity of the Psalmist’s feelings to come through on the wings of pure sound.
Dvořák revisits the B pedal tone in song no. 6, his treatment of verses from Psalm 61. The high chordal accompaniment yields a serene, consoling atmosphere as backdrop to the strophic melody. The simplicity of the opening material works in deliberate contrast to the more impassioned middle section; the contrast may be understood as an opposition between hymn and lied styles, between the divine and earthly impulses. Song no. 8 (Psalm 25) turns inward, meditating on feelings of pain and desolation. Dvořák heightens the austere mood with unison writing between piano and voice and a very minimal accompaniment. All this is by way of preparation for the touching expressive breakthrough to C major at the pivotal phrase, “For I trust in Thee.” A similar effect occurs toward the close of song no. 9 (the first four verses of Psalm 121). The opening section sounds free and unmeasured but then proceeds to strummed chords redolent of celestial harps. The breakthrough here takes place on “Behold” and employs the exact same melodic motion—a leap from G up to E—that marked the emotional crux of the previous song.

(c) Jason Stell