SYMPHONIC POEM, "THE WOOD DOVE": Op. 110
This symphonic poem, composed after Dvořák's return to Bohemia from the United States in 1895, was published four years later. It is based upon "the like-named [47] ballad of C. J. Erben." Erben's ballad is founded on the Bohemian superstition that the souls of those who, while mortal, have lived godly lives, reappear on earth after death as white doves. The ballad tells a story which is a variant upon the ancient tale of the widow who found prompt solace in the soldier delegated to keep guard over the body of her dead husband. Erben's version, which the music of Dvořák illustrates, is set forth in an argument printed in the score. It runs as follows:
I
"The young widow, weeping and lamenting, follows the body of her husband to the grave.
"(Andante, marcia funèbre)
II
"A jovial, well-to-do peasant meets the beautiful widow, consoles her, and persuades her to forget her grief and take him for a husband.
"(Allegro; andante)
III
"She fulfils her lover's wish. A joyous wedding.
"(Molto vivace; allegretto grazioso)
IV
"From the branches of a freshly budding oak, over-shadowing the grave of her first husband—who had been poisoned by her—the mournful cooing of the wild dove is heard. The melancholy sounds pierce to the heart of the sinful woman, who, overcome by the terrors of an evil conscience, goes mad, and seeks death in the waters hard by.
"(Andante)
V
"Epilogue
"(Andante; più lento)"
[The work by which Dvořák is most familiarly known in America—the symphony in E minor, "From the New World" (composed in 1893 during Dvořák's sojourn in America as director of the National Conservatory of Music)—is not programme-music, except in so far as its slow movement is concerned—the Largo in D-flat major. In this movement, it has been said with authority, Dvořák has essayed a musical publication of the mode which he found in the story of Hiawatha's wooing, as set forth in Longfellow's poem. Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, who, in a sense, stood sponsor for the symphony at the time of its production, observes that there may be here "a suggestion of the sweet loneliness of the night on the prairies"; and he speaks of an episode in the middle of the movement which seems intended "to suggest the gradual awakening of animal life in the prairie scene"; and a striking use is made, he remarks, "of trills exchanged between the instrumental choirs as if they were the voices of the night, or dawn, in converse." The title of the symphony is explained, as most readers will remember, by the fact that in it Dvořák, by his own confession, according to Mr. Krehbiel, "sought to encourage American composers to seek and reflect in their music the spirit of the [negro] folk-tunes which have grown up in America. He does not want them to use the tunes themselves for thematic treatment, for that is not his conception of the meaning of nationalism in music; but he wants native composers to study the characteristic elements of those tunes (for those are the things which make them hit the taste and fancy of the public) and compose soundly on themes conceived in their vein. This he did in his American symphony." The sons of Dvořák have recently (1907) put themselves on record in the following interesting contribution to the history of this much-discussed symphony: "... the passages of the symphony and of other works of this American period, which, as some pretend, have been taken from negro airs, are absolutely our father's own mental property; they were only influenced by negro melodies. As in his Slav pieces he never used Slav songs, but, being a Slav, created what his heart dictated, all the works of this American period—the symphony included—respond to Slav origin, and any one who has the least feeling will proclaim this fact. Who will not recognize the homesickness in the Largo of this symphony? The secondary phrase of the first movement, the first theme of the scherzo, the beginning of the finale, and perhaps, also, the melody of the Largo, which give a certain impression of the groaning negro song, are only influenced by this song, and determined by change of land and the influence of a foreign climate.">[
FOOTNOTES:
[44] The title of this overture in the original Czech is V přirodě, which is said by those who best understand that tongue to be most faithfully rendered by the German In der Natur, by which title the overture is generally known in European concert-halls. Mr. W. F. Apthorp has suggested that Dvořák "might well have chosen Schiller's
'Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur'
(All beings drink joy at Nature's breast)
as the motto for his work."
[45] "L'Allegro" is here misquoted. Milton wrote of "jocund," not "jolly," rebecks.
[46] Shakespeare, of course, wrote this line otherwise than as it is carelessly given here.
[47] The Czech title of Dvořák's symphonic poem and of Erben's ballad is Holoubek. Carl Jaromir Erben (born 1811; died 1870) is known in America as the librettist of Dvořák's cantata, "The Spectre's Bride."