The Triumph of Music 
Marc Chagall 
1966
Oil on canvas
Lincoln Center
New York City, New York

In 1966, renowned artist Marc Chagall painted two enormous murals for the newly constructed Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Entitled The Triumph of Music and The Sources of Music, the murals, considered one of New York’s treasures, were painted in Paris and then shipped to New York. In this painting we see an explosion of color as floating musicians, dancers, and trumpeting angels are swept up in the whirlwind of celebratory color and movement. In the works of Chagall, music takes on a ceremonial and ritual significance; it accompanies major events in the life of individuals and society, and encourages a spiritual quest. Having a long relationship to opera, Chagall also painted the ceiling of the Paris Opera, as well as set murals for Mozart’s Magic Flute, sets and costumes for Stravinsky's Firebird for the Metropolitan Opera, and costumes for Daphnis and Chloe: A Shepherdess for the National Opera in Paris. Music was a constant source of inspiration for Chagall, both as a subject of creation and as a rhythm of composition. Intimately linked to his family and the Jewish cultural context of his native town, Vitebsk, this interest would manifest itself throughout his long life, by attentive listening to composers and by his scenic, architectural, and artistic creations. 
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-art-of-marc-chagall/

About the Artist: 
Marc Chagall (1887–1985) was a French-Russian artist whose work anticipated the dreamlike imagery of surrealism. Born to a Hasidic Jewish family, Chagall was raised immersed in Jewish culture, folklore, and iconography. After studying art in St. Petersburg, the artist moved to Paris in 1910, where he quickly befriended members of the French avant-garde. Over the course of Chagall's career, his poetic figurative style and deeply personal visual language made him one of the most popular modern artists. While many of his peers pursued ambitious experiments that often led to abstraction, Chagall's distinction lies in his steady faith in the power of figurative art, one that he maintained while absorbing ideas from fauvism and cubism. In addition to his paintings, Chagall was noted for his vibrant works in stained glass, theatre design, and lithography. Forced to flee Paris during World War II, Chagall lived in the United States for a short period and traveled to Israel before returning to France in 1948. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna, among many others.
https://www.marcchagall.net/

About the Music: 
“Psalm 149, Op. 79, B. 91: Psalm CXLIX, Op. 79” from the album Dvorák: Stabat Mater / Psalm 149

At the beginning of 1879, composer Antonin Dvorák was approached by the Hlahol Choral Society, a Czech choir, with the request that he write a new choral work. From the Book of Psalms he chose Psalm 149, writing a composition for a male choir with orchestral accompaniment. The text of the psalm is akin to a hymn in praise of God, which is also reflected in Dvorák’s conception––the entire work is ceremonial and jubilant in mood. When, eight years later, Dvorák was revising earlier pieces he had not yet published, he decided to rework his psalm to some extent as well. Apart from minor alterations in the orchestral score, the chief revision concerned the choral parts, which he rewrote for mixed choir. It was in this definitive form that the piece was published by Simrock in 1888.
http://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/149th-psalm

Lyrics:
O praise ye the Lord, and sing a new song,
amid all his saints his praises prolong.
The praise of their Maker his people shall sing,
and children of Zion rejoice in their King.

With timbrel and harp and joyful acclaim,
with gladness and mirth, sing praise to his name;
for God in his people his pleasure doth seek,
with robes of salvation he clotheth the meek.

In glory exult, ye saints of the Lord;
with songs in the night high praises accord.
Go forth in his service and strong in his might
to conquer all evil and stand for the right.

For this is his word: his saints shall not fail,
but over the earth their pow'r shall prevail.
All kingdoms and nations shall yield to their sway.
To God give the glory and praise him for aye.

About the Performers:
Jiri Belohlavek (conductor), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, and Bambini di Praga Choir

Jiri Belohlavek, CBE (1946–2017), was a Czech conductor. He was a leading interpreter of Czech classical music and became chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, a role he would fill on two occasions during a combined span of seven years (1990–92, 2012–17). He also served a six-year tenure as the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2012. Belohlavek gained international renown and repute for his performances of the works of Czech composers such as Antonín Dvorák and Bohuslav Martinu, and was credited by Czech music specialist Professor Michael Beckerman as  "the most profound proponent of Czech orchestral music."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_B%C4%9Blohl%C3%A1vek

Since its very first concert in January 1896, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra has been led by and composed of outstanding artists, all of whom have contributed to building the Philharmonic's excellent reputation at home and around the world. The 126-year-old Czech Philharmonic gave its first concert—an all Dvorák program which included the world premiere of his Biblical Songs, Nos. 1-5, conducted by the composer himself. Throughout the Czech Philharmonic’s history, two features have remained at its core: its championing of Czech composers and its belief in music’s power to change lives. The Czech Philharmonic is an orchestra with more than 120 players. The Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Jakub Hrusa, paid tribute to Jirí Belohlávek with a special performance of Dvorák’s Stabat Mater in June 2017, the last piece that Maestro Belohlavek recorded with the orchestra.
https://www.ceskafilharmonie.cz/en/

The Prague Philharmonic Choir is a world-renowned Czech choir of classical music from Prague. In 1935 the singer/choir director Jan Kuhn initially founded the choir for Czechoslovakian radio. Over time, the original amateur ensemble developed into a professional choir which was subsequently integrated into the Czech Philharmonic in 1953. In the 1960s, the choir received invitations from all over Europe and made influential recordings of important works such as Dvorák's Stabat Mater directed by Wolfgang Sawallisch, Johannes Brahms' Deutsches Requiem, and Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony under Zubin Mehta, which were met with international acclaim. Recordings made in collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic have won international awards from Paris, Cannes, Berlin, and Tokyo. Today the ensemble is one of the most important parts of the Czech cultural scene and some of its concerts are considered to be the socio-cultural highlights of the history of the country.
https://www.filharmonickysbor.cz/en/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prager_Philharmonischer_Chor

Bambini di Praga Choir
Bambini di Praga was a Czech children's choir composed mainly of girls based in Prague and active from 1973 to 2011. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bambini_di_Praga

About the Composer: 
Antonin Dvorák (1841–1904) was one of the first Czech composers to achieve worldwide recognition. Dvorák frequently employed rhythms and aspects of the folk music of his native Bohemia. His style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them.”  Dvorák’s first piece of a religious nature, his composition of Stabat Mater, was premiered in Prague in 1880. It was also very successfully performed in London in 1883, leading to many other performances in the United Kingdom and United States. During his career, Dvorák made nine invited visits to England, often conducting performances of his own works. In 1892, Dvorák moved to the United States and became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. While in the United States, Dvorák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide, and his Cello Concerto, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concertos. In the summer of 1893, Dvorák moved from New York City to Spillville, Iowa, where he wrote his most famous piece of chamber music, his String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, which was later nicknamed the American Quartet. He left the United States and returned to Bohemia in 1895. All of Dvorák's nine operas, except his first, have librettos in Czech and were intended to convey the Czech national spirit. He has been described as "arguably the most versatile...composer of his time.” The Dvorák Prague International Music Festival is a major series of concerts held annually to celebrate Dvorák's life and works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k
https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/composers/antonin-dvorak/biography

About the Poet: |
Ku Sang (1919–2004), a Korean writer, playwright, and poet, is considered one of Korea’s most respected poets. Raised Catholic, he had a crisis of faith after studying in Japan but returned to his faith later in life. His efforts to publish his poetry in Korea after the end of World War II were met with resistance from the Communist authorities in the North so he fled to the South. Ku served as a writer deployed to cover the South Korean military during the Korean War. He wrote essays on literature, social issues, and religion. His poetry is a potent commentary on the injustice, inequity, and absurdity of modern society. Though Ku grounds his poetry in his Christian faith, he also embraces a wide variety of other spiritual and religious influences, including Korean legends, Korean traditional culture, nature, and the tradition of contemplation in Seon Buddhism, and Taoist thought. Ku seamlessly fuses these diverse strands of thought with the Christian belief of salvation. In his constant examination of both Korean tradition and his religious faith, Ku’s poetry probes the depths of human existence with a constant awareness of the meaning of history, while attempting to capture the realm of absolute faith.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Sang
http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/AboutKuSang.html

About the Devotion Author:  
Debbie Schuster
Co-leader, SentWell Missionary Care Team 
Director, Deepen: Relational Spiritual Formation

Debbie Schuster co-leads SentWell, a global, multidisciplinary missionary-care team based in southern Spain. She also directs Deepen, a two-year program in spiritual formation and spiritual companioning designed for cross-cultural workers. Debbie is mom to three adults and their spouses, and grandmother of seven—she misses all of them terribly.