Žalmové kompozice Pavla Haase

Abstract

Pavel Haas's psalm compositions, or fragments of them, represent the only three works that relate more closely to the Jewish faith and that set to music the religious text used in Jewish liturgy. Haas was educated in the Jewish religion at both the grammar school and the secondary school, and his father was involved in Czech-Jewish associations and in the Brno Jewish religious community. However, it is difficult to determine what role the Jewish faith played in the composer's life. The setting of the 19th Psalm for tenor and organ to a German text dates from 1916 and may have been somehow related to the family's difficult living situation during the First World War. The composer returned to religious themes again in the late 1920s, when he considered composing two operas with religious motifs. This period also includes a sketch of the 31st Psalm of King David from 1928, the main theme of which the composer later adopted in his Overture for Radio, Op. 11. Finally, from 1931–32 comes the composition of Psalm 29 for organ, baritone, female choir and small orchestra, Op. 12. This work was composed for the Brno organ virtuoso Bohumil Holub, the first performer of Janáček's Glagolitic Mass and Casella's Concerto Romano. Both of these works influenced Haas's composition to some extent. The course of the composition from the original concept of the Organ Concerto to the final version, which was performed at the premiere of the work in 1933, is described in detail.