Christmas concert at the Bohemian National Hall, December 2017
Enjoy a festive virtual sing-along and film about the American premiere of composer Georgius Zrunek's tri-lingual Christmas Mass – Harmonia Pastoralis – of 1766. The delightful Zrunek work, which merges folk and spiritual traditions of the Czech Lands in surprising ways, is followed by a musical celebration featuring “Old World” Czech carols.
Introduced by Professor Michael Beckerman of New York University, the film features the Czech early music group Ritornello and NYU collegiate choristers as they prepare the delightful Zrunek work for concert.
Join us also for a spirited sing-along with “Old World” Czech carols and “New World” favorites. We are pleased to present this program on December 6 – St. Nicholas Day (Svaty Mikulas) – symbolically marking the beginning of the holiday season for many in the Old World, and hope you will continue listening to these recordings for further enjoyment in the coming weeks.
The presented program was originally performed at Bohemian National Hall on December 12, 2010 by Ritornello (Michal Pospisil, Martin Kaplan, Jan Mikulasek, Josef Fiala), with NYU Collegiate Chorus; and December 10, 2017 by Michael Beckerman, piano; Laura Goldberg, violin; Klara Zikova, soprano; Karel Smekal, piano.
A Piece for the Season: Zrunek’s Harmonia Pastoralis (1766)
By Jack McLaughlin, NYU Graduate
I should offer a word of warning that some of the strange dissonances you’ll be hearing in this piece may be our mistakes, but others are fully intended by the composer. Zrunek often composes in the high style of the time, but just as often throws in folklike tropes, which may sound quite strange to our ears.
As a Moravian composer, Zrunek lay in the center of four quite different cultures. To the north, there was Poland, and to the south, Austria. But more importantly, there was Bohemia to the west, and Slovakia to the east. In the text alone, we can find the mark of these different cultures—his take on the mass alternates between direct Latin quotations, and a strange mixture of Czech and Slovak—but it shows itself still more in the music itself. Musically, this piece is a chimera, a combination of intellectual polyphony; virtuosic, Vivaldian solos; celebratory nods to folk music; somber recitations; moments of lighthearted theatricality; and jokes that rival Haydn’s.
If Christmas is a sort of cultural crossroads, Harmonia Pastoralis is the perfect exemplar. Yet it is also highly unusual. While this seasonal audience is one that revels in its amalgamation of these variegated particles, it’s rare to see them all in one place. Perhaps it is a kind of sensory overload for us, trying to shift from one mood to another so quickly. The quick oscillation between sober religiosity and blithe secularity, can, indeed, be quite a jolt. But whether you delight in the brilliance of Zrunek’s constructions, or are vexed by what may seem like his short attention span, Harmonia Pastoralis is, I can reasonably say, both a perfect showcase of the season’s ingredients, and a unique specimen among these seasonal works. If there is a better choice to celebrate the season, I cannot conceive of it!
Listen to the complete Harmonia Pastoralis (Audio CD - Misa 1), recorded by ensembles Ritornello and Gregoriana – available on Spotify, iTunes, and other platforms.
Find verses of Czech Christmas Carols here (in Czech).
The event was organized by the Dvorak American Heritage Association (DAHA), with support of BBLA.