Antonín Leopold Dvorák (1841 - 1904) was a Czech
composer. Dvorák 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 BedÅ™ich Smetana. Dvorák'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 he himself has been described as
"arguably the most ...(+)
Antonín Leopold Dvorák (1841 - 1904) was a Czech
composer. Dvorák 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 BedÅ™ich Smetana. Dvorák'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 he himself has been described as
"arguably the most versatile... composer of his time".
He displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being
an apt violin student. The first public performances of
his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special
success, in 1873, when he was 31 years old. Seeking
recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted scores
of symphonies and other works to German and Austrian
competitions. He did not win a prize until 1874, with
Johannes Brahms on the jury of the Austrian State
Competition. In 1877, after his third win, Brahms
recommended Dvorák to his publisher, Simrock, who
commissioned what became the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46.
The sheet music's high sales and critical reception led
to his international success. A London performance of
Dvorák's Stabat Mater in 1883 led to many other
performances in the United Kingdom, the United States,
and eventually Russia in March 1890. The Seventh
Symphony was written for London in 1885.
Humoresques (Czech: Humoresky), Op. 101 (B. 187), is a
piano cycle by the Czech composer Antonín DvoÅ™ák,
written during the summer of 1894. Music critic David
Hurwitz says "the seventh Humoresque is probably the
most famous small piano work ever written after
Beethoven's Für Elise.
During his stay in United States, when DvoÅ™ák was
director of the Conservatory in New York from 1892 to
1895, the composer collected many interesting musical
themes in his sketchbooks. He used some of these ideas
in other compositions, notably the "New World"
Symphony, the "American" String Quartet, the Quintet in
Eâ™ major, and the Sonatina for Violin, but some
remained unused.
In 1894 DvoÅ™ák spent the summer with his family in
Bohemia, at Vysoká u PÅ™íbrami. During this
"vacation", DvoÅ™ák began to use the collected
material and to compose a new cycle of short piano
pieces. On 19 July 1894, DvoÅ™ák sketched the first
Humoresque in B major, today number 6 in the cycle.
However, the composer soon started to create scores for
the pieces that were intended to be published. The
score was completed on 27 August 1894. The cycle was
entitled Humoresques shortly before DvoÅ™ák sent
the score to his German publisher F. Simrock. The
composition was published by Simrock in Autumn,
1894.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humoresques_(Dvo%C5%99%C
3%A1k)).
Although originally composed for Solo Piano, I created
this Arrangement of The Humoresque in Gb Major (Op. 101
B. 187 No. 7) for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
SHEET MUSIC