Antonin Dvorak
Main article: List of compositions by Antonín Dvořák Song to the Moon (Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém) Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player. You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser. From Rusalka (1901). Performed in German by Czech soprano Emmy Destinn in 1915. Problems playing this file? See media help. Dvořák wrote in a variety of forms: his nine symphonies generally stick to classical models, but he also worked in the newly developed form of symphonic poem. Many of his works show the influence of Czech genuine folk music, both in terms of elements such as rhythms and melodic shapes; amongst these are the two sets of Slavonic Dances, the Symphonic Variations, and the overwhelming majority of his songs, but echoes of such influence are also found in his major choral works. Dvořák also wrote operas (of which the best known is Rusalka); serenades for string orchestra and wind ensemble; chamber music (including a number of string quartets and quintets); and piano music. Numbering[edit] While a large number of Dvořák's works were given opus numbers, these did not always bear a logical relationship to the order in which they were either written or published. To achieve better sales, some publishers such as N. 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, Dvořák deliberately provided new works with lower opus numbers to be able to sell them outside contract obligations to other publishers. An example is the Czech Suite which Dvořák didn't want to sell to Simrock, and had published with Schlesinger as Op. 39 instead of Op.52. In this way it could come about that the same opus number was given to more than one of Dvořák's works; for example the opus number 12, which was assigned, successively, to: the opera King and Charcoal Burner (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 yet other cases, a work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers. The sequential numbering of his symphonies has also been confused: (a) they were initially numbered by order of publication, not composition; (b) the first four symphonies to be composed were published after the last five; and (c) the last five symphonies were not published in order of composition. This explains why, for example, the New World Symphony was originally published as No. 5, was later known as No. 8, and definitively renumbered as No. 9 in the critical editions published in the 1950s. All of Dvořák's works were chronologically catalogued 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 the traditional opus numbers are still common, in part because the opus numbers have historical continuity with earlier scores and printed programs. The opus numbers are still more likely to appear in printed programs for performances. Symphonies[edit] Title page of the autograph score of Dvořák's ninth symphony During Dvořák's life, only five of his symphonies were widely known. The first published was his sixth, 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. With their broadly lyrical style and accessibility to the listener, Dvořák's symphonies seem to derive from the Schubertian tradition; but, as Taruskin suggests, the great difference was Dvořák's use of "cyclic" form, especially in his later symphonies (and indeed concertos), whereby he "occasionally recycled themes from movement to movement to a degree which lent his works a tinge of secret 'programmaticism'." Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 3, was written in 1865 when Dvořák was 24 years old.[n 1] was later subtitled The Bells of Zlonice, referring to the time Dvořák from ages 13 to 16 had spent in the village of Zlonice and in the church there. Like the Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 4,[n 2] also in 1865, it is, despite touches of originality, too wayward to maintain a place in the standard symphonic repertory. Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 10 (c. 1873),[n 3] shows the impact of Dvořák's recent acquaintance with the music of Richard Wagner. This influence is less evident in Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 13,[n 4] except for the start of the second movement