Dvorak, Antonin Books

Dvorak in Love: A Light-Hearted Dream

Josef, Skvorecky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An absolutely wonderful book 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This book is told from the point of view of many different narrators, all of whom have some connection with Dvorak and his American sojourn. Some chapters are virtual novellas, others are just funny stories. As ever, Skvorecky's range is prodigious. He can speak with the voice of Czechs and Americans, men and women, blacks and whites, the old and the young. Dvorak himself is glimpsed only from the outside, by those around him, and it is not necessary to know more about him than that he was a great musician in order to enjoy -- and be moved by -- this comic novel.

If the Nobel Prize committee made decisions based on a writer's skill and range and mastery of literary form, Skvorecky would have won years ago. He's without doubt the funniest great writer alive. If you haven't read him yet, you have a treat awaiting you.

Editorial Review:

In 1892, at the height of his prodigious powers, Anton Dvorak was persuaded to leave his native Bohemia to come to New York to be director of the National Conservatory for Music. This splendid novel tells the story of Dvorak's utterly requited love affair with America.

New Worlds of Dvorak: Searching in America for the Composer's Inner Life

Michael Beckerman, Michael, B. Beckerman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An interesting read, but take with a grain of salt. 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Beckerman takes a real chance with this book. Rather than trying to analyze Dvoř?k's musical legacy by starting with Dvoř?k himself, he starts largely with an analysis of the music and uses this to infer the composer's personality. Unfortunately I think Beckerman has in come places strayed to far from the objective reality of Dvoř?k's life and has been swept away by the passions of music, which magnify the passions of life.
Perhaps most curious about New World of Dvoř?k is that it barely seems to discuss the Master at all, but rather seems to spend most of its time discussing the critics, music researchers, philanthropists, and journalists who were so caught up in what they say as the promise of Dvoř?k. In many ways Beckerman does not describe who the composer really was, or what he really wrote, but what he represented to the Americans who brought him to America and followed his every move as though he was single-handedly spelling out the destiny of American music.
Rather than being a true biography of the composer, I would consider this book more of a very narrow historical and thematic sketch of American musical culture at the time of the Master's visit. Although Beckerman makes some very compelling musical arguments that attempt to find the true inspiration of Dvoř?k's supposedly "American" pieces, his analysis goes so far as to claim there the in fact exists no American nationalist music whatsoever, and this conclusion is just too hard to swallow. It is likewise odd that Beckerman insists that Dvoř?k suffered from debilitating mental anguish and persistent psychological problems. It almost seems that it offends Beckerman's sensibilities that a composer of Dvoř?k's historical significance was essentially "clean."

Editorial Review:

A forceful reinterpretation of the composer's personality and work.

Focusing on Dvorák's three-year stay in the United States, this book explores the world behind the public legend, concluding that the composer suffered from a debilitating and previously unexplored anxiety disorder. Readers of this book will gain a rich view of Dvorák that will deepen their understanding of his works, especially his Symphony From the New World. Audio compact disc included; 16 pages of b/w illustrations.

Dvorak in America: In Search of the New World

Joseph Horowitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Brilliant Book for Young Readers! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Joseph Horowitz loves the late 19th and early 20th world of culture. He is simultaneously scholar and activist. His bold, unprecendented project is to take historical moments and richly employ them to introduce the excitement of classical music to young readers. He could have no better scenario than Dvorak in the New World. Here the composer seeks to create an American musical language based on a synthesis of the high symphonic style with elements of Black and Indian music. The characters are vividly drawn and the whole is both beautifully written and wonderfully gauged for young readers. A real treat!

Editorial Review:

Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony is one of the most popular classical works ever. In this spirited account of the story behind the composition, Joseph Horowitz brings to life the diverse musical and cultural influences that inspired the composer, who came from Czechoslovakia to America in 1892. Listening to his assistant, Henry Burleigh, sing slave songs, and visiting Wild West shows and the Kickapoo Medicine Show gave Dvorak the raw material from which to compose his masterpiece that, to both popular audiences and critics, captures the vibrancy and power of American music. Illustrated with archival black-and-white photos, and including index and source notes for further research, this book brings the dramatic and inspiring story of a musical masterpiece to life for young readers.

Two Scarlet Songbirds: A Story of Anton Dvorak

Carole Lexa Schaefer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Magic of Inspiration all Around Us! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This is a magical story and a sumptuously illustrated feast for the eyes, showing kids (and us "former kids") that inspiration is everywhere around us.

It was the lush illustration that first caught my eye and led me into this wonderful, beautifully written (and true!) tale of a famous composer sparked to write one of his most famous creations by the song of a bird in the branches above him.

Our six year old nephew has been unable to put it down ever since we gave it to him. And while we love seeing him dive into it and stay entertained, the book had a wonderful side effect we never expected... he has suddenly taken heightened interest in his surroundings. When we took a walk yesterday, he was suddenly imitating the songs of seagulls. He said he wanted to try to capture the color of the afternoon sunlight when we got home and he reached for his crayons. He has always been very curious, but never to this degree! He seemed to suddenly be approaching his drawing with extra energy and purpose. It was amazing to see.

"Two Scarlet Songbirds" has somehow demystified creativity and unleashed new levels of awareness curiosity and confidence in him.

I'll confess this inspiration has rubbed off on this forty year old too. I've never been moved to write a review before...

If you don't put this piece of magic into the hands of the little ones you know, you're missing something wonderful!

The illustrations are so visually rich that even very young ones will love it (the nephew I spoke of has a one year old brother who was delighted looking at the pictures and having it read to him).

Thumbs up!!

Editorial Review:

Fact and fiction come together in a magically imagined tale of the composer Anton Dvorák’s inspiration for “American Quartet.” Transfixed by the birdsong of the little Iowa river town where he and his family are spending the summer, Dvorák seeks out the beautiful song of the scarlet tanager. And as the tanager woos a mate and begins to build a nest, Dvorák writes the bird’s music down on everything from paper to shirtsleeves. At the end of one long summer evening, the scarlet tanager hears familiar music from the town’s schoolhouse and settles on a branch nearby to listen. Inside, Dvorák and his friends play the first rehearsal of “American Quartet,” inspired by the little songbird. Then, while one plays on, the other flies home.

Dvorak Cello Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks)

Jan Smaczny

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Editorial Review:

Although Dvorák's cello concerto is enormously popular, no extended study of it has been undertaken hitherto. This book is a comprehensive study intended for concertgoers and students of this well-loved work. It considers aspects of historical background, form, virtuosity, performance and the concerto's rich personal content. This guide sees the work as a crucial means of exploring the composer's emotional life and links it intimately to the woman who was probably his first love.

Dvorak and His World (The Bard Music Festival)

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Editorial Review:

Antonin Dvorák made his famous trip to the United States one hundred years ago, but despite an enormous amount of attention from scholars and critics since that time, he remains an elusive figure. Comprising both interpretive essays and a selection of fascinating documents that bear on Dvorák's career and music, this volume addresses fundamental questions about the composer while presenting an argument for a radical reappraisal.

The essays, which make up the first part of the book, begin with Leon Botstein's inquiry into the reception of Dvorák's work in German-speaking Europe, in England, and in America. Commenting on the relationship between Dvorák and Brahms, David Beveridge offers the first detailed portrait of perhaps the most interesting artistic friendship of the era. Joseph Horowitz explores the context in which the "New World" Symphony was premiered a century ago, offering an absorbing account of New York musical life at that time. In discussing Dvorák as a composer of operas, Jan Smaczny provides an unexpected slant on the widely held view of him as a "nationalist" composer. Michael Beckerman further investigates this view of Dvorák by raising the question of the role nationalism played in music of the nineteenth century.

The second part of this volume presents Dvorák's correspondence and reminiscences as well as unpublished reviews and criticism from the Czech press. It includes a series of documents from the composer's American years, a translation of the review of Rusalka's premiere with the photographs that accompanied the article, and Janácek's analyses of the symphonic poems. Many of these documents are published in English for the first time.

Dvorak in America, 1892-1895

John C. Tibbetts

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Editorial Review:

"What a wonderful manuscript! The most impressive aspect is the artful way the volume flows effortlessly from one chapter - and one section - to the next. Of all the books on American music at the turn of the century, none brings together so many interesting and richly interrelated dimensions as Dvorak in America. Congratulations!" Dr. Robert Winter Chair, Department of Music, UCLA

Spillville

Patricia Hampl

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Dvorak fans will love this Iowa tale 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"Spillville" tells about Anton Dvorak's stay in this small Iowa town. The author has captured the essence of life in rural Iowa. As for the engravings that illustrate the text, I can't say anything nice about those. But the story is interesting, especially for someone interested in Iowa or Dvorak.

Antonin Dvorak, My Father

Otaker Dvorak, Paul J. Polansky

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Antonin Dvorak, My Father is a personal biography by his son Otakar who at the age of seventy-five years old decided to "write about the events missing from the other books about my father. "

For musicologists, Otakar's biography of his father contains many new items, but basically the book portrays Dvorak as a father. Story after story discloses Dvofak's real identity, captured in simple words by his son, while the great composer's work and profession linger in the background.

Otakar reveals in detail how his father decided to come to America. Later, after Otakar joined his parents in New York, the family set out for Spiliville. Otakar tells many stories about his father in this Czech-American community in northeastern Iowa.

Dvorak's symphony From the New World was the rage of New York in December of 1893, but Otakar recalls it for a much different reason.

Dvorak's depression in New York has seldom been mentioned, much less understood. But through the eyes of nine year old Otakar there is a poignancy that few musical historians could present.

Otakar remembers many stories told by Dvotak's friends and pupils. These colorful stories carry us through the chapters, giving us the background to Dvofak's career and life. Otakar relates several gems for the musical historian, but the story about how his father solved a problem in his most famous opera might be the best.

Otakar wrote his book to say..."ad memoriam lather. " But Otakar's epilogue for this book written a few days before his own death divulged as much about himself as his stories did about his father.

Clapham Dvorak

J CLAPHAM

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