This November 14 and 15, the Calgary Philharmonic welcomes British conductor RumonGamba to lead the Orchestra for a spirited program bookended by Malcolm Arnold’s English Dances: Set Two and Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5, with Antonín Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 featured between.
The concert shares its title with this latter piece, and its position at the heart of the program seems more than appropriate given its emphasis on rhythm and pulse. To help you get in the spirit of this sure-to-be lively performance, here are a few interesting facts about Slavonic Dances and its creator.
Dancing Around the Subject
Antonín Dvořák kickstarted his career when he applied for a stipend offered by the Austrian government for artists of little means (what is today the Czech Republic was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire). The application process required submitting works, which Dvořákdid and then some – he sent the reviewing committee 15 compositions! Among the judges impressed by the young composer was none other than Johannes Brahms, who subsequently recommended Dvořák’s Moravian Dances to his music publisher, Fritz Simrock. Simrock, in turn, commissioned Dvořák to write the Slavonic Dances; in doing so, Dvořák then turned to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances as a model for his new composition!
But a Break from Brahms!
Unlike the Hungarian Dances, however, which Brahms based on existing folk songs, Dvořák did not directly transcribe melodies from the source material. Rather, he sought to incorporate the rhythms and forms of specific traditional dances.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Though its title suggests a pan-Slavic survey of folk traditions, Dvořák largely looked to his own backyard for inspiration: of the eight dances that comprise Opus 46, one has a distinctly Serbian flavour while the other seven draw upon Bohemian traditions (Bohemia being a territory that encompassed much of the western portion of today’s Czech Republic). In 1886, he published a sequel, Opus 72, which broadened its scope to include Polish, Slovakian, and Ukrainian styles.
Jump Up and Get Down
Over a century before House of Pain, Dvořák invited listeners to ‘Jump Around’ (or perhaps to just nod enthusiastically). Among the dances which inform Dvořák’s composition is the Skočná (specifically the 5th and 7th movements in Opus 46 and the 3rd in Opus 72). Characterized by its rapid-fire rhythm, the dance’s name is derived from the Czech word "skočit," which means...you guessed it: “jump.” Dvořák wasn’t the first Czech composer to incorporate it into his work – Bedřich Smetana also used the Skočná in The Bartered Bride, composed between 1863 and 1866.
From Chamber to Concert Hall
Dvořák first composed Slavonic Dances for ‘Piano Four Hands,’ a type of duet in which both players sit side by side at a single piano, making it ideal for parlours and other intimate spaces. He soon thereafter orchestrated it, and...
It’s a Hit!
Slavonic Dances put the previously unknown composer on the musical map when it debuted in 1878. It quickly became a trans-Atlantic sensation with performances in Prague, Nice, throughout Germany, Boston, New York, and several more European dates within a year of its publication. Nearly 150 years later, its power to delight remains undiminished, and it continues to draw packed concert halls around the world.
See Slavonic Dances with the Calgary Philharmonic on November 14 + 15 in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at 7:30 pm. Tickets available here.