Even as a child, he was singing beautiful songs, dancing, and playing the violin. He was introduced to music at the inn where his father worked, and then, like other children in the village, he learned to read notes and sing in church.
He could play the violin well at a young age and started performing with his father at local events in the village. The folkloric elements we encounter in his works were ingrained in his mind at an early age. At the age of 12, he left school and moved to Zlonice to live with his aunt and uncle, where he began taking harmony, piano, and organ lessons. He also worked as a butcher's apprentice here and tried to improve his German. He wrote his first works in the three years he spent in Zlonice. Recognizing Dvořák's talent, his music teacher persuaded his father, František Dvořák, to enroll him at the Institute of Church Music in Prague. Since his father was not in a good financial situation, his uncle helped him to go to this school. After completing a two-year course in Prague, he was both giving lessons and playing viola in various places due to financial difficulties. Starting to play in the St. Cecilia Orchestra added much more to him than what he learned at school.
Antonín Leopold Dvořák (8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák's style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them," and Dvořák has been described as "arguably the most versatile... composer of his time".
In 1882, his mother Anna Dvořáková passed away. With this sadness, “Piano Trio No.3 in F-minor, op. He composed the work "65".
In 1892, Dvořák accepted the directorship of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, founded by Jeannette Meyers Thurber. Here he gave lectures and directed orchestra rehearsals.
After a while, he started to miss his country and returned to Bohemia in 1895. Since the agreement he made with the conservatory had not yet expired, he went to New York for the second time, this time with his younger son Otokar. After a while, he returned to his country. After returning to his country, he completed his string quartets, chamber music works, and symphonic poetry.
1896 was an important year for Czech culture due to the founding of a new orchestra, which would later become the most famous orchestra in the country: the Czech Philharmonic.
In the last years of his life, he became interested in myths and fairy tales. First, he wrote four symphonic poems, starting with The Water Goblin, then The Noon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel, and finally The Wild Dove, inspired by the texts in Karel Jaromir Erben's Bouquet collection.
The premiere, which took place in March 1904, did not go as the composer wanted due to careless preparation work done on behalf of the company. Dvořák's disappointment with the careless staging of the opera compounded his health problems. On the night of March 25, 1904, when Armida was first performed, he had to leave the theater before the end of the opera due to increasing pain. After the bed rest prescribed by his doctor, he said that he felt better on the morning of May 1, 1904, and wanted to accompany his family to dinner, but he fell ill during the meal and passed away.
Who is Anton Dvorak?
Anton Dvorak was born on September 8, 1841. Dvorak, who took his first music lessons from his primary school teacher, sang beautiful songs, danced, and played the violin.
After completing high school, he started the organ school in Prague in 1857. He completed his two-year education by playing the viola and giving private lessons without any financial help from his family.
In 1862, he was appointed violinist and violist to the Prague National Theater Orchestra. The artist, who gained experience while working and completely learned the instruments and their relationships with each other, began to compose compositions with great enthusiasm.
Later in 1863, he composed a beautiful cantata called "Chor-Himnus", inspired by a historical war poem. The singing of this work by a choir of 300 people on a theater stage took its fame beyond the borders of Bohemia.
Following this success, the state provided Dvorak with a scholarship for several years. Meanwhile, the 22-year-old artist married a singer named Cermak, a soprano who plays the piano.
In 1877, a choral piece called Stabat Mater was very popular in England and the artist was given an "Honorary Doctorate" by Cambridge University in England.
He began writing Lieds for violin and cello in 1879, Gypsy songs in 1880, and Schubert in 1887.
In addition, he also wrote popular works such as Moldavian dances and Slavic dances.
In 1891 he started working as a composition teacher at the Prague Conservatory. A year later, he went to America upon the invitation of the New York National Conservatory.
In America, he composed his 5th symphony called "From the New World", inspired by poet H W Longfellow's poem "Hiawatha".
During his stay in America, he produced many works and his fame gradually increased, but Dvorak could not stand the longing for his homeland and returned to Prague in 1895.
In Prague, the artist was honored by being awarded the "Order of Arts" and "Honorary Doctorate".
He became director of the Prague Conservatory and the Artistic Foundation. The artist organized the first Czech Music Festival in 1904. However, on the evening the festival started, Dvorak suddenly fell ill and died in Prague in 1904.