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The National Origins of Dvořák's Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1962

John Clapham
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Extract

Well before the time that Dvořák was beginning to make a name for himself as a composer, a vigorous struggle had taken place in Bohemia to secure for indigenous literature, art and music a secure position in the cultural life of the country, a struggle that had been brought to a successful conclusion. Smetana had returned from Gothenburg; the Provisional Theatre, especially built for the performance of Czech operas and plays, was well established, and already in 1866 Smetana was installed as conductor of the theatre. It was not until six years later that Dvořák wrote his first successful work, The Heirs of the White Mountain. Smetana, in collaboration with Mánes the painter, was an active protagonist in bringing about this cultural revolution following a sudden weakening of the power of the Austrian Empire, and in consequence he wore the cloak of nationalism more consciously and deliberately than Dvořák did.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 89 , 1962 , pp. 75 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1962

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References

1 F. Sládek, Náš poklad, Prague, 1948, i, 73 and ii. 25. These also occur in Erben, q. v. footnotes 6 and 7 following. See also Smetana's Czech Dances, II, No. 5, where most of ‘Hop hej! cibuláři’ is used.Google Scholar

2 ‘Stala nam sie nowina’ and ‘Oj i w polu jezioro’ are good examples; q. v. L. Kuba, Slovanstvo ve svých zpěvech, Pardubice, 1884–1895, iv. 104 and 136. For Harrison, See Fischl, V., Antonin Dvořák: his achievement, London, 1943, pp. 264–265.Google Scholar

3 O. Šourek, Život a dílo Antonina Dvořáka, 3rd edn., Prague, 1954, i. 82. O. Šourek and P. Stefan, Dvořák: Leben und Werk, Vienna, 1935, p. 30.Google Scholar

4 Kuba, op. cit., i. 125.Google Scholar

5 V. Fιschl, op. cit., pp. 217–220.Google Scholar

6 Prostonárodní čské písně a řikadla, 1st edn., Prague, 1842.Google Scholar

7 Kuba, op. cit., i. 150. Erben, op. cit., New edn., 1886, Nápěvy, 196.Google Scholar

8 Sládek, op. cit., i. 17 and 127.Google Scholar

9 Idem, ii. 56. Erben, op. cit., 91. Quoted ιn the author's ‘Dvořák and Folk-Song’, Monthly Musical Record, LXXXVI (1956), 136.Google Scholar

10 Sládek, op. cit., ii. 55. Erben, op. cit., 90.Google Scholar

11 Sládek, op. cit., ii. 101. Also Kuba, op. cit., i. 137, and Erben, op. cit., 157.Google Scholar

12 Kuba, op. cit., iii. 110 and 151.Google Scholar

13 Q. v. the author's ‘The Evolution of Dvořák's Symphony “From the New World”,’ Musical Quarterly, XLIV (1958), 174–175.Google Scholar

14 Kuba, op. cit., i. 163, and ii. 38. Sládek, op. cit., ii. 66. For a Czech example see ‘Ach žalude, žalude!’ in Erben, op. cit., 4.Google Scholar

15 Kuba, op. cit., iii. 46.Google Scholar

16 Idem, iii. 74 and i. 58. The second of these is in Erben, op. cit., 136.Google Scholar

17 Q. v. the author's ‘The Operas of Antonín Dvořák’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, LXXXIV (1958), 57.Google Scholar

18 Estetιka dvořákovy symfonické tvorby, Prague, 1959.Google Scholar

19 This convenient term is Bonuš's, but as yet it has not been generally adopted.Google Scholar

20 Sládek, op. cit., i. 44. Erben, op. cit., 30.Google Scholar

21 Sládek, op. cit., ii. 23 and 76. Erben, op. cit., 28 and 115. For the second of these, see also Smetana's Czech Dances, II, No. 8.Google Scholar

22 Sládek, op. cit., i. 144. Erben, op. cit., 151 (No. 588).Google Scholar

23 This is the same as the latovák. Zemánek has listed twelve different metrical schemes for this dance alone, and there may be others.Google Scholar

24 The numbering used here is the one adopted for the Complete Edition, in accordance wιth the order of the dances in the orchestral version. In Simrock's piano duet editions the 3rd. and 6th dances are reversed.Google Scholar

25 Puně z okresu Chrudimského a Nasavrckého, Chrudim, 1912, iii. 468.Google Scholar

26 Sládek, op. cit., i. 128. A slightly different version appears in Erben, op. cit., 135Google Scholar

27 Kuba, op. cit., i. 144. Erben, op. cit., 48.Google Scholar

28 The original melody and Dvořák's version are shown in Šourek's The Orchestral Works of Antonin Dvořák (in English), Prague, 1956, pp. 238–239, and in my ‘Dvořák and Folk-Song’, already cited.Google Scholar

29 Op. cit., pp. 40–41.Google Scholar

30 Z. Nejedlý, Smetana the Great Master, London, 1945, p. 30.Google Scholar