'Antonín Leopold Dvořák' (;
September 8,
1841 –
May 1,
1904) was a
Czech composer of
Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of his native
Bohemia and Moravia in
symphonic,
oratorial,
chamber and
operatic works.
Biography
Early career
Dvořák was born on
September 8,
1841 in
Nelahozeves, near
Prague (then
Austrian Empire, today the
Czech Republic), where he spent most of his life. His father was a butcher, innkeeper, and professional player of the
zither. Dvořák's parents recognized his musical talent early, and he received his earliest musical education at the village school which he entered in 1847, age 6. He studied
music in
Prague's only Organ School at the end of the 1850s, and gradually developed into an accomplished violinist and violist. Throughout the 1860s he played
viola in the Bohemian Provisional Theater Orchestra, which from 1866 was
conducted by
Bedřich Smetana. The need to supplement his income by teaching left Dvořák with limited free time, and in 1871 he gave up playing in the orchestra in order to compose. During this time, Dvořák fell in love with one of his pupils and wrote a song cycle, ''Cypress Trees'', that expressed his anguish at her marriage to another man. However in 1873 he married his pupil's sister, Anna Čermakova. They had nine children.
At about this time Dvořák began to be recognized as a significant composer. He became organist at St. Adalbert's Church,
Prague, and began a period of prolific composition. Dvořák composed his
second string quintet in 1875, and in 1877, the critic
Eduard Hanslick informed him that his music had attracted the attention of
Johannes Brahms, whom he later befriended. Brahms contacted the musical publisher
Simrock, who as a result commissioned Dvořák's ''
Slavonic Dances''. Published in 1878, these were an immediate success. Dvořák's ''
Stabat Mater'' (1880) was performed abroad, and after a successful performance in
London in 1883, Dvořák was invited to visit
England where he appeared to great acclaim in 1884. His Symphony No. 7 was commissioned for London; it premiered there in 1885. In 1891 Dvořák received an honorary degree from
Cambridge University, and his ''
Requiem Mass'' premiered later that year in
Birmingham at the
Triennial Music Festival.
America (1892–1895)
From 1892 to 1895, Dvořák was the director of the
National Conservatory of Music in
New York City, at a then-staggering $15,000 annual salary. The Conservatory had been founded by a wealthy and philanthropic socialite,
Jeannette Thurber; it was located at 126-128
East 17th Street[1] [2], but was demolished in 1911 and replaced by what is now a high school. Here Dvořák met with
Harry Burleigh, one of the earliest
African-American composers, although Burleigh was never his pupil. Burleigh introduced traditional American
Spirituals to Dvořák at the latter's request.
In the winter and spring of 1893, while in New York, Dvořák wrote his most popular work, the ''
Symphony No.9, "From the New World"''. He spent the summer of 1893 with his family in the
Czech-speaking community of
Spillville, Iowa, to which some of his cousins had earlier immigrated. While there he composed two of his most famous chamber works, the
String Quartet in F (the "American"), and the
String Quintet in E flat, as well as a
Sonatina for violin and piano.
Over the course of three months in 1895, Dvořák wrote his ''
Cello Concerto in B minor'', which was to become one of his most popular works. However, problems with Mrs. Thurber about his salary, together with increasing recognition in Europe — he had been made an honorary member of the ''
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde'' in
Vienna — and homesickness made him decide to return to Bohemia. He left New York before the end of the spring term.
Dvořák's New York home was located at 327
East 17th Street near Perlman Place
[3].
It was in this home that the Ninth Symphony was written. Despite protests, from the then
Czech President
Václav Havel amongst others, who wanted the house preserved as a historical site, it was demolished to make room for a
Beth Israel Medical Center residence for people with
AIDS. To honor Dvořák, however, a statue of him was erected in
Stuyvesant Square [3] 2.
Later career
During his final years, Dvořák's compositional work centred on opera and chamber music. In 1896 he visited London for the last time to hear the premiere of his Cello Concerto. In 1897 his daughter married his pupil, the composer
Josef Suk. Dvořák was director of the Conservatory in Prague from 1901 until his death in 1904. He is interred in the
Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.
Dvořák's tomb in Prague
He left many unfinished works, including the early ''Cello Concerto in A major'' (see
Concerti below).
Works
:''See
List of compositions by Antonín Dvořák and
Dvořák wrote in a variety of forms: his nine
symphonies generally stick to classical models that
Beethoven would have recognised, but he also worked in the newly developed
symphonic poem form and the influence of
Richard Wagner is apparent in some works. Many of his works also show the influence of Czech folk music, both in terms of rhythms and melodic shapes; perhaps the best known examples are the two sets of
Slavonic Dances. Dvořák also wrote
operas (the best known of which is ''
Rusalka'');
chamber music (including a number of
string quartets, and quintets); songs; choral music; and
piano music.
Numbering
While the majority of Dvořák's works were given
opus numbers, these often bear little relationship to the order in which they were either written or published. To achieve better sales, some publishers such as
Simrock preferred to present budding composers as being well established, by giving some relatively early works much higher opus numbers than their chronological order would merit. In other cases, the same opus number was given to more than one work. In yet other cases, a work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers. This understandably led to a great deal of confusion, which was exacerbated by the facts that: (a) his symphonies were initially numbered by order of publication, not composition; (b) the first four symphonies to be composed were not published until after the last five were published; and (c) not all of the last five symphonies were published in order of composition. This explains why, for example, the ''New World Symphony'' was originally published as No.5, it was later known as No. 8, but is now referred to as No. 9.
To shed some light on this confusion, Dvořák's works were chronologically catalogued in
1960 by
Jarmil Burghauser in ''Antonín Dvořák. Thematic Catalogue. Bibliography. Survey of Life and Work'' (Export Artia Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1960). Dvořák's works are now more generally known by their B numbers (for Burghauser) than their opus numbers. In this catalogue, for example, the ''New World Symphony'', Op. 95 is B.178.
[1]
Symphonies
During Dvořák’s life only five of his symphonies were widely known. The first published was his 6th, dedicated to
Hans Richter. After Dvořák’s death, research uncovered four unpublished symphonies, of which the manuscript of the first had even been lost to the composer himself. This led to an unclear situation in which the
"New World" symphony has alternately been called the 5th, 8th and 9th. This article uses the modern numbering system, according to the order in which they were written.
''
Symphony No. 1 in C minor'' was written when Dvořák was only 24 years old. Later subtitled ''The Bells of Zlonice'' after a village in Dvořák's native Bohemia, it shows inexperience but also genius with its many attractive qualities. It has many formal similarities with Beethoven's 5th Symphony (for example, the movements follow the same keys: C minor, A flat major, C minor, C major), yet in harmony and instrumentation, Dvořák's First follows the style of
Franz Schubert. (Some material from this symphony was reused in the ''Silhouettes'', Opus 8, for piano solo.)
''
Symphony No. 2 in B flat major'', Op. 4, still takes Beethoven as a model, though this time in a brighter, more pastoral light.
''
Symphony No. 3 in E flat major'', Op. 10, clearly shows the sudden and profound impact of Dvořák's recent acquaintance with the music of
Richard Wagner and
Franz Liszt. (A portion of the slow movement was reused in the sixth of the Legends, Opus 59, for piano duet or orchestra.) There is no scherzo.
''
Symphony No. 4 in D minor'', Op. 13, still shows a strong influence of Wagner, particularly the second movement, which is reminiscent of the overture to ''
Tannhauser''. In contrast, the scherzo is strongly Czech in character.
''
Symphony No. 5 in F major'', Op. 76, and ''
Symphony No. 6 in D major'', Op. 60, are largely pastoral in nature, and brush away nearly all the last traces of Wagnerian style. The Fifth has a dark slow movement that seems to quote
Tchaikovsky's
First Piano Concerto for its main theme. The Sixth shows a very strong resemblance to the
Symphony No. 2 of Brahms, particularly in the outer movements, though this similarity is belied by the third-movement
furiant, a vivid Czech dance.
''
Symphony No. 7 in D minor'' of 1885, Op. 70, is sometimes reckoned to exhibit more formal tautness and greater intensity than the more famous
9th Symphony. There is emotional torment in the Seventh that may reflect personal troubles: around this time, Dvořák was struggling to have his Czech operas accepted in Vienna, feeling pressure to write operas in German, and arguing with his publisher. His sketches show that the Seventh cost him much hard work and soul-searching.
''
Symphony No. 8 in G major'', Op. 88, is, in contrast with the 7th, characterised by a warmer and more optimistic tone. Karl Schumann (in booklet notes for a recording of all the symphonies by
Rafael Kubelík) compares it to the works of
Gustav Mahler. As with the 7th, some feel the 8th is the best of the symphonies. That some critics feel it necessary to promote a symphony as "better than the 9th" shows how the immense popularity of the 9th has overshadowed the earlier works.
''
Symphony No. 9 in E minor'', Op. 95, may be better known by its subtitle, ''From the New World'', and is also called the ''New World Symphony''. Dvořák wrote it between January and May 1893, while he was in New York. At the time of its first performance, he claimed that he used elements from American music such as
Spirituals and
Native American music in this work, but he later denied this. The first movement has a
solo flute passage reminiscent of ''
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'', and one of his students later reported that the second movement depicted, programmatically, the sobbing of
Hiawatha. The second movement was so reminiscent of a
negro spiritual that
William Arms Fisher wrote lyrics for it and called it ''Goin' Home.'' Dvořák was interested in indigenous American music, but in an article published in the
New York Herald on December 15, 1893, he wrote "[In the 9th symphony] I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music."
Neil Armstrong took a recording of the 'New World' symphony to the
Moon during the
Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969. The main theme of the slow movement of this symphony was used as the background to a British television advertisement (directed by
Ridley Scott) for
Hovis bread in the 1970s.
Many conductors have recorded cycles of the symphonies, including
István Kertész,
Rafael Kubelík,
Otmar Suitner,
Libor Pešek,
Zdenek Macal,
Václav Neumann,
Witold Rowicki, and
Neeme Järvi.
Symphonic poems
Dvořák's
symphonic poems (tone poems) are among his most original symphonic works.
[2]. He wrote five symphonic poems, all in 1896-1897, and they have sequential opus numbers: ''
The Water Goblin'', Op. 107; ''
The Noon Witch'', Op. 108; ''
The Golden Spinning Wheel'', Op. 109; ''
The Wood Dove'', Op. 110; and ''
The Hero's Song'', Op. 111. The first four of these works are based upon ballads by the Czech folklorist
Karel Erben. ''The Hero's Song'' is based on a program of Dvořák's devising and is believed to be autobiographical.
[3]
Oratorial works
The greatest Dvořák's oratorial works are
Requiem, Op. 89,
Stabat Mater,
Te Deum and
Missa in D major. The first three of these opuses are numbered among the best compositions of their kind. The recording of the Requiem by conductor
Karel Ančerl with the
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Chorus and soloists (1959) was awarded the prestigious
Grand Prix du disque de l´Académie Charles Cros.
Concertos
Music critic
Harold Schonberg expressed common critical opinion when he wrote that Dvořák wrote "an attractive Piano Concerto in G minor with a rather ineffective piano part, a beautiful Violin Concerto in A minor, and a supreme Cello Concerto in B minor" (''The Lives of the Great Composers,'' W.W. Norton & Company, New York, revised edition, 1980). All the concertos are in the classical three movement form.
The
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 33 was the first of three
concertos that Dvořák composed and orchestrated, and it is perhaps the least known of those three. Dvořák composed his piano concerto from late August through
September 14 1876. Its autograph version contains many corrections, erasures, cuts and additions, the bulk of these made in the piano part. The work was premiered in
Prague on
March 24 1878, with the orchestra of the
Prague Provisional Theatre conducted by
Adolf Čech, and the Czech pianist
Karel Slavkovský as soloist. As Dvořák wrote: "I see I am unable to write a Concerto for a virtuoso; I must think of other things." Instead, what Dvořák thought of and created was a concerto with remarkable symphonic values in which the piano plays a leading part ''in'' the orchestra rather than opposed to it. The Czech pianist and piano teacher Professor
Vilém Kurz subsequently wrote an alternative, somewhat more virtuosic piano part for the concerto, which may, depending on the performer's preference, be played either partially or entirely in lieu of Dvořák's part. In 1919 concert pianist
Ilona Kurzová played the first performance of the Kurz version, conducted by
Václav Talich.
The
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53 was the second of the three
concertos that Dvořák composed and orchestrated. He had met the great violinist
Joseph Joachim in 1878 and decided to write a concerto for him. He finished it in 1879, but Joachim was skeptical of the work. He was a strict classicist and objected to Dvořák's ''inter alia'' or his abrupt
truncation of the first movement's orchestral
tutti, and he also did not like that the
recapitulation was similarly cut short and that it led directly to the slow movement. He never actually played the piece. The concerto was premiered in
1883 in Prague by the violinist
František Ondříček, who subsequently performed it in its debuts in
Vienna and
London. The second (slow) movement is especially celebrated for its lyricism.
The
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, Op. 104 was the last composed of Dvořák's concertos. He wrote it in 1894-1895 for his friend, the cellist
Hanuš Wihan. Wihan and others had asked for a cello concerto for some time, but Dvořák always refused, stating that the cello was a fine orchestral instrument but totally insufficient for a solo concerto.
Dvořák composed the concerto in
New York while serving as the Director of the
National Conservatory. In 1894
Victor Herbert, who was also teaching at the Conservatory, had written a cello concerto and presented it in a series of concerts. Dvořák attended at least two performances of Victor Herbert's cello concerto and was inspired to fulfill Wihan's request for a cello concerto. Dvořák's concerto received its premiere in London on March 16, 1896, with the English cellist
Leo Stern. The work was well received.
Brahms said of the work: "Had I known that one could write a cello concerto like this, I would have written one long ago!"
Over thirty years earlier in 1865, Dvořák had composed a ''Cello Concerto in A Major'', but with accompaniment by piano rather than orchestra. It is believed Dvořák had intended to orchestrate it, but abandoned it. It was orchestrated by the German composer
Günter Raphael between 1925 and 1929, and again by his cataloguer
Jarmil Burghauser and published in this form in 1952 as B.10.
Chamber music
Dvořák composed fourteen string quartets, the most popular being the 12th,
the 'American', Op. 96. He also composed two piano quintets, of which the
2nd, Op. 81, is better known. He left three string quintets, a terzetto for two violins and viola, and four piano trios, including the "Dumky", Op. 90.
Operas
Dvořák’s critical acclaim as a composer of symphonies and concertos gave him a strong desire to write opera. Of all his operas, only ''
Rusalka'', Op. 114, and, to a much lesser extent,
The Devil and Kate
, Op. 112, are played on contemporary opera stages with any frequency outside Czechia. This is due to their uneven invention, their inadequate libretti, and perhaps also their staging requirements —
The Jacobin, ''Armida'',
Vanda and ''Dimitrij'' need stages large enough to portray invading armies.
There is speculation by Dvorak scholars such as Michael Beckerman that portions of his Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", notably the second movement, were adapted from studies for a never-written opera about
Hiawatha.
[5]
The German-born conductor
Gerd Albrecht has recorded many of Dvořák’s operas on the Orfeo and
Supraphon labels.
'List of operas'
[6]
★ Alfred (unpublished) - 1870
★ King and Charcoal Burner (''Král a uhliř'') - 1871, recomposed on 1874, revised on 1887, Op.14
★ The Stubborn Lovers (''Tvrdé palice'') - 1874, Op.17
★
Vanda - 1875, revised on 1879 and 1883, Op.25
★
The Cunning Peasant or The Peasant a Rogue (''Šelma sedlák'') - 1877, Op.35
★ Dimitrij - 1881~2, revised on 1883, 1885, 1894~5, Op.64
★
The Jacobin - 1887~8, revised on 1897, Op.84
★
The Devil and Kate (''Čert a Káča'') – 1898~9, Op.112
★
Rusalka - 1900, Op.114
★ Armida – 1902~3, Op.115
Notable students of Dvořák
★
Vítězslav Novák
★
Josef Suk
★
Will Marion Cook
★
William Arms Fisher
References
★ John Clapham (1979), ''Dvořák'', ISBN 0715377906
★ New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: ''Dvořák,Antonín''
★ Gervase Hughes (1967), ''Dvořák, His Life & Music'', Casell, London
Notes
1. ()at the southeast corner of the intersection with Irving Place, a block east of Union Square
2. Naureckas, Jim. "New York Songlines - Seventeenth Street." 13 June 2006.
3. ()
4. ()
5. Beckerman, Michael: ''New Worlds of Dvorak: Searching in America for the Composer's Inner Life''. W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 978-0393047066. Online review of related academic event at http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/events/event_files/past/_winter03/beckerman/index.html
6. http://www.classicalarchives.com/bios/codm/dvorak.html
See also
★
List of compositions by Antonín Dvořák
★
External links
★
List of Dvořák's works
★
The Bohemian composers
★
Collection of news articles and correspondence about Dvořák's stay in America
★
The Antonín Dvořák, memorial at Vysoká u Příbrami
★
Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak music
★
2004 Tribute Site for Dvořák
Recordings and scores
★
''Radio Open Source'' 1-hour programme entitled "Dvořák to Duke Ellington", on Dvořák's predictions about the future of American music
★ Kunst der Fuge:
Antonin Dvorák - (Many) MIDI files
★
★
★
★ Guided listening on Dvořák's most famous works can be found in the
BBC Radio 3 'Discovering Music' archive
★
''clips of Dvorak's 9 symphonies''
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