Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák (Czech pronunciation: /ˈantoɲiːn ˈlɛopolt ˈdvor̝aːk/ Nelahozeves, September 8, 1841-Prague, May 1, 1904) was a post-romantic composer born in Bohemia —a territory then belonging to the Austrian Empire—, one of the first Czech composers to achieve worldwide recognition and one of the great composers of the second half of the XIX century. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the example of his predecessor, the romantic-era nationalist Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák's style has been described as "the most complete recreation of a national language with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing popular influences and finding effective ways to use them".
Dvořák showed his musical gifts at an early age, being a good violin student from the age of six. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with particular success, in 1873, when he was 31 years old. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to an award competition in Germany, but it did not win, and the unreturned manuscript was lost until rediscovered many decades later.. In 1874 he made a submission to the Austrian State Prize for Composition, including scores of two more symphonies and other works. Although he did not know it, Johannes Brahms was the main member of the jury and he was very impressed. They awarded him the prize in 1874 and again in 1876 and in 1877, when Brahms and the noted critic Eduard Hanslick, also a member of the jury, presented themselves to him. Brahms recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Fritz Simrock, who shortly thereafter commissioned what became Slavonic Dances , Op. 46. Highly praised by the Berlin music critic Louis Ehlert in 1878, the score (of the original version for piano four hands) had excellent sales and launched his international reputation.
Dvořák's first religious piece, his arrangement of Stabat Mater, premiered in Prague in 1880. It was performed to great acclaim in London in 1883, leading to many other performances in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his career, he made at least nine guest visits to England, often conducting performances of his own works. His Seventh Symphony was written for London. Visiting Russia in March 1890, he conducted concerts of his own music in Moscow and St. Petersburg.In 1891 he was appointed professor at the Prague Conservatory. Between 1890 and 1891, he wrote his Dumky Trio, one of his most successful chamber music pieces.
In 1892, he moved to the United States and became director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. The president of the National Conservatory, Jeannette Thurber, offered him an annual salary of $15,000, twenty-five times what he was paid at the Prague Conservatory. While in the United States, he wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the New World Symphony, which spread his reputation throughout the world, and his Cello Concerto, one of the most respected of all cello concertos. In the summer of 1893, he moved from New York to Spillville, Iowa, on the advice of his secretary, Josef Jan Kovařík. Dvořák had originally planned to return to Bohemia, but Spillville was made up mostly of Czech immigrants, so he felt less nostalgic; he referred to it as his “summer Vysoká.” It was there that he wrote his most famous piece of chamber music, his String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, which was later dubbed the American Quartet. Shortly after his stay in Iowa, he extended his contract with the National Conservatory for another two years. However, the economic crisis of April 1893 led to the loss of income for Thurber's husband and directly influenced the funding of the National Conservatory. The shortfall in his salary payment, together with growing recognition in Europe and a beginning of homesickness, led him to leave the United States and return to Bohemia in 1895.
All of his nine operas except the first have Czech librettos and were intended to convey the Czech national spirit, as were some of his choral works. The most successful of the operas is Rusalka. Among his smaller works, the seventh Humoresque and the song "Songs that my mother taught me" are also widely performed and recorded. He has been described as "arguably the most versatile composer of his time".
The Prague International Dvořák Music Festival is a major concert series held annually to honor the composer's life and work.
Biography
Early Years
Antonín Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves, a small town north of Prague (then part of Bohemia in the Austrian Empire, now the Czech Republic), on September 8, 1841. His father, František Dvořák (1814-1894), owned a small hotel establishment and also worked as a professional zither player and as a butcher. His mother, Anna, née Zdeňková (1820-1882), was the daughter of Josef Zdenĕk, the bailiff of Prince Lobkowicz. Anna and František were married on 17 November 1840. Antonín was the eldest of his fourteen siblings., eight of whom survived infancy. He was baptized as a Catholic in the church of San Andrés in his town. Dvořák's early years in Nelahozeves nurtured his strong Christian faith and love of his Bohemian heritage that influenced his music so strongly. In 1847 he entered his village primary school, where he received his first musical instruction and learned to play the violin in the hands of his teacher Joseph Spitz. He showed early talent and thanks to his ability he played in a band in his village and in the church.František was very pleased with the gifts of his son. At the age of 13 and under the influence of his father, he was sent to Zlonice to live with his uncle Antonín Zdenĕk, in order to learn German. His first composition, Polka Pomnenka, was probably written in 1855.
She received piano, organ, and violin lessons from her German teacher Antonín Liehmann, who also taught her music theory and introduced her to composers of the day. Dvořák had a lot of respect for his teacher, despite the fact that he had a rather tough character. Liehmann was the church organist in Zlonice and sometimes let Dvořák play for church services. He received further organ and music theory lessons at Česká Kamenice with Franz Hanke, who further encouraged his musical talents and was more understanding. At the age of 16 and at the insistence of Liehmann and Zdenĕk, František allowed his son to become a musician, on the condition that he become an organist. After leaving for Prague in September 1857, he entered the city's Organ School., where he studied singing with Josef Zvonař, theory with František Blažek and organ with Joseph Foerster. The latter was not only a professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also an organ composer. He also took an additional language course to improve his German, and worked as an "extra" violist in numerous bands and orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Society of Saint Cecilia. He graduated from the Organ School in 1859, ranking second in his class. He applied unsuccessfully for a position as organist at St. Henry's Church (Sv. Jindřich), but remained undaunted in the pursuit of a musical career.
After graduating, his uncle stopped giving him financial help, so in 1858 he joined the Karel Komzák orchestra, with whom he performed at restaurants and balls in Prague. The high professional level of the ensemble attracted the attention of Jan Nepomuk Maýr, who hired the entire orchestra for the Bohemian Provisional Theater Orchestra. Dvořák played viola in the orchestra beginning in 1862. He could barely afford concert tickets, but playing in the orchestra gave him the opportunity to listen to music, mainly operas. In July 1863, he performed in a program dedicated to the composer. German Richard Wagner, who conducted the orchestra. He had had "unlimited admiration" for the German composer since 1857. In 1862, he had begun composing his first string quartet. In 1864, he agreed to share the rent of a flat in the Žižkov district of Prague with five other people., among whom were also the violinist Mořic Anger and Karel Čech, who later became a singer. In 1866, Maýr was replaced as chief conductor by Bedřich Smetana. The constant need to supplement his income pushed Dvořák to give piano lessons. It was through these piano lessons that he met his future wife. Originally, he fell in love with his student and colleague from the Provisional Theater Josefína Čermáková, for whom he apparently composed the song cycle Cypresses However, her love was not reciprocated and she ended up marrying another man.
In 1873, Dvořák married Josephine's younger sister, Anna Čermáková (1854-1931). They had nine children: Otakar (1874-1877), Josefa (1875-1875), Růžena (1876-1877), Otýlie (1878-1905), Anna (1880-1923), Magdalena (1881-1952), Antonín (1883- 1956), Otakar (1885-1961) and Aloisie (1888-1967). In 1898, his daughter Otýlie married his student, the composer Josef Suk. His son Otakar wrote a book about him.
Composer and organist
Dvořák numbered his String Quintet in A minor (1861) as op. 1 and his First String Quartet (1862) like his op. 2, although Jarmil Burghauser's chronological catalog lists them as B.6 and B.7 and shows five earlier compositions without opus numbers. In the early 1860s, he too made his first symphonic attempts, some of which he self-critically burned. The manuscript of a symphony in C minor without opus number, B.9, composed in 1865, survives. This symphony has come to be numbered Dvořák's First. His first attempts at composition passed without critical reception or public performances. His compositions up to 1870, according to the Burghauser catalogue, either had no known premieres, or were released in 1888 or later. For example, the Third String Quartet, B.18, was written around 1869, but was published posthumously in 1964 and premiered in 1969. In 1870, he composed his first opera, Alfred, between May and October. His overture, known as the Tragic Overture, was first performed publicly in 1905 and the complete opera in 1938.
In 1871 he left the orchestra of the Provisional Theater in order to have more time to compose. Until 1871 he only gave opus numbers to five of his first 26 compositions. The first mention of Antonín Dvořák in the press appeared in the magazine Hudební listy in June 1871 and the first publicly performed composition was the song "Vzpomínání" ("Reminiscence", October 1871, musical evenings by L. Procházka). The Provisional Theater returned the opera The king and the charcoal burner (Král a uhlir) and told him that it could not be interpreted. Its overture premiered in 1872 at a Philharmonic concert conducted by Bedřich Smetana, but the complete opera with original score was performed once in 1929 and was not performed again until a concert in September 2019 at the International Festival of Music by Dvořák of Prague. Clapham says that Dvořák realized that he had gone to "extremes in trying to follow Wagner's example". Between 1873 and 1874 he readjusted "the libretto of The King and the Coalman completely anew, in an entirely different manner", using "nothing of the unfortunate earlier version". The alternative opera, called The King and the Coalman II, B.42, premiered in Prague in 1874.
Leaving the National Theater Orchestra after his marriage, Dvořák took up the post of organist at the Church of St. Vojtěch, also called St. Adalbert, in Prague under the direction of Josef Foerster, his former teacher at the School of Organ. He was paid “a pittance” in the position, but it was “a welcome sum for the young couple.” Despite these circumstances, Dvořák still managed to compose a great deal of music at this time.
In November 1872, his Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 5, by a "splendid team of interpreters" organized by Procházka. It was his first piece ever performed in concert. In March 1873, his Czech patriotic cantata Dědicové bilé hory (The Inheritors of the White Mountain) was performed by the Society Prague Hlahol Choir of 300 singers (conducted by his friend and supporter Karel Bendl) met with warm response from both audiences and critics, making it a "resounding success". Dvořák's compositions began to gain recognition in Prague.
However, by the time Dvořák turned 33 in 1874 he remained almost unknown as a composer outside the Prague area. That year, he applied for and won the Austrian State Prize (Stipendium) for composition, in the amount of 400 guilders, awarded in February 1875 by a jury consisting of the critic Eduard Hanslick, Johann von Herbeck, director of the State Opera, and Johannes Brahms. The latter seems to have only recently joined the jury, having not been on it during the year 1874, according to Hanslick. However, Brahms had time and opportunity to appreciate Dvořák's 1874 submission. Botstein states that the purpose of the jury was "to give financial support to talented composers in need" in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The jury received a "mass presentation" by Dvořák: "fifteen works, including two symphonies, several overtures and a song cycle." Brahms was "visibly outclassed" by Dvořák's "mastery and talent". The two symphonies were the Third and the Fourth, both premiered in Prague in the spring of 1874.
Clapham provides the official report for the 1874 prize, which says that Dvořák was a relatively impoverished music teacher who "has submitted fifteen compositions, including symphonies, showing undoubted talent... The applicant... deserves a grant to ease his dire circumstances and relieve him of anxiety in his creative work." He says that he had not yet had a piano. Before they were married, he had boarded with five other men, one of whom had a small "spinet" piano.
In 1875, the year his first son was born, he composed his Second String Quintet, his Fifth Symphony, Piano Trio No. 1 and Serenade for strings in E. She participated again, but this time she did not win, in the Austrian State Prize. He won it in 1876 and finally felt free to resign his position as organist.In 1877 he wrote the Symphonic Variations and Ludevít Procházka conducted the Prague premiere of it.
International reputation
Dvořák entered the Austrian Prize competition again in 1877, where he presented his Moravian Duets and other works, possibly his Piano Concerto. result until December. He then received a personal letter from Eduard Hanslick, who had also been a member of the juries that awarded the prizes. The letter not only notified Dvořák that he had won the prize again, but also informed him for the first time that Brahms and Hanslick had been on the jury. The letter conveyed a friendly offer of help from the two to spread their music outside their native Czech Republic. In December 1877, he wrote his String Quartet No. 9 in D minor and dedicated it to Brahms. Both Brahms and Hanslick were greatly impressed by the Moravian Duets and Brahms recommended them to his publisher, Fritz Simrock, who published them with success. Noting Brahms's well-received Hungarian Dances, Simrock commissioned Dvořák to write something of the same nature. He presented his Slavic Dances, op. 46 in 1878, initially for piano four hands, but when requested by Simrock, also in an orchestral version. These were an immediate huge success. On December 15, 1878, leading music critic Louis Ehlert published a review of the Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances in the Nationalzeitung of Berlin, stating that Slavic Dances would make their way "around the world" and "a heavenly naturalness flows through this music". "There was a rush in German music stores for the dances and duets of this hitherto... unknown composer». The dances were played in 1879 in concerts in France, England, and the United States. Later, Simrock requested more Slavic Dances, which Dvořák provided in his op. 72 of 1886.
In 1879 he wrote his String Sextet. Simrock showed the score to noted violinist Joseph Joachim, who along with others premiered it in November of that year. Joachim became a "prominent supporter" of Dvořák's chamber music, and in the same year he also wrote his Violin Concerto. In December he dedicated the piece to Joachim and sent him the score.The following spring, the two discussed the score and Dvořák revised it extensively, but Joachim was still not comfortable with it. The concerto was premiered in Prague in October 1883 by the violinist František Ondříček, who also performed it in Vienna with conductor Hans Richter in December of that year. Joachim then scheduled the concerto to be performed twice more, but both times an agreement was not reached and it was never touched.
Hans Richter asked Dvořák to compose his Symphony No. 6 for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, intending to premiere it in December 1880. However, the composer later discovered that Despite this intention, the members of the orchestra were opposed to performing his works in two consecutive seasons, due to "anti-Czech sentiment". Adolf Čech conducted the premiere of the symphony at a concert by the Philharmonia (Czech: spolek Filharmonie, predecessor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra) on March 25, 1881, in Prague. Richter finally conducted the piece in London in 1882 and always held an interest in Dvořák's compositions.
Travels to England
Dvořák made at least nine trips to England, four of which took place between 1884 and 1886, where he conducted his own works. He was already known in London for performing his works, such as the Slavonic Dances (conducted by August Manns in 1879 and 1880), Slavonic Rhapsodies (under Manns, Richter and Hallé in 1880 and 1881), the Sextet of Strings (conducted by Joachim in 1880) and the Sixth Symphony (conducted by Manns in 1882), which had received favorable reviews. hosted the Stabat Mater at the Royal Albert Hall in London, under the direction of Joseph Barnby. The success "spurred a whole series of performances in England and the United States", a year before it was recognized in Germany and Austria. In early August 1883, the Royal Philharmonic Society invited him to London to conduct orchestral performances of his works for the following season. A few months later, in early November 1883, he was asked by the London music publisher Novello to conduct a performance of his Stabat Mater during their visit and to compose a work for soloists, chorus and orchestra for the 1885 Birmingham Festival and conducted himself. On March 5, 1884 Dvořák traveled to England for the first time and on March 13 he conducted the Stabat Mater at the Royal Albert Hall. A week later he conducted his Hussite Overture, Sixth Symphony and Slavic Rhapsody No. 2 at St. James's Hall, and on March 22, at The Crystal Palace, he conducted the Scherzo capriccioso and the Nocturne in B major (B.47). The London musical world regarded his visit as a "red letter major event", and hailed him as the "musical hero of the moment". The Royal Philharmonic Society made him an Honorary Member. He was promised a new symphony and was expected to write choral works for both the upcoming Birmingham Festival and the 1886 Leeds Festival. Before returning home, the owner of the Novello publishing house gave him a substantial financial advance so that composed a cantata. Thus, upon his return from this first trip to England, he found himself in a position to make one of his life's dreams come true: to acquire a summer residence so that he could retire and dedicate himself to isolation and concentration. He bought a peasant residence in Vysoká u Příbramě, where he retired whenever he could and where he composed many of his future works.
The second trip to England took place in November of that same year. Dvořák conducted the Stabat Mater again, this time at the Worcester festival. Upon returning from this trip he composed a cantata entitled The Bride of the Specter ; the text was translated into English and the score was published by Novello. The work premiered in Pilsen, Bohemia, in March 1885. He was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society to conduct concerts in London and his performances were well received there. In response to the commission, Dvořák wrote his Seventh Symphony in D minor, op. 70. It premiered at St. James's Hall on April 22, 1885, during his third trip to the country. He wrote it between December 1884 and March 1885. It is characterized by its "dramatic expression and atmosphere gloomy with grave uncertainty and stubborn defiance, and is distinguished by the absence of any Slavic-inspired melody." Dvořák wrote: "Wherever I go I only think of this work, which has to move the world, and with God's help I will succeed!" The reason for Dvořák's grief is attributed to the death of his mother, although this seems unlikely, since she died two years before he began writing the work. The work was received with great enthusiasm and critics compared it to symphonies. by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.
On a later visit in 1885, he presented his cantata The Bride of the Specter, in a concert on August 27. He had arrived a week earlier to direct the rehearsals for the 500-voice choir and 150-voice orchestra. The performance was "a triumph greater than any" that Dvořák "had had in his life up to that time...after this phenomenal success, the choral societies of English-speaking countries rushed to prepare and present the new work." In 1887, Richter conducted the Symphonic Variations in London and Vienna to great acclaim (they had been written ten years earlier and Dvořák had allowed them to languish after initial lack of interest from their publishers). Richter wrote to Dvořák about the performance in London, "in the hundreds of concerts I have given in my life, no new work has been as successful as yours".
More trips to England, Germany and Russia
In August 1886, he traveled with his wife Anna to London, which was dedicated to the presentation of The Spook's Bride, at the Birmingham Festival. After all those successes, which were increasing day by day, Dvořák achieved remarkable financial independence, which allowed him greater freedom in his artistic choices. Thus was born the purpose of a national oratory, Saint Ludmila, finished in May 1886. This oratorio premiered in Leeds in October of the same year, on the occasion of the composer's fifth trip to the British Isles. He was received with the same enthusiasm as always, so that he was able to write the following: «I am in a state of great excitement, among other things due to the remarkable performance of the orchestra (one hundred and twenty instrumentalists), the choir (three hundred and fifty singers) and of the soloists, all of the highest quality, but in a special way due to the resounding ovations of the public. I had never experienced enthusiasm in my life, the characteristic English enthusiasm!"
Despite Dvořák's newfound success, a February 1888 performance of the Stabat Mater in Vienna fell victim to growing anti-Czech sentiment and what the composer called "destructive criticism". He heartily thanked Richter for his "courage and devoted sympathy" from him.
From 1886 to 1890, he remained in his country dedicated to composition. In those years, in addition to great chamber music compositions, the Misa in D major, op. 86, the opera The Jacobin, performed at the Prague National Theater in 1899, and the Eighth Symphony in G major, op. 88. The central character of The Jacobin is Benda, a bohemian musician who lives solely for his daughter and his art. He is a reflection of Antonín Liehmann, Dvořák's teacher in his youth. The other characters closely resemble the people the composer lived and grew up with in his hometown.
In 1890, invited by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, he visited Russia and conducted performances of his own works in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. In 1891, he received an honorary degree from Cambridge University and was offered a position at the Conservatory of Prague as a professor of composition and instrumentation. He at first rejected the offer, but then accepted it; this change of heart was apparently the result of a dispute with his publisher Simrock over payment for his Eighth Symphony. As a teacher, Dvořák revealed an effective mettle, inaugurating a non-authoritarian system, faithful to what he himself had affirmed in another time, when he said that his teachers, in addition to himself, "had been the birds, the flowers and the good Lord" That same year, he made the sixth trip to England. On this occasion he presented his Eighth Symphony . His European notoriety was so great that he toured Germany and Russia, and everywhere he was showered with honours. In 1891 he made his eighth trip to England, where he conducted in Birmingham at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival his Requiem , op. 89, for soloists, choir and orchestra, composed a year earlier. That same year the Bohemian Quartet, later called the Czech Quartet, was founded with Karel Hoffmann as first violin, Josef Suk as second violin, Oskar Nedbal as viola and Otakar Berger on cello. Nedbal and Suk are said to have been two of Dvořák's "most promising" students at the Conservatory and took the initiative in founding the Quartet. Up to that date, Dvořák had written eleven string quartets, six of which had premiered., and these were available as part of the touring Bohemian Quartet's repertoire, as were the two Smetana quartets.
By then, Dvořák was still premiering new works in Prague and London. Before leaving Europe for the United States, he toured Bohemia performing the new Trío Dumky .
Stay in the United States
Between 1892 and 1895, Dvořák was director of the National Conservatory in New York, where he studied with the American composer Horatio Parker. His starting salary was $15,000.The Conservatory was founded by a wealthy and philanthropic socialite, Jeannette Thurber, who wanted a well-known composer as director, to bring brilliance to the institution. She wrote to the composer, asking him to accept the position, and he replied in the affirmative, as long as talented Native American and African-American students who could not afford this level of instruction had to be admitted free of charge, unusual for the time.. His original contract called for three hours' work a day, including teaching and conducting, six days a week, with four months' vacation each summer. The Panic of 1893, a severe economic depression, depleted the Thurber family's assets and other patrons of the Conservatory. In 1894, his salary was reduced to $8,000 per year and he was paid irregularly on top of that.
Dvořák's main goal in the United States was to discover and participate in "American music", just as he had used Czech folk idioms in his music. Shortly after his arrival in the country in 1892, he wrote a series of newspaper articles in which he reflected on the state of American music. He supported the concept that African American and Native American music should be used as the foundation for the growth of American music. He believed that through the music of Native Americans and African Americans, Americans would find their own national style of music.There he met Harry Burleigh, who later became one of the first African-American composers. Burleigh introduced Dvořák to traditional African-American spirituals.
During the winter and spring of 1893, he was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to compose the New World Symphony, which premiered under Anton Seidl to tumultuous applause. Clapham writes that "this was undoubtedly one of the greatest triumphs, and quite possibly the greatest of all, that Dvořák experienced" in his lifetime, and when the symphony was published it was "seized upon by conductors and orchestras" around the world..
Two months before leaving for the United States, Dvořák had hired Josef Jan Kovařík as his secretary, who had just finished his violin studies at the Prague Conservatory and was about to return home to the United States. There he continued to serve as the composer's secretary and lived with the Dvořák family.He had come from the Czech-speaking community of Spillville, Iowa, where his father Jan Josef Kovařík was a schoolteacher. Dvořák decided to spend the summer of 1893 in Spillville, along with his entire family. During his stay there, he composed the String Quartet in F (known as the American Quartet) and the String Quintet in E♭ major, op. 97. Returning to New York that fall, he composed his Sonatina for violin and piano. He also conducted a performance of his Eighth Symphony at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that same year.
In the winter of 1894-1895, Dvořák wrote his Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B.191, completed February 1895. On April 16, he and his wife returned to Bohemia, and in August, after receiving legal advice, he informed Thurber, who owed him money, that he would not return to Bohemia. United States in accordance with their contract.
Brahms continued to try to "clear the way for Dvořák", "the only contemporary he considered truly worthy". While Dvořák was in the United States, Simrock was still publishing his music in Germany, and Brahms corrected the proofs for him. The composer said it was difficult to understand why Brahms "would take on the tedious work of correcting the proofs. I don't think there is another musician of his stature in the whole world who does such a thing ».
Tour to Europe and last years
Dvořák returned from the United States on April 27, 1895, with his wife and Otakar Berger, and took care not to spread the news of his return. However, after a performance by Dimitrij at the National Theater on 19 May, he fled to the family's country house in Vysoká u Příbramě. His first love and later sister-in-law, Josefina Kaunitzová, née Čermáková, died in May 1895. The two had been on friendly terms during years. After his death, he revised the coda to his Cello Concerto in his memory.During his later years, he concentrated on composing opera and chamber music. In November 1895 he resumed his professorship at the Prague Conservatory, where his students included Josef Suk and Vítězslav Novák. Between 1895 and 1897 he completed his string quartets in A♭ major and G major, and also worked on the cycle of symphonic poems inspired by the collection Kytice by Karel Jaromír Erben. As seen in the Burghauser Catalog of 1960, Dvořák wrote his five symphonic poems in 1896, but after that he completed few works per year, mainly operas: The Jacobin in 1896, nothing in 1897, The Devil and Catherine between 1898 and 1899, Rusalka in 1900, two songs and «Recitatives» between 1900 and 1901, and finally the opera Armida between 1902 and 1903. Rusalka became the most popular of his ten operas and gained an international reputation.
In 1896 he made his last trip to England, his ninth, and during what would be his last stay in London he conducted the premiere of his Concerto for cello and orchestra in B minor, op. 104, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.He had started this work in America and finished it in Prague. In the same year, Brahms tried to persuade Dvořák, who had several children, to move to Vienna. Brahms said that he had no dependents and that "if you need anything, my fortune is at your disposal". Clapham writes: "Dvořák was deeply moved and his wife's eyes filled with tears, but it was utterly impossible for him, a Czech, to contemplate the possibility of leaving Bohemia". Brahms himself had a short time to live, having died on 3 April 1897. In addition, Brahms hoped to win an ally in Vienna to "counteract the influence" of Anton Bruckner.
In 1897, his daughter Otilie married his student, the composer Josef Suk. In the same year, Dvořák visited Brahms on his deathbed and attended his funeral on 6 April 1897. In November, he was appointed to the jury of the Vienna Artists' Stipend. In November 1898 he was informed that Emperor Franz Joseph I would award him a gold medal for Litteris et Artibus, a ceremony that took place before an audience in June 1899. On April 4, 1900, Dvořák conducted his last concert with the Czech Philharmonic, performing Brahms's Tragic Overture, Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven's Eighth Symphony and his symphonic poem The Dove of the Forest. In April 1901, the emperor appointed him a member of the House of Lords, along with the prominent Czech poet Jaroslav Vrchlický. Dvořák also succeeded Antonín Bennewitz as director of the Conservatory of Prague from November 1901 until his death. There, he had students who followed in his footsteps, such as Dobri Hristov. Dvořák's 60th birthday was celebrated as a national event. First, around the present date, six of his operas and the St. Ludmila oratorio were performed in Prague, but Dvořák was in Vienna; then, in November 1901, came the "postponed official birthday party... In many cities of Bohemia and Moravia, the Czech people celebrated his birthday."
On 25 March 1904 Dvořák had to leave a rehearsal of Armida due to illness. The first Czech Music Festival, in April 1904, had "a program consisting almost of its totality" on Dvořák's music (Leoš Janáček was disappointed that none of his music was performed). "Seventy-six choral associations" from all over Bohemia gathered in Prague, and "sixteen thousand singers" sang the oratorio Saint Ludmila. “Thousands of listeners celebrated” the New World Symphony Dvořák himself was forced by illness to “go to bed”, so he was unable to attend.
Dvořák had an "influenza attack" on April 18 and died on May 1, 1904, of an undiagnosed cause after five weeks of illness, at the age of 62, leaving many works unfinished. His funeral was held on May 5 and his remains were interred at the Vyšehrad Cemetery in Prague, under a bust by the Czech sculptor Ladislav Šalou.
Work
Musical style and influences
Dvořák's style synthesizes the classical and romantic styles. Although he created a new and original language for his means of expression, his compositional structure was generally based on traditional formal approaches established in High Classicism, specifically the use of sonata form, rondo, and variations. Although he was not a pioneer in it, he managed to introduce new elements into the traditional formal structure, in particular, with the incorporation of stylizations of the furiant instead of the scherzo within the cycle of the sonata, and the dumka instead of the slow movement.
He followed in the footsteps of Bedřich Smetana, the creator of the modern Czech musical style, although unlike him (who focused entirely on Czech folklore), he drew inspiration from the folk music of other Slavic nations and, during his time in the United States, also in African-American and Native American music. Thus, many of his compositions, such as the Slavic Dances and his large collection of songs, were directly inspired by traditional Czech, Moravian and other Slavic. As the basis for her works, she frequently used Slavic folk dance forms, including skočná; the furiant, sousedská and špacirka bohemians; the Slovak odzemek; the Polish mazurka and polonaise; the Yugoslav kolo, and folk song forms of the Slavic peoples, including the Ukrainian dumka. This influence is perceived both by the rhythms and by the melodic forms. His sixteen Slavic Dances, op. 46, which first gave him a wide reputation, and op. 72, include at least one of each of these forms. He also wrote an orchestral Polonaise (1879). He called the third movement of his Sixth Symphony "Scherzo (Furiant)". His Dumky Trio is one of his best-known chamber works and is named after dumka, a traditional Slavic and Polish genre. His main works they reflect their heritage and love for their homeland.
Dvořák's music is characterized by its "striking melodies, rhythmic inventiveness, and effective instrumentation." His works incorporate a wide palette of moods, from the "joyful articulation of human happiness to expressions of intimacy and deep meditation." Lyricism is a distinctive feature of most of them.
Dvořák had been an admirer of Richard Wagner's music since 1857. Late in his life, he said that "he was such a great genius that he was capable of doing things that were beyond the reach of other composers". Wagner influenced especially Dvořák's operas, but also some orchestral pieces. According to Clapham, the theme for "Andante Sostenuto" from his Fourth Symphony "could almost have come straight out of Tannhäuser".
Starting in 1873, his style was "steadily moving in the direction of classical models". To be more specific about "classical models", in 1894 Dvořák wrote an article stating that composers of the past He most admired were Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Since the article dealt specifically with the latter, three years before the centenary of his birth, it seems that Dvořák had a special predilection for him.
Compositions
Antonín Dvořák composed more than four hundred works in a wide variety of musical forms. His nine symphonies generally conform to classical models, but he also composed five symphonic poems. Many of his works show the influence of the rhythms and melodic forms of Czech folk music. Among them are the two sets of Slavonic Dances (originally for piano four hands), three Slavic Rhapsodies , the Symphonic Variations , and most of his songs. Echoes of such influence are also found in his major choral works. In total, he composed more than fifty orchestral works. He wrote eleven operas (of which the best known is Rusalka), several suites and overtures, serenades for string orchestra and wind ensemble, concertos, music chamber music (a total of almost sixty works, including eighteen string quartets, where the so-called Americano stands out, and five quintets, two of them with piano), a sextet, seven trios, music for piano (over thirty works), violin and vocal duets (over a hundred songs, including ten Bible Songs and seven Gypsy Songs).
In addition, his legacy includes a large number of sketches for planned works, along with piano reductions of his own pieces and arrangements of works by other composers.
Symphonies
During Dvořák's lifetime, only five of his symphonies were widely known. His publisher, Fritz Simrock, was not in favor of publishing great symphonic works, since these were more difficult to sell. The first to be published was the sixth, because Dvořák's international fame was beginning to grow and famous conductors, such as Hans Richter (to whom it was dedicated), wanted to premiere new symphonic works. After Dvořák's death, the investigation uncovered four other unpublished symphonies, the first of which had even been lost by the composer himself. All this led to a confusing situation whereby the Ninth Symphony "Of the New World" has been successively considered the fifth, eighth and ninth.
With their lyrical style and accessibility to the listener, Dvořák's symphonies seem to derive from the Schubertian tradition; but, as Taruskin suggests, the difference was Dvořák's use of the cyclical form, especially in his later symphonies and concertos, where he "occasionally recycled themes...to a degree that gave his works a tinge of &# 34;programmaticism" secret".
Unlike many other composers who did not compose ambitious symphonic works until maturity (such as his mentor Johannes Brahms), Dvořák wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C i> minor when she was just twenty-four years old. Subtitled "The Bells of Zlonice" in reference to her time spent in the town of Zlonice, and in the church there, between the ages of 13 and 16. Like the Symphony No. 2 in B♭ major, op. 4, also from 1865, despite touches of originality, did not remain in the standard symphonic repertoire.
The Third Symphony in my♭ major, op. 10 (c. 1873), shows the impact of Dvořák's relationship with the music of Richard Wagner. This influence is less evident in the Fourth Symphony in D minor, Op. 13, except the beginning of the second movement.This is the last of his early symphonies.
The Intermediate Symphonies, Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76, and the Symphony No. 6 in D major, op. 60, are largely bucolic works. The Sixth closely resembles Brahms's Second Symphony, particularly in the two extreme movements, but not so much in the furiant third movement., a vivid Czech dance. This was the symphony that made Dvořák internationally known as a symphonic composer.
The Symphony No. 7 in D minor, op. 70, is highly regarded by critics and musicologists; Tovey stated that "alongside Brahms's Four Symphonies and Schubert's Ninth, it ranks among the greatest and purest examples of this art form." from Beethoven». The Eighth Symphony in G major, op. 88, is characterized by a warmer and more optimistic tone. German critic Karl Schumann (in the booklet notes for a recording of all of Rafael Kubelík's symphonies) compares it to the works of Gustav Mahler.
The Ninth Symphony in E minor, op. 95, is better known by its subtitle "From the New World". He composed it between January and May 1893, while Dvořák was in New York. At the time of his first performance, he claimed that he had used elements of American music, such as spiritual and Native American music in this work, but later denied it.
Many conductors have recorded cycles of the symphonies, including Karel Ančerl, István Kertész, Rafael Kubelík, Otmar Suitner, Libor Pešek, Zdeněk Mácal, Václav Neumann, Witold Rowicki, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Neeme Järvi. Adolf Čech premiered more Dvořák symphonies than anyone else. He directed the first performances of the Second Fifth and Sixth ; the composer premiered the Seventh and Eighth; Bedřich Smetana led the Third and Fourth; Anton Seidl directed the Ninth and Milan Sachs premiered the First.
Choral works
Dvořák's main choral works include his arrangement of the Stabat Mater (the longest extant of that text), his Requiem, his arrangement of the Te Deum and the Mass in D Major.
The Stabat Mater, op. 58, is an extensive (about 90 minutes) vocal-instrumental work of sacred music for soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), choir, and orchestra based on the text of a liturgical hymn of the same name. The inspiration to create this piece was the death of the composer's daughter, Josefa. The work was written in several phases, with the final version finished in late 1877. The first performance took place on December 23, 1880 at the Association of Musical Artists in Prague. It is customary to perform the composition in the Czech Republic during Easter.
Antonín Dvořák composed the Requiem in 1890, at the beginning of the peak period of his career. The composition does not refer to any specific person or event, it is a reflective work on basic human existential issues: sorrow and comfort in death, the meaning of life and death, as well as hope. He was a deeply religious man, and this work reflects his faith and spirituality. The work's premiere was held on 9 October 1891 in Birmingham, conducted by the composer himself, and was "very successful". outstanding success in Boston on November 30, 1892: "the composer was frequently applauded between numbers and received a rapturous ovation at the end". In Vienna, he was received, belatedly, in 1901: "The Vienna performance in March 1901 it was a triumph of Dvořák's music, as if the Viennese public wanted to make up for the previous, sometimes cold reception of his works".
The Te Deum, op. 103, is a cantata for soprano and baritone soloist, chorus and orchestra with the Latin text of the famous spiritual hymn "Te Deum laudamus" (To you, God, we praise). It was composed in 1892 and dedicated to the 400 years of the discovery of America. The composition was completed before Dvořák moved to the United States and was commissioned by the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York, Jeannette Thurber, in 1891, when the composer accepted a place as director of his school.. Originally, the text of Joseph Rodman Drake's poem "The American Flag" was to be used for the work, but Dvorák did not receive the text in time and instead used the words of the medieval church hymn, written by Ambrose de Milan. The composition premiered as Dvořák's first concert in New York on October 21, 1892. The Te Deum is neither as monumental nor extensive as the Requiem and Stabat Mater, but still includes similar passages of profound meditation and expressive nobility.
The Misa in D Major, (originally numbered as op. 76, finally, as op. 86) is a concentrated piece, with a structured composition, originally intended for organ, solo voices and choir little. The work took its final form in 1892 when, in response to a request from the London publishing house Novello, Dvořák arranged his Mass for a symphony orchestra.
The Saint Ludmila oratorio was a great success in Bohemia and Moravia, sung at events in honor of Dvořák in 1901 and 1904. The piece was a considerable success in England in October 1886, with a audience on the 15th "ecstatic...the critics praised the music in the warmest terms", and on the 29th, there was a "large and equally enthusiastic audience, and once more the critics were showered with praise", but the translation of the libretto from Czech into English was "regarded everywhere as unsatisfactory".
Other choral works include the Czech Peasants' Hymn, the cantata The Specter's Bride, op. 69, B.135, performed in 1885 at the Birmingham Music Festival, was the biggest hit of Dvořák's career up to that point; The American Flag, Song Festival, and many others.
Concerts
Critic Harold C. Schonberg described Dvořák's concertos as “an attractive Piano Concerto in G minor with a rather ineffective piano part, a beautiful >Violin Concerto in A minor and a Supremo Cello Concerto in B minor". They are all in the form classical three movements
The Concerto for piano and orchestra in G minor, op. 33 was the first of three concertos (for solo instrument and orchestra) that Dvořák composed, but it is perhaps the least known of the three. The Concerto for violin and orchestra in A minor, op. 53 was written in 1878 for Joseph Joachim, whom Dvořák had known and admired. He finished it in 1879, but Joachim was skeptical of the work. The concerto was premiered in 1883 in Prague by the violinist František Ondříček, who also gave the first performances of it in Vienna and London.
The Concerto for cello and orchestra in B minor, op. 104 was the last of them that he composed. He wrote it between 1894 and 1895 for his friend Hanuš Wihan. He and others had asked for a cello concerto for some time, but Dvořák refused, stating that the cello was a good orchestral instrument, but completely insufficient for a solo concerto. He composed the concerto in New York while serving as conductor of the National Conservatory. In 1894, Victor Herbert, who also taught at the Conservatoire, had written his Second Cello Concerto, Op. 30, and he performed it several times that year, including its successful premiere with the New York Philharmonic under Anton Seidl. On April 5, 1894, Dvořák attended a performance of his Ninth Symphony. The program also included a performance of Herbert's work. Either because of Wihan's insistence or because he was impressed by hearing Herbert's work performed (or both), he decided to compose his Cello Concerto. Dvořák attended at least two performances Herbert's Cello Concerto. Dvořák's concerto premiered in London on 16 March 1896, with the English cellist Leo Stern. The reception was "enthusiastic". Brahms said of the work: "If I had known that one could write a cello concerto like this one, I would have written one a long time ago!” According to Schonberg, cellist and author Robert Battey wrote: "I think it is the best of all cello concertos... a view shared by most cellists." A compilation of discographies of Dvořák's music wrote that his is the "king" of cello concertos. Since then, the concerto, considered one of the best of its genre, has grown in popularity and is today performed very often.
In 1865, early in his career, Dvořák had composed a Cello Concerto in A major with piano accompaniment, B.10. Günter Raphael between 1925 and 1929 produced a revised version and orchestrated. Another orchestration and compendium was made by Dvořák's cataloguer, Jarmil Burghauser, published in 1975.
Chamber music
Dvořák, who also played the viola, had a natural affinity for writing for strings. His chamber music is heavily inspired by American popular culture, while maintaining his Czech roots. Over a period of thirty years, he composed more than forty works of chamber music.
String Quintets
In 1860, just after completing his education at the Organ School in Prague, he composed his String Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1. he would be followed by two more, of which String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 from early 1875, notable for the use of a double bass. This quintet was written towards the end of his transition period, incorporating a thematic density to his works. He is characterized by a delicate operetta style uncommon in his instrumental work. The extension of a variation to the whole section is reminiscent of his symphonic literature. He wrote it for a chamber music competition sponsored by Umělecká beseda (Artistic Circle), where he was unanimously awarded a prize of five ducats for the "distinction of subject, technical skill in polyphonic composition, mastery of form, and knowledge of instruments" deployed. The String Quintet No. 3 in mi♭ major, op. 97, with a second viola added, he composed it near the end of his American term in 1893, during a summer vacation in Spillville. The influence of Native American folk music on his work was also evident in this quintet; there is a common drum beat in Native American music that is featured in all movements except the "Larghetto".
String Quartets
In the 1880s, Dvořák listed his destroyed compositions, including string quartets in B♭, re and e minor from between 1868 and 1870. He destroyed these compositions during his "crazy period" only after Copies had already been printed. The number of errors in the parts makes it unlikely that they were ever performed. He preserved the manuscripts of these quatrains, but did not give them opus numbers. They are noted to have numbers B.17, B.18 and B.19 in Burghauser's catalog and show the strong influence of Richard Wagner's music. The second, third and fourth quartets illustrate Dvořák's progress as a composer. Demonstrates highly developed understanding of musical language in his D major quartet, shaping the melody of the Slavic freedom song Hej Slovane (Hey, Slavs!) in a variation style. The quartet in E minor is a single movement, including 63 slow bars on a pedal point F♯. The quartet's unique movement in E minor was used five years later in their 2nd String Quintet op. 77, as a second movement called "Intermezzo: Nocturne", initially making this a five-movement composition. He later removed the second movement and transformed it into the Nocturne for Strings in B major , op. 40 (B.47). These show a stronger sense of form and include three separate settings: for orchestra (B.47), for violin and piano (B.48A), and for piano four hands (B.48B).
While in the United States in 1893, he composed one of his most popular quartets, the American Quartet, Op. 96. He wrote this play in three days after he and his family met in Spillville. He was inspired by the freedom he felt in the American countryside. This piece is distinguished from his other quartets by the simplicity of its writing. Throughout the piece, he uses jump rhythms, the high register of the first violin, and unified key relationships between all movements except for the "Slow". There is less form in the thematic material, heavy use of repetition, and borrowed less attention to development.
Other chamber works
He also composed two piano quintets (op. 5 and op. 81), both in A major, of which the second is the best known. He left a Terzetto for two violins and viola (op. 74); two piano quartets (op. 23 and op. 87), a string sextet, op. 48; and four piano trios, including the Dumky Trio, op. 90. He also wrote a set of Trifles, Op. 47, for the unusual combination of two violins, cello, and harmonium. The Trifles are cyclical and suite-like, echoing Czech bagpipe melodies. He wrote two waltzes for string quartet and arranged a set of twelve love songs for string quartet entitled Cypřiše (B.152), taken from his set of eighteen songs originally composed in 1865 entitled Cypresses. His works for violin and piano include the Romantic Pieces , the Violin Sonatina and the Violin Sonata .
Symphonic poems
Franz Liszt had invented the musical form symphonic poem, which was then relatively new, and was never adopted by more conservative romantic composers like Brahms. Dvořák composed five symphonic poems, all between 1896 and 1897, and they have consecutive opus numbers: The Sprite of the Waters (Vodník), op. 107; The Midday Witch, op. 108; The Golden Spinning Wheel, op. 109; The Dove of the Forest, op. 110; and The Hero's Song, op. 111. The first four are based on ballads from the collection Kytice by the Czech folklorist Karel Jaromír Erben. The Hero's Song is based on a program conceived by Dvořák and is believed to be autobiographical.
Operas
In a 1904 interview, Dvořák stated that opera was "the most suitable form for the nation". If this nationalist sentiment was at the heart of his operatic compositions, he struggled to find a style straddling melody traditional Czech music and the grand opéra style of Giacomo Meyerbeer, who experimented as viola soloist in the Prague Provisional Theater orchestra between 1862 and 1871, and whose influence is evident in his works, such as Vanda and Dmitrij. His later interest in the music of Richard Wagner also influenced his operas, evident in his extensive rewriting of Dmitrij in 1894, after his failure in Vienna.
Of all his operas, only Rusalka, op. 114, which contains the well-known aria "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" ("Song to the Moon"), is performed on contemporary opera stages frequently outside the Czech Republic. This is due to their invention and uneven scripts, and perhaps also their staging requirements: The Jacobin, Armida, Vanda and Dimitrij need stages large enough to represent the invading armies.
Dvořák experts such as Michael Beckerman speculate that the second movement of his Ninth Symphony was adapted from studies for a never-written opera about Hiawatha.
Songs
The song cycle of ten Bible Songs, op. 99, B.185, he wrote it in March 1894. Around this time, Dvořák was informed of the death of the famous conductor and close personal friend of his, Hans von Bülow. A month before, he had been saddened to learn that his father was near death, far away in Bohemia. Dvořák took comfort in the Psalms. The resulting work, considered the best of his song cycles, is based on Kralice's text from the Czech Bible. Dvořák's father died on March 28, 1894, two days after the completion of the work.
Another well-known cycle is the seven Gypsy Songs (Cikánské melodie) B.104, op. 55, which includes "Songs my mother taught me" (the fourth in the set).
He created many other songs inspired by Czech national folk music, such as "Love Songs", "Night Songs", etc.
Other works
Of other works showing the influence of Czech folk rhythms and melodic forms, perhaps the best known examples are the two sets of Slavic Dances. The first book, op. 46 (1878), has a predominantly Czech form. It was created for a piano duet (for piano four hands), but Dvořák later orchestrated the entire ensemble, completing it the same year. The second book, op. 72 (also originally scored for piano four hands), composed eight years later, includes forms indigenous to other Slavic lands Serbia, Poland and the Ukraine, although some "blend features of more than one dance". who created his own themes in the style of traditional folk music and used the rhythms of original folk dances.
Humorous, op. 101, is a piano cycle he wrote during the summer of 1894. According to music critic David Hurwitz, "the seventh Humoresque is probably the most famous small piano work ever written after For Elisa by Beethoven".
One work that doesn't fit into the other categories is the Symphonic Variations of 1877. Orchestral variations on an original theme, composed as a stand-alone work, were a rather unusual genre. Originally unsuccessful and revived only after ten years, it has since established itself in the repertoire.
Problem with the numbering of the works
A large number of Dvořák's works received opus numbers, but not always in the order in which they were written or published. Simrock's edition of Dvořák's works raised some confusion about their chronological ordering. For his part, Dvořák himself gave a lower opus number to some of his compositions in order to sell them to other publishers, avoiding his contractual obligations. In this way, the same opus number was assigned to more than one of Dvořák's works, for example, opus number 12 was successively assigned to the opera The King and the Coalman (1871), the Concert Overture in F (1871, derived from the opera), the String Quartet No. 6 in A minor (1873), the Furiant in G minor for piano (1879) and the Dumka in C minor for piano (1884). In some cases, the same work came to have three different opus numbers.
There has also been confusion about the numbering of his symphonies. This was because they were initially numbered in order of publication, not composition. Furthermore, the first four symphonies were published after the other five, and the other five were not published in their correct chronological order. For this reason, for example, the New World Symphony was known for a time as Fifth and later as Eighth before receiving its final numbering as Ninth Symphony in the critical edition published in the 1950s.
All of Dvořák's works were cataloged chronologically by Jarmil Burghauser. As an example, in the Burghauser catalogue, the New World Symphony, op. 95, is B.178. Scholars today often refer to Dvořák's works by their B numbers (for Burghauser), partly because many early works do not have opus numbers. References to traditional opus numbers remain common due to their historical continuity with earlier printed scores and programs. Work numbers are more likely to appear on printed performance programs.
Legacy
Since 2008, the Academy of Classical Music of the Czech Republic has organized the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival, a major concert series held annually to honor the composer's life and work. The concert season opens in the fall and runs for two weeks.
Dvořák's New York home was located at 327 East 17th Street, near the intersection of what is now Perlman Place. It was in this house that he composed both the Cello Concerto in B minor and the New World Symphony . Despite protests, from Czech President Václav Havel, among others, who wanted the house preserved as a historic site, it was demolished in 1991 to make room for a residence for the Beth Israel Medical Center for people with AIDS. In 2017, this residence became a homeless shelter. However, to honor Dvořák, a statue of him was erected in nearby Stuyvesant Square.
In popular culture
The 1980 film Koncert na konci léta (Concert at the End of Summer) is based on the life of Dvořák. The title role was played by Josef Vinklář. The 2012 television film Americké dopisy (American Letters) focuses on the love life of Dvořák, who is played by Hynek Čermák. Ian Krykorka has written several children's books based on some of Dvořák's operas. Josef Škvorecký wrote Dvorak in Love about his life in the United States as director of the National Conservatory of Music. In addition, he has used his music in more than 300 movies and television shows.
Neil Armstrong carried a recording of the New World Symphony during the Apollo 11 mission, the first mission to land on the Moon, in 1969, and in 2009 it was voted favorite symphony in a poll conducted by ABC Classic FM in Australia.
The asteroid (2055) Dvořák, discovered by Luboš Kohoutek, and the Dvorák impact crater on the planet Mercury are named in his honor.
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