Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

DVORAK, ANTON (1841-1904)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 739 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

DVORAK, ANTON (1841-1904) , Bohemian musical composer, See also:born at Nelahozeves (otherwise See also:Muhlhausen) in Bohemia on the 8th of See also:September 1841, was the son of Frantisek Dvofak, a small publican and See also:village See also:butcher. At the See also:door of his See also:father's See also:inn Dvorak first appeared as a See also:practical musician, taking his See also:place among the fiddlers who scraped out their " furiants " and other See also:wild dances for the benefit of the See also:holiday-making See also:local See also:beaux and belles. At the village school he learnt from Josef Spitz both to sing and to See also:play the See also:violin, with so much effect that soon he was able to assist in the See also:parish See also:church services. At twelve years old he was sent by his father to Zlonic, near See also:Schlan, to an See also:uncle, with whom he lived while passing through the higher-grade classes at school. Here, too, he was fortunate enough to find a valuable friend in A. Liehmann, organist and See also:chief musician of the little See also:town, a competent musician, who instructed the boy in elementary theory, See also:organ and See also:pianoforte playing. The theory studies, however, could not See also:long be continued, since Liehmann soon acknowledged in his own See also:dialect that the boy was extraordinarily full of promise (" Aus Tonda, dem Sappermentsbuben 'mal 'was See also:werden konnte "), at the same See also:time realizing that he could not do much to assist. But Dvorak soon See also:left Zlonic for Bohmisch-Kamnitz, where he learnt See also:German and advanced his musical studies under Hancke. A See also:year later he was summoned to return to Zlonic to assist his father, who had set up in business there. But his craving for a musical career was not to be checked, and after considerable trouble with his father consent was obtained to his settling in See also:Prague in See also:order to devote himself entirely to See also:music. In See also:October 1857 Dvorak entered the organ-school of the Gesellschaft der Kirchenmusik, where he worked for three years. The small See also:financial aid his father was at first able to lend soon ceased, and after being in Prague but a few months Dvofak found himself practically thrown on his own resources.

By playing the See also:

viola in a private See also:orchestra and in various inns of the town he succeeded in obtaining a See also:precarious livelihood. On the opening in 1862 of the Bohemian Interimstheater, Dvorak, with See also:part of this See also:band, formed the See also:nucleus of the theatrical orchestra, and remained connected with it for eleven years, when he became organist of the church of St See also:Adalbert. At this time his small See also:stipend was augmented slightly by the fees of a few pupils, though the privations suffered by him and his wife (for he had recently married) must have been See also:great. But in spite of financial worry and of the amount of time he had to devote to his professional duties and private pupils, Dvorak found leisure not only for his own studies of the See also:classics, but also to compose. His See also:work, like his daily See also:life, was beset with difficulties, for he had not the means to provide himself with sufficient music-See also:paper, much less to hire a pianoforte; and it is possible that several of his important See also:early See also:works would never have been written had it not been for the generosity of Karel See also:Bendl, the composer, who helped him in many ways. Dvorak himself said afterwards that he retained no recollection of much that he then composed. In and about 1864 two symphonies, a See also:host of songs, some chamber-music, and an entire See also:opera, See also:Alfred, See also:lay unheard in his See also:desk. The libretto of this opera was made up from materials found in an old almanack. Most of these works were burnt long ago. In 1873 he made hisfirst bid for popularity by his patriotic hymn See also:Die Erben See also:des weissen Berges (published many years later as Op. 30). Its reception was enthusiastic, and Dvorak's subsequent works were eagerly awaited and warmly received on See also:production.

In 1874 his opera See also:

Konig and Kohler resulted in a fiasco at Prague, owing to its mixture of styles. Nothing daunted, Dvofak recomposed the whole work in three months. In 1875, on the recommendation of See also:Brahms and Hanslick, he obtained a stipend from the Kultus-Ministerium at See also:Vienna, which freed him from care and enabled him to indulge in See also:composition to his See also:heart's content. Following on this success came a See also:commission in 1877 for a See also:series of Slavic dances, which took the public by See also:storm. Immediately compositions, old and new, began to pour from the publisher. See also:English sympathy was entirely won by the Stabat Mater in 1883, and increased by the symphonies in D, D mi., and F, G, and E mi. (The See also:American), and the See also:cantata The Spectre's See also:Bride, based on K. J. Erben's elaboration of the Bohemian version of the See also:saga treated in See also:Burger's Leonore. The favourable effect produced by these works was somewhat chilled by the See also:oratorio St Ludmila, a comparatively feeble work written " to suit English See also:taste " for the See also:Leeds Festival of 1886. The three overtures Opp. 91, 92, 93, failed to hold their place, but the pseudo-American See also:symphony has become one of Dvoiak's most popular works, and much of his chamber-music, of which there is abundance, seems quite permanent in its place in See also:concert programmes.

In 1892, after having frequently visited See also:

England, Dvorak became See also:head of the See also:National Conservatory of Music of See also:America in New See also:York. There he remained till 1895, when he returned to Prague, where he died on the 1st of May 1904. Dvorak's music is characteristically national, though less purely so than that of See also:Smetana. But in spite of his See also:industry and dramatic See also:talent not one of his operas has been really successful. A See also:master of the orchestra and a composer of real individuality, he earned and deserved his place among the elect, not only by his great gifts, but by his abnormal See also:energy in their development. See W. H. Hadow, Studies in See also:Modern Music (second series, 1908).

End of Article: DVORAK, ANTON (1841-1904)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
DVINSK
[next]
DW(i+at)X587