Three Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, Nos. 1, 2
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

Composed 1886.
Premiered on January 6, 1887 in Prague.

In 1874, Antonín Dvořák was a little-known Prague
musician whose income from his compositions and as organist
at St. Adalbert’s Church was so meager that the city officials
certifi ed his poverty. That same year he submitted some of his work for consideration to a committee in Vienna awarding
government grants to struggling artists whose members were a most distinguished lot — Johann Herbeck, Director of the Court Opera, the renowned critic Eduard Hanslick and that titan of Viennese music himself, Johannes Brahms. Their report noted that Dvořák possessed “genuine and original gifts” and that his works displayed “an undoubted talent, but in a way which as yet remains formless and unbridled.” They deemed his work worthy of encouragement, however, and, on their recommendation, the Minister of Culture, Karl Stremayer,
awarded the young musician 400 gulden, the highest stipend
bestowed under the program. The distinction represented
Dvořák’s fi rst recognition outside his homeland and his initial
contact with Brahms and Hanslick, both of whom were to prove powerful infl uences on his career through their example, artistic guidance and professional help. An excited burst of compositional activity followed during the months after Dvořák learned of the award, in February 1875: the G major String Quintet, the Moravian Duets for Soprano and Tenor, the B-flat Piano Trio, the D major Piano Quartet, the Fifth Symphony and the Serenade for Strings all appeared with inspired speed.

In 1877, Dvořák sent his Moravian Duets to Vienna to
support his application for the renewal of his stipend. He
received a letter in early December announcing that he had not only been granted another award of 600 gulden by the Viennese Minister of Culture, but that Hanslick and Brahms also wished to help make his music known outside his native Bohemia. Brahms requested that his publisher, Fritz Simrock of Berlin, begin to issue Dvořák’s works, and asked him both to print the Moravian Duets and also to commission a new work from his young Czech colleague. Simrock, much of whose profit was derived from the sale of Brahms’ music, agreed, and in March 1878 he asked Dvořák to write a set of pieces in the Bohemian style modeled on Brahms’ popular Hungarian Dances of 1869 for piano duet. Though the amount Simrock offered was not large — 300 marks, worth a few hundred dollars today — it was the first substantial sum Dvořák had ever made from any of his works, and he accepted the offer with enthusiasm and alacrity. He put aside the set of three Slavonic Rhapsodies for orchestra that he had just begun, and set to work immediately on the Slavonic Dances. The music spilled out of him in a rush — all eight numbers of the set were completed in six weeks between March and May 1878. Indeed, the manuscript shows that the ideas came so quickly at times that he did not have time to write out all the notes but simply made such shorthand indications for later reference as “melody in the bass” or “left hand figuration.” (Brahms once marveled at Dvořák’s easy invention by lamenting, “I should be glad if something occurred to me as a main idea that occurs to him only by the way.”) Though these pieces were originally intended for piano duet (a shrewd marketing strategy by
Simrock — there were a lot more piano players than orchestras), Dvořák began the orchestrations even before the keyboard score for all eight dances was completed, and Simrock issued both versions simultaneously in August 1878. Louis Ehlert, the infl uential critic of the Berliner Nationalzeitung, saw an early copy of the Slavonic Dances, and wrote admiringly of their “heavenly naturalness” and Dvořák’s “real, naturally real talent.” The public’s interest was aroused, there was a run on the music shops, and Dvořák was suddenly famous (and Simrock was suddenly rich). Eight years later, as part of a deal with Simrock to publish the Symphony No. 7, which the publisher contended would not sell well, Dvořák wrote a second series of Slavonic Dances (Op. 72). The fee was 3,000 marks, ten times the amount tendered for the earlier set.

Though he did not quote actual folk melodies in this music, as had Brahms in his Hungarian Dances, Dvořák was so imbued with the spirit and style of indigenous Slavic music that he was able to create versions of the such dances as the Slovak odzemek (Op. 72, No. 1), Ukrainian dumka (Op. 72, No. 2) and Czech furiant (Op. 72, No. 7) that are superb, idealized examples of their genres. (“All the great musicians have borrowed from the songs of the people,” he said during his stay in the United States, when he was encouraging the founding of an American school of composition based on native folk songs and spirituals.) Dvořák came by his love and familiarity with Czech music naturally. “Father Dvořák played the violin and zither, and sang agreeably, and played in the village band,” wrote Milton Cross. “As a boy Dvořák learned to play the violin and soon entertained his father’s clientele [at the family’s inn] with merry dance tunes and sad village melodies. He also performed at village fairs and sang in the church choir. When he was not playing music, he was listening to it. He would sit fascinated at concerts of visiting gypsy bands; he never tired of hearing the older folk sing their songs. While he managed to receive a bit of formal instruction from the local schoolmaster, Joseph Spitz, his early musical training consisted in hearing and learning the songs of his people.”

Notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda