Musical Moments #30
“Music exalts each joy, allies each grief, expels diseases, softens every pain, subdues the rage of poison and the plague.
John Armstrong (1744)
“Eja mater fons amrois” from Stabat Mater
Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Antonín Dvorák possessed the remarkable ability to be hopeful while simultaneously expressing mournfulness, a sentiment to which we all can surely relate during these trying times.
Dvorák knew the depths of suffering far too well. Looking for a way to express his grief at the passing of his two-day old daughter Josefa, he started work on a setting of Stabat Mater. This text gains it power from relating to Mary’s grief at the loss of her Son. Dvorák put the work aside only to return to it after his eleven-month-old daughter Rose died suddenly from swallowing a phosphorous compound, and a month later, his three-year old son Otakar, his last surviving child, died of smallpox. To assuage his grief, he threw himself into finishing his Stabat Mater, completing it in only two months. Three years would pass, however, before he could bring himself to perform this mournfully emotive work. To alleviate some angst you might feel about Dvorák’s deep family trauma, during the decade beginning in 1878, he and his wife had six more children, all of whom survived to adulthood.
Writing sorrowful music did not come easily for Dvorák. He was by nature cheerful and known for his gracious and kind demeanor. But this work was truly personal, and while we hear the profound mourning mixed with a bit of anger, this movement, and the whole work, leave me with hope and faith.
The Latin text for this movement relays the depth of loss and searching for purpose:
Oh Mother, fount of love, make me feel the force of your grief,
So that I many mourn with you.
Grant that my heart may burn in loving Christ my God,
So that I may be pleasing to him.
This unedited, live recording by the Bach Choir and Orchestra is from February 2017.
Music speaks at an altitude only our spirit can hear, and as you listen to this selection, put the power of music to work. Let it serve as a balm to comfort your soul.
-John V. Sinclair
"We have forgotten that we belong to each other."
Mother Teresa