BC Chorale Performs Dvořák’s Mass in D Major

On Saturday, November 6, 2021, the University Chorale of Boston College performed several choral pieces centering on Antonín Dvořák’s Mass in D Major at the Trinity Chapel on Newton Campus. The chorale was accompanied by Heinrch Christensen, director of music at King’s Chapel in Boston, on the organ.

Dvořák’s Mass setting was written in 1886 for his friend and fellow Czech lover-of-the-arts Josef Hlávka who had recently built a new chapel at his summer residence, Luzany Castle in western Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic), and wished to have a new Mass setting for the occasion.

Within three months Dvořák returned with the Mass in D Major writing to Hlávka, “I am pleased to announce that I have finished the work and that I am supremely pleased with the result. I think it will be a work that will fully suit its purpose … I would also like to thank you for giving me the impulse to write a work of this genre, it would hardly have occurred to me otherwise; until now I had only written similar works of larger proportions with considerable means at my disposal.”

In the same letter he wrote about composing the piece as a profoundly spiritual experience saying, “ It could be called: faith, hope and love for God Almighty, and an expression of thanks for this great gift, for having been given the opportunity successfully to complete a work in praise of the Highest, and in honour of our art. Do not be surprised that I am so devout, but an artist who is not cannot achieve anything like this. Take the examples of Beethoven, Bach, Raphael and many others.”

Immediately following the piece’s release to the public, it received outstanding praise. One journalist wrote of it in the Musical Opinion, saying “All now are ready to lend a hearing ear to whatever the Bohemian master may have to say; and, although conscious that the reader will have formed an unusually high opinion of the service, I cannot refrain from saying that we have here a setting of the Credo that is calculated to create a deep and lasting impression. This is truly a magnificent piece of music, such as can only be written at rare intervals even by a Dvořák.”

Over a hundred years later at a packed Trinity Chapel, the piece was executed without flaw and to great effect. Chorale member James O’Donovan, MCAS ‘24, spoke of his experience, saying, “Singing the Dvořák Mass in D was an amazing experience. The Chorale put in a lot of time rehearsing for the concert throughout the semester and having it all come together was an exciting moment, especially with it being the Chorale’s first live concert since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“The way Dvořák arranged his pieces conveys the parts of the Mass perfectly with all of its dynamic moments and ethereal movements. It was a fantastic concert for bringing the Chorale back to the live stage,” O’Donovan added.

In addition to the Chorale’s performance of the Mass in D Major, the Chamber Singers of the University Chorale performed two pieces: The Road Home by Stephen Paulus and I Will Lift Mine Eyes, a setting of Psalm 121 by Jake Runestad.