Racheltrentham

Lead

Dvořák's first piece of a religious nature, his setting of Stabat Mater, was premiered in Prague in 1880. It was very successfully performed in London in 1883, leading to many other performances in the United Kingdom and United States. In his career, Dvořák made nine invited visits to England, often conducting performances of his own works. His Seventh Symphony was written for London. Visiting Russia in March 1890, he conducted concerts of his own music in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In 1891 Dvořák was appointed as a professor at the Prague Conservatory. In 1890–91, he wrote his Dumky Trio, one of his most successful chamber music pieces.

In 1892, Dvořák moved to the United States and became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. The President of the National Conservatory of Music in America, Jeannette Thurber, offered Dvořák an annual salary of $15,000– twenty-five times what he was paid at the Prague Conservatory. While in the United States, Dvořák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide, and his Cello Concerto, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti. In the summer of 1893, Dvořák moved from New York City to Spillville, Iowa, following the advice of his secretary, J.J. Kovarík. Dvořák had originally planned to come back to Bohemia, but Spillville was made up of mostly Czech immigrants, and thus felt less homesick; Dvořák referred to it as his "summer Vysoka." This is where he wrote his most famous piece of chamber music, his String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, which was later nicknamed the American Quartet. Shortly after his time in Iowa, Dvorák extended his contract at the National Conservatory for another two years. However, the economic crisis of April 1893 resulted in Thurber's husband's loss of income, and directly influenced the National Conservatory's funding. Shortfalls in payment of his salary, along with increasing recognition in Europe and an onset of homesickness, led him to leave the United States and return to Bohemia in 1895.

Chamber music

A viola player himself, Dvořák felt a natural affinity to writing for strings. His chamber work is heavily inspired by American folk culture, while also maintaining his Czech roots.

String quintets

In 1860, just after he completed his education at the Prague Organ School, Dvořák composed his String Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 1. Two more would follow, of which the String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77 from March 1875, is noteworthy for the use of a double bass. This quintet was written towards the end of the composer’s transitional phase, incorporating a thematic density to his works. This quintet is characterized by delicate operetta style uncommon in his instrumental work. The extension of a variation to all section is reminiscent of his symphonic literature. It was written for a chamber music competition sponsored by the Umělecká beseda (Artistic Circle), where it was unanimously awarded a prize of five ducats for the "distinction of theme, the technical skill in polyphonic composition, the mastery of form and the knowledge of the instruments" displayed. The String Quintet No. 3 in E♭ major, Op. 97, with a second viola added, was written near the end of his American period in 1893, when he spent a summer holiday in Spillville, Iowa.

String quartets

In the 1880s Dvořák made a list of his destroyed compositions, including string quartets in B-flat, D and E minor of 1868-70. Dvořák destroyed these compositions during his "mad period"’ only after copies had already been printed. The number of errors in the parts makes it unlikely that they were ever played. Dvořák kept the manuscripts of these quartets but did not give them opus numbers. They are noted to have numbers B.17, B.18, and B.19 in the Burghauser catalog. The second, third, and fourth quartets illustrate Dvořák’s progress as a composer. He demonstrates understanding of highly developed musical language in his D major quartet, shaping the melody of the Slav freedom song Hej Slovane (‘Hey, Slavs!’) in a variation style. The quartet in E minor is a single movement, including a slow, 63 bars on an F# pedal point. The single movement from the E minor quartet was used five years later in his second string quintet Op. 77, as a second movement named Intermezzo: Nocturne, making this initially a five-movement composition. He later withdrew the second movement and reworked it into the Nocturne for Strings in B major, Op. 40 (B. 47). This includes three separate arrangements: for orchestra (B47), for violin and piano (B48A), and for piano four hands (B48B).

During his time in America in 1893, Dvořák composed two of his most popular quartets: the String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96 ("The American") and the String Quintet in E-flat, Op. 97 (B180). Dvorak composed this work in three days after he and his family reunited in Spillville, Iowa. He drew inspiration from the freedom he felt in the country side of America. This piece is distinguishable from his other quartets due to the simplicity of it writing. Throughout the piece, Dvorak uses skipping rhythms, high register of the first violin, and unified key relationships among all movements except for Lento. There is less shaping in thematic material, heavy uses of repetition, and less attention was paid to the development. Shortly after the composition of Op. 96, Dvorak composed his E-flat Major String Quintet, Op. 97. This piece was distinguished from his prior chamber works due to the instrumentation of two viola parts. The influence that Native American folk music had on Dvorak's work was also apparent in Op. 97; there is a common drum rhythm in Native American music presented throughout all of the movements except the Larghetto.

Other chamber works

He also composed two piano quintets, both in A major, of which the second, Op. 81, is the better known. He left a Terzetto for two violins and viola (Op. 74); two piano quartets (Op. 23 and Op. 87), a string sextet, Op. 48; and four piano trios, including the Piano Trio No. 4 (subtitled Dumky), Op. 90. He also wrote a set of Bagatelles, Op. 47, for the unusual combination of two violins, cello, and harmonium. The Bagatelles are cyclical and similar to a suite, echoing Czech bagpipe melodies. Dvořák wrote two waltzes for string quartet, and arranged set of 12 love songs for the string quartet entitled Echo of Songs (B152), taken from his set of 18 songs originally composed in 1865 entitled Cypresses. His works for violin and piano include the Romantic Pieces, the Violin Sonatina, and the Violin Sonata.