Music with a national character sparked on in the mid-19th century after the ideas of Rousseau and other thinkers managed to awaken in European countries a movement of intellectual renewal with a marked nationalism. In the case of the Czechs and Slovaks, the consciousness of national identity was strongly reflected in them when the 1848 Prague uprising broke out against the Habsburg empire, an uprising that was later crushed like most of the same year in not a few European capitals.
An elusive language
By the time, the boy Antonin Dvorak was seven years old and, of course, he still lived in the rural town that had seen him born, a few kilometers from Prague. Five years later, his father, a trader, would send him to a nearby city to learn German, given that the nationalist efforts had not come to fruition. Antonin spent two years trying German unsuccessfully. Finally, he returned without having learned anything, however, his tutor in the language turned out to be also a music teacher, who after appreciating his amazing performance in the dance orchestra he conducted encouraged him to study music seriously.
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| Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904) |
Having overcome his father's original rejection, Antonin went to Prague in the autumn of 1857 to enroll in the city's Organ School, where he had to overcome many difficulties, precisely due to his poor command of the German language. In spite of everything, when finishing his studies, the school principal was forced to recognize, when handing him his diploma, the "brilliant talent" that the one who was going to become one of the most outstanding representatives of the Czech nationalist school, had shown.
Slavonic Dances
The year 1878 finds Dvorak turned on an acclaimed composer, encouraged by musicians of the standing of Leos Janacek and Brahms. The latter introduced him to his own editor, who after publishing his successful Moravian Duets, suggested to Antonin to compose some dances of a similar style. The result was the Slavonic Dances, opus 46, to be followed years later by those of opus 72. Both works form a cycle of sixteen dances, among which melodies based on Czech and Slavic folk dances with vernacular names predominate.
Dance No. 1 of Opus 46, a "furiant", performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by the Japanese maestro Zeiji Ozawa, shortly before going bald.
