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Antonín Leopold Dvořák (/ d (ə) ˈ v ɔːr ʒ ɑː k,-ʒ æ k / d(ə-)VOR-zha(h)k; Czech: [antoˈɲiːn ˈlɛopold dvoˈr̝aːk] ⓘ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia , following the Romantic-era nationalist ...
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Antonín Dvořák was the first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition. He was noted for turning folk material into 19th-century Romantic music.
What was Antonín Dvořák’s early life like?
Antonín Dvořák, born the first of nine children, was raised in Nelahozeves, a village on the Vltava River north of Prague. He learned music early, in and about his father’s inn, and became an accomplished violinist as a youngster. At age 12, he moved to Zlonice, Bohemia, to pursue musical studies.
What is Antonín Dvořák’s most famous work?
Antonín Dvořák's best-known work is his “New World Symphony,” the byname of Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95: From the New World. This orchestral work was a major milestone in the validation of American—or “New World”—music and lore as source material for classical composition.
Antonín Dvořák (born September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia, Austrian Empire [now in Czech Republic]—died May 1, 1904, Prague) first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition, noted for turning folk material into 19th-century Romantic music.
Dvořák was born, the first of nine children, in Nelahozeves, a Bohemian (now Czech) village on the Vltava River north of Prague. He came to know music early, in and about his father’s inn, and became an accomplished violinist as a youngster, contributing to the amateur music-making that accompanied the dances of the local couples. Though it was assumed that he would become a butcher and innkeeper like his father (who also played the zither), the boy had an unmistakable talent for music that was recognized and encouraged. When he was about 12 years old, he moved to Zlonice to live with an aunt and uncle and began studying harmony, piano, and organ. He wrote his earliest works, polkas, during the three years he spent in Zlonice. In 1857 a perceptive music teacher, understanding that young Antonín had gone beyond his own modest abilities to teach him, persuaded his father to enroll him at the Institute for Church Music in Prague. There Dvořák completed a two-year course and played the viola in various inns and with theatre bands, augmenting his small salary with a few private pupils.
The 1860s were trying years for Dvořák, who was hard-pressed for both time and the means, even paper and a piano, to compose. In later years he said he had little recollection of what he wrote in those days, but about 1864 two symphonies, an opera, chamber music, and numerous songs lay unheard in his desk. The varied works of this period show that his earlier leanings toward the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were becoming increasingly tinged with the influence of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt.
Among the students Dvořák tutored throughout the 1860s were the sisters Josefina and Anna Čermáková. The musician fell in love with the elder sister, Josefina, but she did not reciprocate his feelings. The anguish of his unrequited love is said to be expressed in Cypresses (1865), a number of songs set to texts by Gustav Pfleger-Moravský. In November 1873 he married the younger sister, Anna, a pianist and singer. The first few years of the Dvořáks’ marriage were challenged by financial insecurity and marked by tragedy. Anna had given birth to three children by 1876 but by 1877 had buried all of them. In 1878, however, she gave birth to the first of the six healthy children the couple would raise together. The Dvořáks maintained a close relationship with Josefina and the man she eventually married, Count Václav Kounic. After several years of regular visits, they bought a summer house in the small village of Vysoká, where Josefina and the count had settled, and spent every summer there from that point onward. Dvořák composed some of his best-known works there.
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In 1875 Dvořák was awarded a state grant by the Austrian government, and this award brought him into contact with Johannes Brahms, with whom he formed a close and fruitful friendship. Brahms not only gave him valuable technical advice but also found him an influential publisher in Fritz Simrock, and it was with his firm’s publication of the Moravian Duets (composed 1876) for soprano and contralto and the Slavonic Dances (1878) for piano duet that Dvořák first attracted worldwide attention to himself and to his country’s music. The admiration of the leading critics, instrumentalists, and conductors of the day continued to spread his fame abroad, which led naturally to even greater triumphs in his own country. In 1884 he made the first of 10 visits to England, where the success of his works, especially his choral works, was a source of constant pride to him, although only the Stabat Mater (1877) and Te Deum (1892) continue to hold a position among the finer works of their kind. In 1890 he enjoyed a personal triumph in Moscow, where two concerts were arranged for him by his friend Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The following year he was made an honorary doctor of music of the University of Cambridge.
Jun 23, 2023 · Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was a Czech composer best known for his symphonies, symphonic poems, operas, and chamber music. Dvořák's best-loved works include his 9th Symphony (From The New World), the American quartet, and his Slavonic Dances, which take inspiration from Czech folk melodies and dance rhythms. Early Life
- Mark Cartwright
- What was Antonín Dvořák famous for?The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was famous for his operas and symphonies, particularly his Ninth Symphony, 'From the New World.'
- Why did Antonín Dvořák come to the United States in 1892?Antonín Dvořák came to the United States in 1892 to take up his position as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York.
- Why is Dvořák significant?The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák is significant because he popularized Czech national music through his works, which were inspired by Czech folk m...
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A comprehensive biography of the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, covering his life, music, and legacy. Learn about his childhood, adolescence, musical influences, achievements, and legacy in various genres and styles.
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Learn about the life and career of the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, from his birth in a small village in Central Bohemia to his rise to fame as a musician and composer in Prague and New York. Discover his musical influences, achievements, challenges and legacy.
Learn about Antonín Dvořák, a Czech composer of Romantic music who used folk melodies in his works. Explore his best-known symphonies, concertos, songs and more on Classic FM.
Dvořák, Antonín: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor. One of the themes from Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World) (1893; best known as The New World Symphony), played on the English horn. (more) Dvořák’s technical fluency and abundant melodic inspiration helped him to create a large and varied output.
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