Four Moravian Male Choruses

Janacek Four Moravian Male Choruses

The Four Moravian Male Choruses were composed by Janácek in 1904 and dedicated to the Singing Society of Moravian Teachers.  The collection comprises the songs If You Knew, The Evening Witch, The Gnat’s Wedding and Parting.  The first two of the aforementioned choruses had been lying in Janácek’s house for some time without ever being performed, and it was presumably for this reason that the composer made swift use of the circumstances and offered them to the choir’s founder Ferdinand Vach, who admitted they “gave the Society some trouble”. 

The Moravian Teachers performed both the pieces the subsequent year in Prerov with the composer in attendance, and the following years they remained a successful part of their repertoire for concerts both at home and abroad.  The composer, clearly satisfied with the increasing level of artistic proficiency of the ensemble, added two more choruses soon after, finally collecting them under the title Four Moravian Male Choruses.