Village Gossip

Village Gossip is the first movement of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s cycle ‘Five Choruses For Male Voice’.

The cycle of five choruses is settoLithuanian folk 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 toVienna,12thof December 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 echothe spirit of folk songs, and the composer used simple but colourful harmonies and chose a strophic form.