Love-promise (Ttbb)

Love-Promise is the third movement of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s cycle‘Five Choruses For Male Voice’.

The cycle of five choruses is set to Lithuanianfolk texts translated by Frantisek Ladislav Celakovsky and is written for unaccompanied male choir (TTBB Voices). The title page of the autograph score bears the note: “Composed on the journey from Prague to Vienna,12th ofDecember 1878”.

The individual parts of the cycle present a vibrant palette of moods, from the balladic ‘Dwellers by the Sea’ to the final, light-hearted ‘The Sparrow’s Feast’. The songs’ melodies echo thespirit of folk songs, and the composer used simple but colourful harmonies and chose a strophic form.