Dvořák (pronounced Dvorzhak), ANTONIN, the Bohemian composer, was born at Mühlhausen, near Kralup in the Prague district, on the 8th September 1841. He had more difficulties to overcome in his pursuit of education than the majority even of music's least favoured sons. His father was a butcher, and could ill afford to allow his son to indulge the tastes which a few lessons from a local musician had deeply implanted in the boy. At a great sacrifice, however, he sent his son in 1857 to Prague, which has since been the headquarters of his uneventful life. In 1873, after years of the dulllest hack-work in café orchestras and as a church organist, he composed a hymn for chorus and organ which attracted attention. Attention begat ever-increasing interest, until two years afterwards the Austrian government conferred on him a staats-stipendium or annual allowance from the treasury. Brahms introduced his compositions to the musical public in Vienna; but the work which won for him the ear of all Europe was his Stabat Mater, which speedily became a favourite, especially in England, where it was first performed by the London Musical Society in 1883. This work rises above the strong influences of national feeling so generally found in Dvořák's writings into a more cosmopolitan atmosphere, and challenges comparison with the most universally accepted settings of the Latin hymn. Other compositions are songs, &c., very spontaneous and delicate (Seven Gypsy Songs, op. 55), and piano-forte compositions (Dumka or Élegy, Furiante or Bohemian Dances, Slav Dances), in all of which he has made very large use of national melodies and dance rhythms; also chamber music of great beauty (E flat Quartette, op. 51). His most ambitious work is orchestral (Symphony in D, op. 60) and choral. Of the latter, the Spectre's Bride (cantata written for the Birmingham Festival of 1885) is comparatively short, and full of that pulsing life which is characteristic of Dvořák's best manner. The Stabat Mater commands the admiration of all earnest musicians, and is probably his greatest work. St Ludmila (an oratorio written for the Leeds Festival, 1886) is very long and dreary. His dramatic efforts are few and unfortunat. His opera Der Bauer, ein Schelm, had a short-lived existence; but his Jacobin (1889) was favourably received by good critics. In 1892 he went to New York.
Dvořák is a prominent example of the eagerness with which a certain school turned to folk-song and national dance as a fountain of originality. So long accustomed to Teutonic inspiration, musical Europe gladly heard the new rhythms and strange harmonic effects of the Slav races. The characteristics of Dvořák's compositions are, first, the strong Czech element which pervades them, and displays itself in characteristic rhythmical effects and relations of tonalities, peculiar and indistinct to Western ears; secondly, the economical and often extremely clever use of small thematic material; and thirdly, the large amount of irrelevant 'padding,' which never rises to the level of Schubert's Himmlische Lüge.