Slavonic Dances
Encyclopedia
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
in 1878 and 1886 and published in two sets as Opus
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
46 and Opus 72 respectively. Originally written for piano four hands, the Slavonic Dances were inspired by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
's own Hungarian Dances and were orchestrated at the request of Dvořák's publisher soon after composition. The pieces, lively and overtly nationalistic, were well received at the time and today are among the composer's most memorable works, occasionally making appearances in popular culture.
Composition
Prior to the publication of the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, Dvořák was a relatively unknown composer. Because of this fact, he had applied for the Austrian State Music Prize scholarship in order to fund his compositional work. After he won the prize 3 times in 4 years (1874, 1876-77), Johannes Brahms, as one of the members of the committee responsible for awarding the scholarship, referred Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz SimrockFritz Simrock
Friedrich August Simrock, better known as Fritz Simrock was a German music publisher who inherited a publishing firm from his grandfather Nicolaus Simrock...
. The first of Dvořák's music to be published by Simrock was the Moravian Duets
Moravian Duets
Moravian Duets by Antonín Dvořák is a cycle of 23 Moravian folk poetry settings for two voices with piano accompaniment, composed between 1875 and 1881. The Duets, published in three volumes, Op. 20 , Op. 32 , and Op. 38 , occupy an important position among Dvořák's other works. The fifteen duets...
, which attained widespread success; encouraged, Simrock asked the composer to write something with a dance-like character.
Unsure how to begin, Dvořák used Brahms's Hungarian Dances as a model — but only as a model; there are a number of important differences between the two works. For example, whereas Brahms made use of actual Hungarian folk melodies, Dvořák only made use of the characteristic rhythms of Slavic folk music: the melodies are entirely his own. Simrock was immediately impressed by the music Dvořák produced (originally for piano four hands), and asked the composer for an orchestral version as well. Both versions were published within the year, and quickly established Dvořák's international reputation. The enormous success of the Opus 46 dances led Simrock to request another set of Slavonic Dances in 1886; Dvořák's subsequent Opus 72 dances met with a similar reception.
Orchestration
The orchestration for the Slavonic Dances, with minor variations for each number, is as follows:Woodwind
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
s:
- PiccoloPiccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
- 2 FluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s - 2 OboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s - 2 ClarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s - 2 BassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s
Brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
:
- 4 HornsHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
- 2 TrumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s - 3 TromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s
Percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
:
- TimpaniTimpaniTimpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
- CymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s - Bass DrumBass drumBass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
- TriangleTriangle (instrument)The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
Strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
:
- 1st, 2nd ViolinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s - ViolaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
s - Violoncellos
- Double BassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
es
The music
The types of dances upon which Dvořák based his music include the furiantFuriant
A Furiant is a rapid and fiery Bohemian dance in 2/4 and 3/4 time, with frequently shifting accents.The stylised form of the dance was often used by Czech composers such as Antonin Dvořák in the eighth dance from his Slavonic Dances and in his 6th Symphony, and by Bedřich Smetana in The Bartered...
, the dumka
Dumky
Dumka is a musical term introduced from the Ukrainian language, with cognates in other Slavic languages. Originally, it is the diminutive form of the Ukrainian term duma, pl...
, the polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
, the sousedská, the skočná
Skocna
Skočná is a rapid Slavic folk-dance, normally in 2/4 metre. Czech composers Antonín Dvořák and Bedrich Smetana used this dance, the latter in the third act of The Bartered Bride where it is danced by a circus troup and is often known as the Dance of the Comedians. Dvorak's 5th, 7th and 11th...
, the mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
, the odzemek, the spacirka, the kolo
Kolo (dance)
Kolo , is a collective folk dance, danced primarily by people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. It is performed amongst groups of people holding each other's having their hands around each other's waists...
and the polonaise
Polonaise
The polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....
. A full performance of each opus typically takes approximately 40 minutes.
Opus 46
- No. 1 in C major (Furiant)
- No. 2 in E minor (Dumka)
- No. 3 in A-flat major (Polka)
- No. 4 in F major (Sousedská)
- No. 5 in A major (Skočná)
- No. 6 in D major (Sousedská)
- No. 7 in C minor (Skočná)
- No. 8 in G minor (Furiant)
Opus 72
The dances of this opus are sometimes numbered separately from the first and sometimes as numbers 9-16. Most editions give both numbers.- No. 1 (9) in B major (Odzemek)
- No. 2 (10) in E minor (Starodávny)
- No. 3 (11) in F major (Skočná)
- No. 4 (12) in D-flat major (Dumka)
- No. 5 (13) in B-flat minor (Špacírka)
- No. 6 (14) in B-flat major (Starodávný ("Ancient"))
- No. 7 (15) in C major (Kolo)
- No. 8 (16) in A-flat major (Sousedská)