Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904)
Complete Solo Piano Music, Volume 5
Antonín Dvorák was born in 1841, the son of a butcher and
innkeeper in the village of Nelahozeves, near the Bohemian town of Kralupy,
some forty miles north of Prague. It was natural that he should at first have
been expected to follow the family trade, as the eldest son. His musical
abilities, however, soon became apparent and were encouraged by his father, who
in later years abandoned his original trade, to earn something of a living as a
zither player. After primary schooling he was sent to lodge with an uncle in
Zlonice and was there able to acquire the necessary knowledge of German and
improve his abilities as a musician, hitherto acquired at home in the village
band and in church. Further study of German and of music at Kamenice, a town in
northern Bohemia, led to his admission in 1857 to the Prague Organ School,
where he studied for the following two years.
On leaving the Organ School, Dvorák earned his living as a
viola-player in a band under the direction of Karel Komzák, an ensemble that
was to form the nucleus of the Czech Provisional Theatre Orchestra, established
in 1862. Four years later Smetana was appointed conductor at the theatre, where
his operas The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride had already
been performed. It was not until 1871 that Dvorák resigned from the orchestra,
devoting himself more fully to composition, as his music began to attract
favourable local attention. In 1873 he married a singer from the chorus of the
theatre and in 1874 became organist of the church of St Adalbert. During this
period he continued to support himself by private teaching, while busy on a
series of compositions that gradually became known to a wider circle.
Further recognition came to Dvorák in 1874, when his
application for an Austrian government award brought his music to the attention
of the critic Eduard Hanslick in Vienna and subsequently to that of Brahms, a
later member of the examining committee. The granting of this award for five
consecutive years was of material assistance. It was through this contact that,
impressed by Dvorák’s Moravian Duets entered for the award of 1877, Brahms was
able to arrange for their publication by Simrock, who commissioned a further
work, Slavonic Dances, for piano duet. The success of these publications
introduced Dvorák’s music to a much wider public, for which it held some exotic
appeal. As his reputation grew, there were visits to Germany and to England,
where he was always received with greater enthusiasm than might initially have
been accorded a Czech composer in Vienna.
In 1883 Dvorák had rejected a tempting proposal that he
should write a German opera for Vienna. At home he continued to contribute to
Czech operatic repertoire, an important element in re-establishing national
musical identity. The invitation to take up a position in New York was another
matter. In 1891 he had become professor of composition at Prague Conservatory
and in the summer of the same year he was invited to become director of the
National Conservatory of Music in New York. With the backing of Jeannette
Thurber and her husband, this institution was intended to foster American
music, hitherto dominated by musicians from Europe or largely trained there.
Whatever the ultimate success or failure of the venture, Dvorák’s contribution
was seen as that of providing a blue-print for American national music,
following the example of Czech national music, which owed so much to him. The
musical results of Dvorák’s time in America must lie chiefly in his own music,
notably in his Symphony ‘From the New World’, his American Quartet and American
Quintet and his Violin Sonatina, works that rely strongly on the European
tradition that he had inherited, while making use of melodies and rhythms that
might be associated in one way or another with America. By 1895 Dvorák was home
for good, resuming work at the Prague Conservatory, of which he became director
in 1901. His final works included a series of symphonic poems and two more
operas, to add to the nine he had already composed. He died in Prague in 1904.
Keith Anderson
Dvorák’s Piano Music
Dvorák is better known for his orchestral works and his
chamber music than for anything he wrote for the piano, although one of the
Humoresques retains a place in popular repertoire.
The Polka, B. 3, seems to be Dvorák’s earliest surviving
piano piece, probably written in 1860 after a visit to the Zlonice Fair, the
mood of which is reflected in the mood of the piece.
The Scottish Dances, Op. 41, B. 74, were written in 1877.
These consist of short eight-bar sections strung together into a single dance.
They are fiery and energetic in character. The keyboard-writing is not so well
suited to the piano, nor is it fully mature, suggesting that it was probably an
occasional composition.
The Humoresque in F sharp major, B. 138, is a little
miniature that was written for the publishing house Urbanek of Prague in 1884.
It is a cheerful piece, which prefers the piano’s high register.
Dvorák’s Impromptu in D minor, B. 129, was an occasional
composition for the magazine Humoristické Listy and was composed together with
the Piano Trio in F minor, Op. 65, in 1883. It resembles Dvorák’s Dumkas and
was written shortly after the death of his mother, perhaps reflecting the pain
of his loss in its moving middle section. The musical style leads naturally to
a rubato performance apparent from the notation.
The Suite in A major, Op. 98, B. 184, was begun on New
Year’s Day 1894 in New York, a few weeks after the premičre of Symphony No. 9,
“From the New World”. He completed it in late February and early March. The
suite form allowed Dvorák many artistic liberties. He could join the five
movements in one work, although each has a completely different expression. The
whole work is held together only by the initial theme, which returns at the end
of the fifth piece. A year later Dvorák modified the suite for orchestra as
well. The resulting American Suite became a popular and frequently performed
work.
The two piano pieces Lullaby - Capriccio, B. 188, Op. posth.
of 1894 are Dvorák’s last works for solo piano. Originally they were thought to
be part of a suite. The Lullaby is a quiet, tender piece with a lively middle
section. The Capriccio is a funny piece with a playful, high-spirited middle
section which is almost reminiscent of a fairground atmosphere.
Stefan Veselka