Piano Music - Antonin Dvorak

Antonin Dvorak


1841 - 1904
Antonin Dvorak was a Czech composer.



📖 "The music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower growing amidst encroaching weeds. Thousands pass it, while others trample it under foot, and thus the chances are that it will perish before it is seen by the one discriminating spirit who will prize it above all else. The fact that no one has as yet arisen to make the most of it does not prove that nothing is there."


📖 "Do not wonder that I am so religious. An artist who is not could not produce anything like this. I like praying there at the window when I look out on the green and at the sky. I study with the birds, flowers, God and myself."


📖 "My own duty as a teacher...is not so much to interpret Beethoven, Wagner, or other masters of the past, but to give what encouragement I can to the young musicians of America. I...hope that just as this nation has already surpassed so many others in marvelous inventions and feats of engineering and commerce, and has made an honorable place for itself in literature in one short century, so it must assert itself on the...art of music...To bring about this result, we must trust the very youthful enthusiasm and patriotism of this country."


📖 "It cannot be emphasized too strongly that art, as such, does not "pay," to use an American expression - at least, not in the beginning - and that the art that has to pay its own way is apt to become vitiated and cheap."


📖 "The Americans expect great things of me ... If the small Czech nation can have such musicians, they say, why could not they, too, when their country and people is so immense."
Antonín Dvořák, Otakar Šourek (1954). “Antonín Dvořák: letters and reminiscences”, Da Capo Pr


📖 “I compose only for my own pleasure."
In Letter to Simrock (1893)


📖 “I am just an ordinary Czech musician."
In Letter (1886)

Quotes by Antonin Dvorak


🔔 Reload the page a few times if you see orange widgets instead of books and music.








Piano Music by Antonin Dvorak


— Polka pomněnka [Forget-me-not Polka], C †1854–?1865

— Preludes and Fuges, org: 1–4, Preludes, D, G, a, B; 5, Prelude on a Given Theme, D; [6], Fughetta 1, D; [7], Fugue, D; [8], Fugue, g, 1859 nos.1, [7], pubd in Česká varhanní tvorba, i (1954)

— Polka, E 27 Feb 1860

— Themes [Motivy] from King and Charcoal Burner (i) †?1871–3 Prague, 1873

— Potpourri [Směs] from King and Charcoal Burner (ii) †?1874–5 Prague, 1875

— Nocturne, B, pf 4 hands ?1882

Op. 28 Two Minuets, A, F ?Feb 1876 Prague, 1879

Op. 35 Dumka, d Dec 1876 or ?1878 Berlin, 1879

Op. 36 Tema con variazioni, A Dec 1876 or ?1878 Berlin, 1879

Op. 41 Skotské tance [Scottish Dances], d †? Nov – Dec 1877 Prague, 1879

Op. 46 Slovanské tancy, [Slavonic Dances], 1st ser., pf 4 hands: C, e, A, F, A, D, c, g 18 March – 7 May 1878 Berlin, 1878 orchd as B83

Op. 42 Furianty, D, F 29 May – 25 Sept 1878 Berlin, 1879 1st perf. Prague, 17 Nov 1878

Op. 8 [12] Silhouettes: c, D, D, f, f, B, b, b, B, e, A, c †1875 – Oct/Nov 1879 Leipzig, 1880 early drafts made c1870–72, known as B32

Op. 54 [8] Waltzes: A, a, E, d, g, F, d, E 1 Dec 1879 – 17 Jan 1880 Berlin, 1880 nos.1, 4 arr. str qt as B105

Op. 56 Eclogues: 1 Allegro non tanto (quasi polka), 2 Quasi allegretto, 3 Moderato, 4 Allegretto 24 Jan–7 Feb 1880 Prague, 1921

— Lístky do památníku [Album Leaves] 27–31 May 1880 Prague, 1921

Op. 52 Piano pieces: 1 Impromptu, 2 Intermezzo, 3 Gigue, 4 Eclogue, 5 Allegro molto, 6 Tempo di marcia ?June 1880 nos.1–4 (Leipzig, 1881), no.5 (Prague, 1921)

Op. 56 Mazurkas: A, C, B, d, F, b 13 – ?23 June 1880 Berlin, 1880

— Moderato, A 3 Feb 1881 Prague, 1921

Op. 59 [10] Legends, pf 4 hands: d, G, g, C, A, c, A, F, D, b before 30 Dec 1880 – 22 March 1881 Berlin, 1881 orchd as B122

— Otázka [Question] 13 Dec 1882

— Impromptu, d? Jan 1883 Prague, 1883

Op. 68 Ze Šumavy [From the Bohemian Forest], pf 4 hands: 1 Na přástkách [In the Spinning-Room], 2 U černého jezera [By the Black Lake], 3 Noc filipojakubská [Witches’ Sabbath], 4 Na čekání [On the Watch], 5 Klid [Silent Woods], 6 Z bouřlivých dob [In Troublous Times] ?Sept 1883 – 12 Jan 1884 Berlin, 1884

Op. 12/1 Dumka, c ?Sept 1884 Prague and Paris, 1885

Op. 12/2 Furiant, g ?Sept 1884

— Humoreska, F †1884–92 Prague, ?1884

Op. 72 Slovanské tance, [Slavonic Dances], 2nd ser, pf 4 hands: B, e, F, D, b, B, C, A before 9 June – 9 July 1886 Berlin, 1886

— Dvě perličky [Two little pearls]: 1 Do kola [In a Ring], 2 Dědeček tanči s babičkou [Grandpa Dances with Grandma] ?Dec 1887 Prague, 1888

— Lístek do památníku [Album Leaf], E 21 July 1888

Op. 85 Poetické nálady [Poetic tone pictures]: 1 Noční cestou [Twilight Way], 2 Žertem [Toying], 3 Na starém hradě [In the Old Castle], 4 Jarni [Spring Song], 5 Selská balada [Peasant Ballad], 6 Vzpomínání [Reverie], 7 Furiant, 8 Rej skřítků [Goblins’ Dance], 9 Serenade, 10 Bacchanalia, 11 Na táčkách [Tittle-Tattle], 12 U mohyly [At a Hero’s Grave], 13 Na svaté hoře [On the Holy Mountain] 16 April– 6 June 1889 Berlin, 1889

— Theme for Variations (for O. Nedbal) ?1891 Prague, 1894

Op. 98 Suite, A 19 Feb – 1 March 1894 Berlin, 1894 known earlier as op.101; orchd as B190

Op. 101 [8] Humoresky: e, B, A, F, a, B, G, b 7–27 Aug 1894 Berlin, 1895

— 2 pieces: 1 Ukolébavka [Lullaby], 2 Capriccio 28 Aug – 7 Sept 1894 Berlin, 1911 op. posth.





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