Workmanlike biography of an interesting composer, but with a lot of minutiae. Recommend for classical music geeks only.
Dvorak was an idiosyncratic guy and the near-polar opposite of a sellout: he was frugal and watched his pennies and didn't care much for the trappings of wealth, even after he met with significant success later in his life; he feared travelling, yet was the type of person who would carefully record in his notebook the distance he traveled each day on an ocean steamer; he never sought fame--he was uncomfortable with it in fact--but rather sought only to bring the music of Bohemian/Czech culture to the world.
Finally, one of the structural problems of this book--and of all music writing--is how to convey the essence of a musical piece in the radically different medium of words. I've written elsewhere about classical music's useless and unreadable liner notes. This author, as earnest as he is, cannot convey context about Dvorak's compositions. I think this is why the best way to learn about music is via multimedia--for example a music history/appreciation course involving careful listening to music along with written/spoken commentary.
Dvorak in 1884, in a time of real acceleration in his success:
Notes:
1) On errors: it's interesting to read this author's discussion of the clear, obvious errors in the existing biographies of Dvorak as he writes "mistaken ideas are found to be transferred from one book to another, thus giving the errors wider currency." It makes you think about the nature and frequency of errors throughout all biographies and histories, and the various interests people may have for excising errors--or leaving them in place.
2) Note the author's acknowledgements section: "I also wish to express my thanks to the Ministry of Culture of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic." The book was published in 1979.
3) Dvorak walked by foot some 26 miles to Prague "trundling a small hand cart piled" with his belongings.
4) The author loves his double negatives: "not excluding," "there is no reason to doubt," etc.
5) Dvorak destroyed all the compositions that he produced between 1862 and 1865, in the years that followed he also destroyed many of his works.
6) He started to get real traction with his compositions in 1872, the prior year he had quit his symphony job as a performer to teach privately and compose full-time.
7) Dvorak, his interest in his music student Josefa Cermakova firmly rejected, later marries her less attractive younger sister Anna, who was also one of his pupils. The marriage was "arranged with some haste" as Anna gave birth five months later; they remained happily married for life.
8) He receives a government grant from the "Austrian state stipendium" and then has a burst of creative output, including writing his Symphony #5 in some five and half weeks in 1875.
9) He writes the Moravian Duets ("unpretentious and spontaneously conceived compositions") as well as works set to folk poetry from Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian and Serbian cultures, this is the stuff people really enjoyed about Dvorak's work.
10) Note another insight: keep your old works! If something you write in happens to hit it big in the future, you're going to want to have a back catalog to provide to the public to meet demand: Dvorak did exactly this later in his career: he resurrected and revised many of his old works.
11) 1877: Dvorak writes his Symphonic Variations, seen as a masterpiece; a series of catastrophes happens: his daughter drinks phosphorus and dies, then his three year old son contracts smallpox and dies leaving the Dvorak family childless.
12) Brahms helps Dvorak get recognition.
13) 1878: Dvorak at age 37 has his fourth child, Otilie. Fortune begins to shine on him; extremely positive reviews of Slavonic Dances and Moravian Duets.
14) Lots and lots of minutiae in this book: for example minute details on when and where were the first performances of Dvorak's various compositions, etc.
15) Dvorak starts "moving up in the world" from small cities like Prague to larger cultural centers like Vienna and Berlin.
16) His wife Anna comes up with the idea of "juggling" opus numbers, giving some of his recent works low opus numbers, so they would be "early" works; thus he could sell them to other publishers and not appear like he was withholding work from his current publisher.
17) 1883: Dvorak is invited to England to compose/conduct works for the London Philharmonic, then visits other locations in the British Isles. Also interesting to consider the GBP100 payment he received from the Leeds music festival (to compose and conduct an oratorio), this would be worth some GBP15,000 today (!) adjusted for inflation. Also interesting to think about Dvorak's fears of going to England and his general fears of travel: he didn't understand nor speak any English at this point of his life.
18) Dvorak received extremely well by the English public, they love him and his music. Everyone seems struck by his unassuming and simple nature, that he's "unspoilt by rapid success"; that he's more interested in spreading his beloved Czech music and culture.
19) Some cultural complications with the Germanic world: as a Czech composer Dvorak would be seen as disloyal to his culture/people if he "sold out" to German culture by composing an opera in German, yet the German speaking world was far more central to the world of classical music, thus it was on some level necessary to compose in German. Dvorak would face criticism even for spending extended time in Vienna, for example. These pressures/frictions came as a reaction to Austrian control over the Czech people under the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Note that Dvorak faced none of these frictions when visiting the English-speaking world.
20) Symphony #7 in D Minor giving Dvorak a creative and spiritual crisis. "...wherever I go I think of nothing but my work, which must be capable of stirring the world, and may God grant that it will!" This symphony is seen as his greatest.
21) People assume that because Dvorak's music is fluid, spontaneous and natural that he composed instinctively, in reality he constantly revised his works to the point where it's a miracle "that his music sounds so fresh and spontaneous" at all, given how heavily it was revised.
22) Composers with a firmly established international reputation did not very often visit the Czech capital, thus when Tchaichovsky came to Praque for the first time in 1888, it was an event of "particular significance not only for Prague music lovers, but also for Dvorak personally."
23) Note the change in calendar from the Julian calendar ("old style" rendered in dates as "O.S.") to the Gregorian calendar ("new style" or "N.S."); this happened later in Russia than elsewhere in Europe thus producing dating challenges for various historical events.
24) Here's a "good" example of uselessly descriptive musical commentary: the author attempts to describe a passage from Dvorak's Eighth Symphony: "This thoroughly Czech work, despite its deep shadows, is one of the composer's happiest creations. Starting with an expressive funereal melody in G minor, the sunshine suddenly breaks through when the flute plays this light-hearted theme in the major key: (see photo)
25) Increasing conflict with his publisher Simrock, "Dvorak was convinced that Simrock did not want to risk buying any of his big works."
26) A nervous traveller, an anxious guy, displaying indications of agoraphobia late in his life.
27) Jeannette Thurber philanthropist wife of a millionaire New York grocer; she founded the American Opera Company and the National Conservatory of Music in America; she works out a deal to have Dvorak come to America for eight months per year for a two year contract at a large salary and with minor teaching duties; he accepts.
28) Dvorak inspired to write Symphony #9 "From the New World"; he travels to Iowa, Nebraska and Chicago, visiting the large Czech communities there; brings his children over to be with him in America, etc.
29) 1893: Tremendously positive response to the premiere of the New World Symphony/Symphony #9, "very possibly the greatest triumph of all that Dvorak experienced in the whole of his life." It quickly becomes one of the most popular symphonies of all time and remains a universal favorite.
30) The panic of 1893 put Jeanette Thurber into financial difficulties; she had to delay paying Dvorak's salary.
31) Brahms really was Dvorak's champion; Dvorak was deeply grateful.
32) On creativity: Dvorak periodically would take extended and complete breaks from composition, he would sort of build up a reserve of creativity and give his muse a rest.
33) 1896: Brahms tries to convince Dvorak to come to Vienna, even promising to support him and his family with his fortune "Look here, Dvorak. You have a lot of children, and I have practically no one [to support]. If you need anything my fortune is at your disposal." Yet: "On the same day [Dvorak] was distressed to discover that his noble friend was an agnostic... 'Such a man, such a fine soul, yet he doesn't believe in anything, he doesn't believe in anything.'" Brahms dies later that year.
34) Dvorak becomes less and less willing to travel, preferring to stay in his beloved Czech homeland, traveling to Budapest or perhaps Vienna but certainly not to England or the United States.
35) Dvorak dies suddenly in 1904, only 62, likely from a sudden massive stroke, although the cause of death is not clear.
36) An interesting final chapter on Dvorak as (an extremely demanding) teacher: he was brought to New York to teach composition to some of America's most advanced students: "He made considerable demands on those he accepted, both as regards quantity and quality of work" and "if they brought unsatisfactory work, or showed themselves to be incompetent in their class work, they would be thrown out of the class without hope of reprieve." Not a trophy generation teacher, that's for sure! "Dvorak had no intention of allowing those that he taught to foster illusions about their competence."
To Read:
Otakar Sourek: Antonin Dvorak: His Life and Work
Robert H Vickers: History of Bohemia
Dvorak Compositions of Note:
* String quartets: see for example the E Flat String Quartet (see the second movement, the vivace section), the C Major String Quartet, The American String Quartet, A Flat String Quartet
* Slavonic Dances, particularly the 1st and 8th
* Slavonic Rhapsody
* Gypsy Melodies
* Symphonies: 1-9
* Piano Trio in F Minor op 65 ("epic" per the author)
* Scherzo Capriccioso
* Hussite Overture
* E Flat Piano Quartet (see the first movement, "one of the composer's most imaginative and original movements")
* Dumky Trio
* Carnival Overture
* Cello Concerto in D Minor ("among the greatest of all concertos" per the author)