Clip #1
	Clip #2

Antonín Dvorák was married to Anna Cermákova on November seventeenth. The year was 1873 and the Czech composer from Bohemia was thirty-two years old. His bride was nineteen. They had met eight years earlier when Dvorák was hired to give piano lessons to Anna's sister Josefina. Soon after, Anna also began taking lessons from the young composer. Dvorák's first fondness was for the older sister Josefina, but she rebuffed his romantic interests and the relationship not only went nowhere, it simply never began. The composer then turned his attention to the younger sister, and over time a relationship developed that was strong enough to endure both the celebrations and tragedies of life. They remained married until the composer's death in 1904 and Anna never remarried.

Soon after their marriage, their first child, Otakar, was born. Like many young couples, Dvorák and his wife struggled financially. The fact that Dvorák was a musician only compounded the issue. He was already holding down a myriad of jobs trying to support the family. Dvorák was teaching at the J. A. Starý Musical Institute, playing viola in various Prague orchestras and ensembles and teaching private piano students. He was also the organist at St. Adalbert's Catholic Church in Prague. In his spare time, Dvorák was composing as often as he could. When he applied for the Austrian State Scholarship for young composers, it was not difficult for him to meet the requirement of financial hardship.

Just after celebrating the new year of 1875, Dvorák received the joyous news that he had won the scholarship, an award of 400 gulden for the year. But the year was also to be touched by sorrow. Their second child, Josefa, was born on August nineteenth and the Dvoráks welcomed their first daughter into the world. Sadly, the young couple saw their infant daughter die after living for only two days. It was this death that motivated the young composer to set the Latin text of the medieval poem "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" (the standing mother who is grieving).

Looking at the text, one can see why Dvorák might be drawn to it. Generally speaking, the Stabat Mater tells the story of a grieving parent who has lost a child to death. Specifically, it is the Latin narrative text describing Mary, the mother of Christ. She is standing next to the cross, grieving over the death of her son. This was the first sacred work that Dvorák chose to compose. Not motivated by the demands of a job, the desires of a patron, or the payment of a commission, the work is the result of something more personal. With the death of his infant daughter, it's hard to imagine that the choice of this specific text was unintentional. At this time, Dvorák set only portions of the Stabat Mater text (what we know now as movements I-IV and VIII-X) and completed the work for solo quartet, chorus, and piano accompaniment in May of 1876, roughly eight months following the death of his infant daughter Josefa.

Just a year and a month following the death of Josefa, a second daughter was born to them. On September eighteenth of 1876, Ružena Dvorákova entered the world. This child must have been like a special gift to the Dvoráks following the loss of their first daughter. During these months, Dvorák had applied for, and again was awarded, the Austrian State Scholarship for young composers. It was through this scholarship competition that Dvorák came into contact with Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Brahms served as one of the judges on the scholarship committee which reviewed the compositions that applicants submitted. Thus began a collegial relationship and personal friendship that was to endure to the end of their lives. Brahms' friendship and personal support played a pivotal role in helping Dvorák's music reach beyond the local confines of Prague. When he recommended Dvorák's music in a letter to his Berlin publisher, Fritz Simrock, he wrote:

. Dvorák has written all sorts of music, operas (Bohemian), symphonies,
quartets and piano pieces. In any case he is a very talented man - and poor with it!
Please bear that in mind!.

With this friendship and support came a growing confidence as well as a creative outburst of music. Dvorák felt confident enough to leave his organist position at St. Adalbert's to devote more time to composing. During this period Dvorák completed the Moravian Duets, twelve Evening Songs, String Quartet in D minor, Symphonic Variations, and various smaller compositions for chorus and piano.

But once again, as his professional fortunes were on the rise, tragedy struck his personal life. In August of 1877, Dvorák's eleven-month-old daughter Ružena died after getting into the kitchen cleaning supplies and drinking a solution of phosphorus. The date was August thirteenth. Less than one month later on September eighth (Dvorák's birthday) their remaining son Otakar died of chickenpox. He was three and a half years old. In the span of two years, the Dvoráks lost their first three children to death.

In response to this loss and the ensuing emotional grief, Dvorák took out the Stabat Mater which he had composed after the death of his first daughter. He expanded his earlier version by incorporating and using the entire text of the poem, adding what we will hear this afternoon as movements V, VI, and VII. In addition, rather than piano accompaniment, he orchestrated the entire work, turning it into a "symphonic oratorio." This expansion of the work is significant as it extends the work to around ninety minutes in length, surpassing all other Stabat Mater settings known at the time by roughly one third. (Gioachino Rossini's (1792-1868) 1841 setting of the Stabat Mater is about one hour in length.)

The enormous expansion of the work is understandable as Dvorák seems to seek an opportunity and means to express and communicate what must have been a time of enormous grief and sorrow for him and his wife. In orchestrating the work for full orchestra he found additional textures of sound, color and timbre to explore and express, providing Dvorák an intensity of sound and emotional expression that at times verges on the operatic and embraces the full power and passion of the Romantic Period.

Dvorák finished his expanded Stabat Mater in just over one month following the death of his son Otakar. Curiously enough, the work was not performed for over three years. The first public performance of the oratorio was the day before Christmas Eve of 1880, when it was performed in Prague by the Union of Prague Musical Artists under the baton of Adolf Cech. Once performed, the Stabat Mater helped to place Dvorák on the international map as the work found its way to Hungary, Germany, Russia, across the European continent to the British Isles, and across the ocean to the United States. In London, the work was presented in festival productions at Royal Albert Hall several years in a row with 950 chorus members and 160 orchestra members. The performances were so successful that Dvorák received commissions for new works from other music festivals throughout England and beyond. He was invited to London to conduct performances of the Stabat Mater and other compositions, becoming a foreign celebrity just as Handel had become the previous century. This culminated in Cambridge presenting him with an honorary doctorate, bringing Dvorák worldwide recognition, fame, and prominence.

Without a doubt, one can hear the grief and pain in the opening movement of the work. But even within the sorrowful sounds that quickly emerge, if one listens carefully, there arise moments of beautiful melodies and lush harmonies that break in upon the darker moments. One can imagine Dvorák suddenly remembering a moment of joy, a heartfelt embrace, a playful joke, or any one of the moments that happen spontaneously with children. This ongoing struggle between sorrow and grief, and faith, hope, and love is the central theme of Dvorák's Stabat Mater. In this, it reflects Dvorák's deeply held faith and hope in God, believing that there must be purpose to life, there must be meaning, there must be more . The work is simply a very personal and human expression . struggling, as in a tug-of-war, with the issues of faith and doubt, purpose or randomness, life and death, hope and sorrow, love and death. Perhaps the length of the work is in some way a metaphor for the struggle that Dvorák faced, to reconcile his reality with his beliefs. Was Dvorák's belief, faith and hope justified? As with all questions regarding composers, the answer is to be found in the music.

For the past several years, Associate Director, John Sutton, has been studying the Stabat Mater. A part of this indepth study took him to Prague in the fall of 2007 where he was able to study the original score complete with the composer's notes. This experience brought him closer yet to the work and the life stories behind it, setting what is sure to be a moving performance.

While in Prague, Mr. Sutton also had the good fortune of meeting and spending time with the reality and evidence of Dvorák's great hope, one of his grandsons, Antonín Dvorák III.

To see more of this wonderful trip, visit Zannel.com.

To read further about the Stabat Mater, continue here...