Anton Deborak

 

Anton Deborak 

(Antonin or Anton Dvorak; (Nelahozeves, 1841 - Prague, 1904) Czech composer.

 

The son of an innkeeper, even as a child he showed a disposition for music.

He began his studies in Zlonice in 1853 and continued them in Prague during the period 1857-59. He then played the viola in an orchestra until 1871. At the same time he undertook his activity as a composer. His first success in this field was a Hymn with a text by Viteslav Hálek (1873); Thanks to this work he obtained the position of organist of the church of San Ethelbert, which he held until 1877

 

 

Antonin Dvorak

Antonin Dvorak

 

 

Dvořák received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge in 1891

 

 

 

 

 

The Stabat Mater and other symphonic and vocal compositions belong to these years, but especially for chamber ensembles. In 1875 he received a stipend from the State. Meanwhile, his works attracted the interest of Johannes Brahms and Eduard Hanslick, as well as the publisher Simrock. Dvorak's music then experienced greater prosperity, publishing the Slavic Dances (1878), the Quartet op. 51 (1879) and the first Symphonies. The musician repeatedly visited England, where he was appointed an "honoris causa" doctor of the University of Cambridge (1891). Those of Vienna and Prague also granted him this same distinction.

 

In 1892 he accepted the invitation to go to New York as director of the Municipal Conservatory; In America he would write some of his most famous works: the New World Symphony (1893), the Quartet in F major (1893), the Biblical Songs (1894) and the Concerto for cello and orchestra (1895).

The Dvořák family with their friends in New York in 1893. From left to right: his wife Anna, his son Antonín, Sadie Siebert, Josef Jan Kovařík (secretary), Sadie Siebert's mother, his daughter Otýlie and Antonín Dvořák.80

Nostalgia for his homeland led him to return to Prague, where he once again held the position of professor of composition at the Conservatory, achieved in 1891.

 

During the last years of his life he tried, without much success, to write for the national theater, following the example of Bedrich Smetana; In this aspect it is worth remembering above all Russalka (1900). Antonin Dvorak died four years after the composition of said work, appreciated and honored as one of the main musicians of his time and especially of his country, even though his music had, to a certain extent, been contaminated by national elements. and the German symphonic tradition.

 

Music  of Dvorak

Devorak and  wife  Ana

 Dvorak's work is very varied: from opera to chamber music to symphonic music, an area to which he devoted more attention. His musical work is not as simple and bucolic as that of his compatriot Smetana, since Antonin Dvorak has a more modern language, uses greater technical sophistication and a larger orchestra. In his orchestration he seeks spectacularity, achieved through dynamic contrasts and the experimentation of new timbral combinations. Some of the resources he uses are typical of Slavic composers, such as the frequent use of the low register of the violin and the use of brass instruments in pianissimo. His fluidity and great melodic spontaneity come to some extent from Schubert.

In his early works, Dvorak imitated Romantic models, especially those of Felix Mendelssohn. In the decade of the sixties, a certain tonal ambiguity and frequent modulations towards distant tonal areas can be seen in his music. Thus cameristic works such as his string quartets in F minor Op. 9 (1873) and A minor Op. 16 (1874); and orchestral works such as the Second Symphony in B flat major (1865).

But starting in 1874, Dvorak moved away from the influence of composers such as Liszt and Wagner and developed a somewhat more conventional and classical style. It was at that time when he began to study the folklore of his country, whose main elements he later used in his compositions. Thus, he included in his work syncopated rhythms of popular dances such as the mazurka, the dumka or the sparcirka and abandoned the practice of the anacrusa, since it does not exist in Czech folklore.

In this line of nationalist character, a multitude of titles emerged, such as the Three Slavic Rhapsodies (1878), the String Quartet in E major (1879), the opera Dimitri (1881-1882) and the Sixth Symphony in D major (1880), whose third movement is a Czech folk dance called furiant. His masterpieces Leyendas (1881) for orchestra, the cantata The Bride of the Specter (1884) and the oratorio Santa Ludmila (1885-1886) also correspond to these years, which together with the Requiem (1890) made Dvorak the creator of the oratorio. Czech.

A notable place in his production is occupied by his Stabat mater from 1877. It is his most important sacred work and was conceived to be performed in a concert version, and not in the religious liturgy. It is a work of meditative nature and transparent orchestration, with an abundance of chromaticism. Other religious works worth noting are the Mass in D major Op. 86, for soloists, choir and organ, and the Te Deum (1892) for soprano, bass soloists, choir and orchestra.

Being an excellent viola player, he also felt strongly inclined towards chamber music. Among his scores in this genre, the string quartets and piano trios stand out, among which Op. 90, better known as Dumky, stands out. In it he does not use the classic four-movement structure, but instead uses six movements based on the dumka and divides them into two groups.

In the field of orchestral music he developed much of his talent, since in addition to his nine symphonies, he wrote symphonic poems, concert overtures, rhapsodies and concertos for solo instruments, among others. The Czech musician has been considered a Brahmsian symphonist in form, but with a Wagnerian sound. His Sixth Symphony in D major (1880), composed for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, was the first to bring him international notoriety within the field of symphonic music.

But, without a doubt, his most famous symphony is the Ninth or the New World (1892). This last work is reminiscent of the black spiritual songs and the plantation melodies of the southern United States that Dvorak heard Harry T. Burleigh, a student of his, sing in New York. The composer carried out research on what would be the defining aspects of a truly American musical style and came to the conclusion that the use of the pentatonic scale in the melodic line, the plague cadences and the syncopated rhythms were the most typical characteristics of this music.

These aspects can be seen in other works by Dvorak composed in the United States, such as the String Quartet No. 12 in F major, the String Quintet in E flat major and the Biblické pisne (Biblical Songs). On the other hand, the Cello Concerto in B minor, composed in America in 1895, does not contain the aforementioned elements of North American music and was written for the Czech cellist Hanus Wihan.

In the later period of his work, Dvorak returned to the forms of his youth and paid special interest to operas and symphonic poems. Of all the operas of this time, during the author's lifetime he only had the success of La Ondina (1900). Regarding his symphonic poems, titles such as The Midday Fairy, The Golden Wheel, The Dove (all from 1896).

Funeral  Dvořák 5 may 1904.

Tumba de Debork cementery  Vyserh Praga

How to cite this article:

Fernández, Tomás and Tamaro, Elena. «Biography of Anton Dvorak». In Biographies and Lives. The online biographical encyclopedia [Internet]. Barcelona, ​​Spain, 2004. Available at https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/d/dvorak.htm [access date: May 21, 2024].

With affection,

 Ruben