In Nature's Realm, Op. 63, B126

The cycle for unaccompanied mixed choir In Nature’s Realm is a musical setting of selected poems from the collection of the same name by Vítězslav Hálek. After the Hymn “The Heirs of White Mountain” and the song cycle Evening Songs, this is the third time that the composer turned to the work of this poet. The choice of texts containing rural themes was evidently influenced by Dvořák’s love of nature, as is well documented in his correspondence and in his contemporaries’ memoirs. The setting is characteristic for its melodic charm, and its music is almost impressionistic. This applies particularly to the strong evocation of the atmosphere of the evening woods in the second part of the cycle, one of Dvořák’s most beautiful choruses. The work is largely homophonic; only in the final part of the cycle does he use imitative and canonic approaches. It was written in January 1882 and was published that same year by Cranz Publishing in Hamburg. The premieres of the individual parts were held in stages over a period of almost three years after the completion of the work. The first performance of the cycle as a whole probably took place in Prague on 17 November 1889.