This large-scale work originally written for male voices has been adapted for mixed voices by Kodály himself. The work was written initially for the centennial of the Calvinist Teacher Training Institute in Nagykőrös. Nothing has been discovered as to when he actually did the arrangement. The year 1952 was suggested by eyewitnesses who have said the version was first performed by the Budapest Pozsonyi Street Calvinist Church choir in 1953. (The date 1952 appears at the end of a fair copy in an unknown hand.) This is the first time this arrangement is published in print in the hope that great joy is found in performing a very rich score that calls for considerable vocal skill.

Zoltán Kodály’s complete choral works for mixed voices were published in a new, extended, edition in 2018 (Z. 6725 and Z. 6725A). This volume containing 51 compositions has been edited by the renowned conductor Péter Erdei, one of the most devoted interpreters of Kodály’s choral works. The new edition takes into consideration the manuscript sources for the compositions housed in the Kodály Archives in Budapest. The publication features new, easily-legible music scores edited on uniform principles. For better readability, the new edition is printed in a slightly larger format than previous editions.

The present publication is an offprint from the renewed edition of Kodály’s complete choral works for mixed voices. It has the same format as the volume, and has been printed on excellent-quality pale-yellow paper.