Psalmus Hungaricus

Sorrow, hope, and deliverance run through Kodály’s first and finest score for choir and orchestra. Psalmus Hungaricus, for solo tenor, chorus, and orchestra, grew out of the period of political turmoil that engulfed his native Hungary following the First World War. The work was commissioned in 1923 to mark the 50th anniversary of the merger of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest as the metropolis of Budapest. Kodály responded by setting a loose translation of Psalm 55, made in the 1560s by Mihály Vég during his homeland’s occupation by the Ottomans: the Protestant poet’s text embraces the plight of the persecuted and raises the prospect of a better future. Psalmus Hungaricus echoes the rhythmic inflections and intonation of Hungarian speech. The work’s volatile emotional temperature flows through its striking orchestral introduction and the introspective choral chant that follows, preparing the way for the tenor’s yearning prayer for mercy. Kodály underlines the soloist’s initial plea to God to hear the “voice of my complaining” with an exotic chord sequence that recurs throughout each of the work’s three unbroken yet distinct sections. The second section, more reflective but no less impassioned than its predecessor, sees the soloist lament his betrayal before joining with the chorus to praise and glorify God. A brief orchestral interlude, complete with wistful violin solo, creates the dream-like atmosphere for the tenor’s expression of undying faith in God’s grace, which leads in turn to a triumphant final choral declaration of defiance.