UMS Concert Program, October 20: Boston Symphony Orchestra -- Henry Lee Higginson

Season: SEVENTY-FOURTH
Complete Series: 1954-1955
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor

T BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHE STRA
FOUNDED IN 1881 BY HENRY LEE HIGGINSON
SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON
1954I955
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor Wednesday Evening, October 20
SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CHORAL UNION CONCERT SERIES, OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AUSPICES UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Boston Symphony Orchestra
(Seventy-fourth Season, 1954-1955) CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
RICHARD BURGIN, Associate Conductor PERSONNEL
Violins
Richard Burgin, Concert-master Alfred Krips George Zazofsky Rolland Tapley Norbert Lauga Vladimir ResnikolF Harry Dickson Gottfried Wilfinger Einar Hansen Joseph Leibovici Emil Kornsand Roger Shermont
Paul Fedorovsky Carlos Pinfield Minot Beale Herman Silberman Stanley Benson Leo Panasevich
Sheldon Rotenberg Fredy Ostrovsky
Clarence Knudson Pierre Mayer Manuel Zung Samuel Diamond Victor Manusevitch James Nagy Melvin Bryant Raphael Del Sordo Lloyd Stonestreet Saverio Messina William Waterhouse William Marshall Leonard Moss Jesse Ceci
Basses
Georges Moleux Willis Page Ludwig Juht Irving Frankel Henry Freeman Henry Portnoi Gaston Dufresne Henri Girard John Barwicki
Violas
Joseph de Pasquale Jean Cauhape
F.ugen Lehner Albert Bernard George Humphrey Jerome Lipson Robert Karol Louis Artieres Reuben Green Bernard Kadinoff Vincent Mauricci John Fiasca
Violoncellos Samuel Mayes Alfred Zighera Jacobus Langendoen Mischa Nieland Karl Zeise Josef Zimbler Bernard Parronchi Leon Marjollet Martin Hoherman Louis Berger
Flutes
Doriot Anthony Dwyer James Pappoutsakis Phillip Kaplan
Piccolo George Madsen
Oboes
Ralph Gomberg Jean Devergie John Holmes
English Horn Louis Speyer
Clarinets
Gino Cioffi Manuel Valerio Pasquale Cardillo E Clarinet
Bass Clarinet Rosario Mazzeo
Bassoons Sherman Walt Ernst Panenka Theodore Brewster
Contra-Bassoon Richard Plaster
Horns
James Stagliano Charles Yancich Harry Shapiro Harold Meek PaulKeaney Osbourne McConathy Walter Macdonald
Trumpets Roger Voisin Marcel Lafosse Armando Ghitalla Gerard Goguen
Trombones Jacob Raichman William Moyer Kauko Kahila Josef Orosz
Tuba K. Vinal Smith
Harps
Bernard Zighera Olivia Luetcke
Timpani Roman Szulc Everett Firth
Percussion Charles Smith Harold Farberman Harold Thompson
Librarians Leslie Rogers Victor Alpert, Ass't
Hill Auditorium [University of Michigan] Ann Arbor
SEVENTY-FOURTH SEASON, 1954-1955
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director Richard Burgin, Associate Conductor
Concert Bulletin
WEDNESDAY EVENING, October 20
with historical and descriptive notes by John N. Burk
The TRUSTEES of the BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Inc. Henry B. Cabot . President
Jacob J. Kaplan . Vice-President
Richard C. Paine . Treasurer
Tai.cott M. Banks, Jr. John Nicholas Brown Theodore P. Ferris Alvan T. Fuller Francis W. Hatch Harold D. Hodgkinson
C. D. Jackson Michael T. Kelleher Palfrey Perkins Charles H. Stockton Edward A. Taft Raymond S. Wilkins
Oliver Wolcott TRUSTEES EMERITUS
Philip R. Allen
N. Penrose Hallowell
M. A. DeWolfe Howe Lewis Perry
Thomas D. Perry, Tr., Manaeer
G. W. Rector ) Assistant N. S. Shirk j Managers
J. J. Brosnahan, Assistant Treasurer Rosario Mazzeo, Personnel Manager
TANGLEWOOD 1955
The
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
The Berkshire Festival
Eighteenth Season
CHARLES MUNCH, Conductor
------------
The Berkshire Music Center
Thirteenth Season CHARLES MUNCH, Director
To receive further announcements, write to Festival Office, Symphony Hall, Boston
Hill Auditorium [ University of Michigan] Ann Arbor
Boston Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES MUNCH, Music Director
WEDNESDAY EVENING, October 20, at 8:30 o'clock
Program
Bach ..................................Suite No. 4, in D major
Overture Gavotte
Minuets I and II Rejouissance
Dvorak...........................Symphony No. 5, in E minor,
(1841-1904) "From the New World," Op. 95
I. Adagio; Allegro molto
11 ? Largo
III. Scherzo: Molto vivace
IV. Allegro con fuoco
INTERMISSION
Berlioz.......................Excerpts from "Romeo and Juliet,"
Dramatic Symphony, Op. 17
Love Scene: Serene Night -The Capulets' Garden Silent and Deserted Queen Mab, the Fairy of Dreams
Romeo alone -Melancholy -Concert and Ball -Great Feast at the Capulets'
_________________________
Concerts by this orchestra in Boston will be broadcast on Saturdays 8:30-9:30 E.S.T. on the NBC Network.
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[41
THE MUSIC MAKER FROM BOHEMIA
(On May i last, 50 years had passed since the death of Antonin Dvorak in Prague.)
"T7ou are not speaking to a demigod!" wrote Dvorak to an admirer
JL who had sent him a worshipful letter at the height of his fame. "I am a very simple person to whom such expressions of exaggerated modesty as yours are entirely inappropriate. I remain what I was: a plain and simple Bohemian Musikant."
This is a perfect self-description. Dvorak, as a boy and as a young man, lived in the tradition of the small tradesman who was handy at music making, at playing the violin, viola or organ when the occa?sion offered. When his father, who was an innkeeper and butcher, discouraged the idea of music as a principal profession, young Dvorak spent the larger part of a year behind a butcher's block, exchanging civilities with housewives.
Among the most valuable pages of Paul Stefan's life of Dvorak are those in his introduction which describe the "Bohemian Musi?kant" as a type: "Picture him to yourself, this fiddler, clarinettist, trombone-player, or what have you, sitting at a table, probably in some rustic inn-garden, with his glass of beer before him, having en?joyed a hearty meal of coarse but savory Bohemian food. Suddenly the spirit moves him, he is transformed into an artist. There follows inevitably the full flood of melody, unfailing rhythm, infectious tem?perament. Nobody and nothing can withstand this thraldom. . . . Listening to him, you could see the forest, the fields, the village with its people, the geese on the pond, the peasant children, the organist, the school-teacher, the priest, the authorities, the gentry --all that early world of a lovable, unspoiled people."
It is not only the Dvorak of his younger days that fits this descrip?tion. The career which took him back and forth to distant parts and made him a principal figure in the .musical world did not in the least alter his character. He was never changed by success, money or general adulation. When he was a revered professor at the National Conservatory of Music in New York, the "great man" disarmed his pupils by talking to them as if he were one of them. In his last years he was director of the Prague Conservatory. It was arranged that his assistant, Knittl, should relieve him of administrative burdens. Dvorak, wishing to go to his country place, would ask Knittl for permission.
He never acquired the "front" of a celebrity, nor lived in the
Published by the Greystone Press, this biography makes full use of the early biography by Otakar Sourek (which has never been translated into English).
[5]
grandeur he could easily have had. When, in 1884, the firm of Novello in London offered him ?2000 for a new oratorio, an un?heard-of amount of money, he bought some wooded ground with a one-story house at Vysoka, where he could spend his summers roaming the woods and composing. He would walk to the little mining town near by and sit among the villagers at the local inn, taking part in their conversation. He was an ardent breeder of pigeons. If someone made the mistake of serving squab at a dinner, he would leave the table. When he lived in New York, he fled hotel life for a simple apartment, where he would sit in the kitchen to compose, liking to be in the midst of the domestic sounds of pots and pans or chattering children. He would spend hours in the Caf? Boulevard on Second Avenue, reading the latest newspaper from home and growling to himself over the stupidity of the Prague Parliament. Locomotives and steamboats fascinated him as they would fascinate a boy. It is told how at Prague he used to haunt the railroad yards to make note of the locomotives. Busy with a class, he once sent Joseph Suk, who then hoped to marry his daughter, to write down the number of a locomotive which had just come in. Suk brought him back a num?ber which he recognized as the number of the tender, and he ex?claimed, "This is what I am expected to accept as a son-in-law!" In New York, since he could not gain access to the railway platforms without a ticket, he would go to the uptown station to watch the trains pass. When the school term ended in New York, he went as far west as Spillville, Iowa, to find a counterpart for his beloved Vysoka at home. In this small and extremely remote town of Bohemian settlers he tried to duplicate his life at home, taking walks, going to church, where he played the organ, and exchanging views with his neighbors. He was delighted to find that the local butcher had also the name of Dvorak. He was much beloved in the town and addressed by a Czechish term which could be translated as "Squire Dvorak."
This way of life was neither affectation, nor "back to the people" fanaticism, nor yet miserliness. It was quite genuine. Dvorak remained what he was -a Bohemian villager, simple-hearted, childlike in his
Jie Jjames jfue
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SOIIO SIIVEH FLUTES -PICCOLOS
iim.tmi ID. iflas
[6]
faith and in his optimism, enjoying homely country pleasures and wanting no others. Biilow, who became one of his ardent apostles, referred to him as "Caliban" and described him as "a genius who looks like a tinker."
He had the religious faith of a child. Completing a manuscript score, he never failed to write at the end, "Thank God." When his publisher, Simrock, held out stubbornly for smaller works which were against his inclinations at the time, he ended a lengthy argument by writing, "I shall simply do what God imparts to me to do. That will certainly be the best thing."
There is something really remarkable in Dvorak's consistent naturalness through life in the face of the bustling aura of attention which surrounds a famous man. Applauding audiences, receptions, speeches, decorations delighted him up to a certain point, and beyond that point made him impatient and angry. He was extremely sensi?tive, emotionally quick, and his rage, his tears, his jubilation were always near the surface. His latest biographer tells an incident which followed a Festival of his works at Prague in 1901: "While he was being detained at home through a ruse, a festive parade marched up to his house, a corps of singers entered the courtyard and sere?naded him. He was compelled -at the cost of considerable effort -to appear at the window and thank them. In a towering rage, al?though affected to tears, when they would not stop crying 'Long live Dvofakl' he roared, 'Tell them to stop shouting!'" A friend in New York would sometimes accompany him on a walk down town to the Battery, where he would gaze at the Atlantic horizon, stretch out his arms, and weep without restraint. When a pupil in composition once brought him a particularly bad exercise, he burst out impatiently: "No one could write like that but a donkeyl" The pupil, offended, began to walk out, but Dvorak called after him, "Come back; you aren't a donkey." He was fond of playing cards, but if he had a streak of bad luck, he would lose his temper and throw his cards in the air. His friend Kovarik in New York restored peace by offering to use his own winnings to send a doll to Dvorak's youngest daughter in Vysoka. He went to bed early, country fashion. He would often leave an opera or a concert performance or even a reception when his bedtime came. It was undoubtedly this persistence of a childlike nature that continued to produce music of a special distinguishing charm and fundamental directness.
It was through the award to him of the Austrian State Prize in 1877 that his music came to the attention of Brahms and Hanslick, who were among the judges. Both of them eagerly took up his cause in Vienna. Brahms wrote to his publisher, Simrock, under date of December 12, 1877, telling him, "I have been delighted with the
[7]
pieces by Anton Dvorak (pronounced Dvorshak) of Prague." He spoke warmly of the cycle of Moravian duets and called his attention to other works. "At all events he is a very talented man. Besides, he is poor! I beg you to bear this in mind. These duets will tell you everything, and they should be a good 'selling article.' " The result of this was that Simrock at once published the vocal duets, and on the strength of the rising tide of Dvorak's popularity signed a con?tract with him with an option for life on his smaller works. The re?sult was a greatly increased circulation of his music. Brahms proved a genuine friend. He gave him valuable advice, and while Dvorak was in America devoted many hours to the revision of his proofs. He tried to coax him to the faculty of the Conservatory at Vienna, with the intention of pitting him against Bruckner. This was part of an effort, in which he was backed by Hanslick, to line him up against the Wagner-Liszt party. Biilow, who conducted his music on many momentous occasions, also said biting things about Wagner, and Hanslick spoke his intention of walking out of a concert just before something of Bruckner was to be played. Dvorak, still possessing his simple common sense, refused to fall in with this species of musical party politics and bigotry. He called upon the despised Bruckner as he was working upon the Adagio of his Ninth Symphony and was much moved. Brahms undoubtedly led Dvorak into the stricter use of classical forms. But in his last years, he turned once more to Wagner's ways and composed "program" music in the form of operas and tone poems.
There was nothing cosmic about Dvorak. There was nothing revo?lutionary or even reconstructive about him. Music to him was a genuine heartfelt impulse, lyrical, communicative. Themes came to him at almost any time. If the fountain ceased now and then, he was not disturbed, but waited confidently for its return. The spon?taneity of Dvorak with its buoyant invention was rare, and quickly made its way. The traditional structure conveniently contained it. He developed an apt sense of color without elaboration. The special flavor and freshness of his style gave it an aspect of modernity. The composer's desire to reach people of all sorts was to a degree realized. His popularity grew in steady strides. He made journey after journey to England, usually conducting a new oratorio for that oratorio-loving nation. The public crowded to his concerts by thousands, pounds sterling poured in upon him. Rosa Newmarch, who heard him when she was a little girl, remembered the excitement: "How freely inspired, spontaneous, and blithe it sounded to us mid-Victorians!" Speaking of the Stabat Mater and The Spectre's Bride
Bat Dvor&k preferred the native spelling of hig given name -Antonin. [8]
she wrote: "Only those, I think, who were already in the prime of their concert-going days in the far-off eighties can realize the extraor?dinary enthusiasm which was evoked by those works." The English audiences probably had the vaguest idea of "Bohemia." They may even still have supposed with Shakespeare that it had a coastline. As the charm of Dvorak captured and excited the musical world, it became Bohemia-conscious. America did its best to exceed England with an enthusiasm amounting to frenzy, and if Dvorak could not have been withheld from Prague and Vysoka for longer than he was, it was not through any lack of attention on these shores. Everything he composed was at once performed and excitedly approved. The public crowded to behold the bearded little "wild man" and to hear him conduct. When he gave his first concert in Carnegie Hall on October 21, 1892, there was enormous anticipation and excitement. Theodore Thomas received him in Chicago with open arms. He made a visit to Boston to conduct his Requiem as performed by the Cecilia Society in Music Hall on November 30, 1892. On the night before, there was a public rehearsal -a "Wage-Earners' Concert," it was called -for which "tickets were distributed to none but those earning 515 a week or less." This must have highly pleased the composer, who always argued that the laboring man should have access to concerts from which the price would usually exclude him. "Why should not the ordinary citizen," he wrote, "hard at work all week, be able to make the acquaintance of Bach and Beethoven"
Dvorak implanted in America not only a new interest in his own people, but a new urge for the explicit development of an American style. There was a general ferment in favor of the immediate growth of serious American music from "folk" sources, and Dvorak was looked
"These concerts," said the Boston Herald, "are not a charity. It would be superfluous to say that the audience was, in its appearance, creditable to Boston. The wage-earner of today is the wage-payer of tomorrow, just as the wage-payer of today was the wage-earner of yesterday."
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Classes in Songs and Rhythms Fundamentals of Music
Chamber Music Performance Classes Piano Ensemble Classes
Each Class, $15 per Semester
upon as the musical Messiah who from his own pen would bring this miracle to pass. He obligingly composed a cantata, "The American Flag," which proved quite dull. Mrs. Thurber made intensive efforts to obtain for him a libretto on Longfellow's "Hiawatha." The "New World" Symphony was the best answer he could give to these expecta?tions. His article in Harper's Magazine, "Music in America," en?gendered endless argument.
Dvorak reversed the case of the composer who must have been dead a half-century before the world grows fully aware of his music. He reaped his glory in full measure, but even in his last years that glory began to pale before the rising star of a Muscovite of higher incandescence.
Philip Hale took a poke at this movement in the Boston Journal:
"It is possible that Mr. Dvorak will not think it necessary to visit the Colorado Canyon or a spouting geyser that he may be impelled to write music. He may search in the library of the music school for American melodies, folk songs, traditional tunes. Or he may go through the shelves of the music shops. Will any discovery whet his zeal Here for instance is the opening of a popular American ditty:
'Mike Giliigan's a man well known in our ward. He has lived there for many a year, He was only a workman in Shaughnessy's yard, Till they made him an overseer.'
"The melody suits the words : the whole 'machine is characteristic of a phase of American life: but it is doubtful if it would suggest extraordinary thematic treatment to the composer of the 'Slavtiche Tanze'."
And yet the incredible seems to have happened with Dvorak -the spontaneous generation of music by scenery. He is said to have gazed, moved, upon the Falls of Minnehaha, and to have jotted a theme upon his starched cuff. It emerged in the slow movement of his Violin Sonatina. It was later used by Fritz Kreisler for his "Indian Lament."

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SUITE NO. 4 IN D MAJOR
By Johann Sebastian Bach Born in Eisenach, March si, 1685; died in Leipzig, July 28, 1750
This Suite is scored for 3 oboes, bassoon, 3 trumpets, timpani, and strings. There is in each of the suites a figured bass for the presiding harpsichordist.
Bach's four orchestral suites are usually attributed to the period (1717-23) in which he was Kapellmeister to the young Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen. Albert Schweitzer conjectures that they may belong to the subsequent Leipzig years, for Bach included them in the performances of the Telemann Musical Society, which he con?ducted from the years 1729 to 1736. But the larger part of his instru?mental music belongs to the years at Cothen where the prince not only patronized but practised this department of the art --it is said that he could acquit himself more than acceptably upon the violin, the viola da gamba, and the clavier. It was for the pleasure of his Prince that Bach composed most of his chamber music, half of the Well-tempered Clavichord, the inventions. Composing the six con?certos for the Margraf of Brandenburg at this time, he very likely made copies of his manuscripts and performed them at Cothen.
The suites, partitas, and "overtures," so titled, by Bach were no more than variants upon the suite form. When Bach labeled each of his orchestral suites as an "ouverture," there is no doubt that the French ouverture of Lully was in his mind. This composer, whom Bach closely regarded, had developed the operatic overture into a larger form with a slow introduction followed by a lively allegro of fugal character and a reprise. To this "overture" were sometimes added, even at operatic performances, a stately dance or two, such as were a customary and integral part of the operas of the period. These overtures, with several dance movements, were often performed at concerts, retaining the title of the more extended and impressive "opening" movement. Georg Muffat introduced the custom into Germany, and Bach fol?lowed him. Bach held to the formal outline of the French ouverture, but extended and elaborated it to his own purposes.
In the dance melodies of these suites, Albert Schweitzer has said "a fragment of a vanished world of grace and eloquence has been preserved for us. They are the ideal musical picture of the rococo period. Their charm resides in the perfection of their blending of strength and grace."
[COPYRIGHTED]
SYMPHONY NO. 5 in E minor, "FROM THE NEW WORLD,"
Op95 By Antonin Dvorak
Born at Miihlhausen (Nelahozeves) near Kralup, Bohemia, September 8, 1841; died at Prague, May 1, 1904
The Symphony "From the New World" ("Z Novecho Svela") was composed in America in the years 1892 and 1893. It had its first performance by the Phil?harmonic Society of New York, December 15, i8g3, Anton Seidl conducting. There was a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on December 29 of the same year. The Symphony was published in 1894 and brought forth in Vienna under the direction of Hans Richter in 1895. There have been performances at the concerts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, January 25, 1895, November 20, 1896, November 26, 1897, October 26, 1900, January 9, 1903, October 14, 1904, April 16, 1909, December 23, 1910, January 24, 1913, April 5, 1918, March 26, 1920, December so, 1929, December 7, 1934, October 14, 1938, October 31, 1941, and December 26, 1947, when Eleazar de Carvalho conducted.
The Symphony is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings.
When Dvorak, as a famous composer and successful exponent of the principle of racial character in music, took up his dwelling in America, he spoke constantly of this country's musical destiny as certain to grow from its folk melody. His enthusiasm found a general and a warm response. Collections, examples of Negro songs and Indian melodies, were shown to him. When at length he made it known that he had composed a symphony and entitled it "From the New World," there was naturally a sanguine expectation in certain quarters of a present fulfillment of Dvorak's prophecies. The Sym?phony, performed in New York in the composer's presence, brought loud applause. Dvorak's American acquaintances, notably Henry T. Burleigh, his friend at the Conservatory, James Huneker, on the faculty, and Henry E. Krehbiel, music critic of the New York Tribune, who had pressed upon him some Negro songs for his perusal, looked eagerly to find a significant assimilation of them in the new score.
But this, as it proved, was rather too much to expect. Dvorak in his native simplicity, always content to infuse the traditional forms
I
TWELVE BRATTLE
CAMBRIDGE
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with a special coloring, was never inclined toward scholarly research in the folk music of other peoples, nor the adoption of other styles. The Symphony turned out to be as directly in the Bohemian vein as the four (then in publication) which had preceded it. Dvorak, cor?dially received in the New World during his three years' stay as teacher, yet remained a stranger in a land whose music, like its language, was foreign to his nature. Mr. Krehbiel, whose eagerness was moderated by clear-sightedness, could no more than point to a "Scotch snap" (a displaced accent characteristic of Negro rhythm) in the main theme of the first movement, and a resemblance to the Negro spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" in the lyric second theme. There were lengthy speculations in print as to whether the Symphony was "American" in letter or in spirit; whether in any case plantation songs or music derived from the American Indians could be called national; as to what were the actual intentions of the composer and how far he had realized them. Some persisted in seeking the seeds of an American musical culture in the Symphony, and others ridiculed their attempt. The whole problem remained in an indeterminate state for the good reason that very few in that dark period had any articulate acquaintance with either Negro melodies or Indian music.
Many years have passed since the topic at last burned itself to ashes. The commentators have long since laid away as outworn and immaterial the assembled pros and cons. The title no longer provokes inquiry. The case for a significant manifestation of music integral to America in Dvorak's last symphony is no more than a ghost of the eager nineties. The "New World" Symphony has survived on its purely musical graces, as one of its composer's most melodious and most brilliant works.
A brief review of the old controversy is of objective interest as part of the history of the Symphony, and as the record of a passing con?vulsion in the preliminary birthpangs of American musical conscious?ness.
Dvorak was induced to visit America by the persuasion of Mrs. Jeannette M. Thurber, to direct a school of music, the "National Con?servatory" in New York City, which she had founded six years before. The salary Dvorak would have found difficult to decline. It was $15,000 yearly, six times what he received at the Prague Conservatory, and would enable him to compose as he wished for the rest of his days. It was in October, 1892, that he arrived in New York. At first he found the life and people of America strange and bewildering, but sensed a real promise in what he defined as their "capacity for enthusiasm." He pointed out in an article "Music in America," which he con?tributed to Harper's Magazine, that this limitless enthusiasm, "also called 'push,'" at length ceased merely to annoy him. "Now I like it;
[13]
for I have come to the conclusion that this youthful enthusiasm and eagerness to take up everything is the best promise for music in America."
Dvorak made three books of sketches for the Symphony, which have survived, under the date, in his own writing, December 19, 1892. Sketches showing the outlines of the slow movement, under the title "Legenda," bear the date January 10, 1893. The sketch for the Scherzo was completed at the end of that month, and the Finale by May 25. In the ensuing summer, Dvorak sought seclusion for the scoring of his new work in an environment neither of Negroes nor of Indians, neither of mountain air nor sea breezes. His choice fell upon a small community of people of his own race and language, in the farm country of the West -it was perhaps the only spot in the New World where he could almost have imagined himself in the rolling meadowlands of his own country, with the genial country folk which were his own kind all about him. The town was Spillville in northern Iowa, a settlement of a few hundred people, mostly Bohemians, who cultivated their acres, or plied their Old World handicraft in the making of quaint clocks. Dvorak took modest quarters there with his family, was befriended by numerous neighbors, played the organ in the Bohemian church as St. Wenceslaus, completed his fair copy, and wrote a string quartet and string quintet. Musicians were found among the inhabitants to try these over. Musical evenings were liberally interspersed with beer and poker.
Shortly before the first performance of the Symphony from the manuscript in December, the composer made a statement for publi?cation in which he said: "I am satisfied that the future music of this country must be founded upon what are called the Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of com?position to be developed in the United States. When first I came here, I was impressed with this idea, and it has developed into a settled conviction. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American. They are the folk songs of America, and your composers must turn to them. All the great musicians have bor?rowed from the songs of the common people."
Naturally, a statement such as this just before the first disclosure of a symphony entitled "From the New World," by a much acclaimed composer, aroused very specific expectations. When the excitements attendant upon the first performance had cleared away, it became evident even to those who would have liked to think otherwise that national origins in the music were predominantly Bohemian.
By the testimony of Josef Kovarflc, Dvorak first wrote over his slow movement "Larghetto," but, liking the slower tempo by Anton Seidl at the first performance, changed it to "Largo."
[copyrighted]
[4]
THREE MOVEMENTS from "ROMEO and JULIET," Dramatic
Symphony, Op. 17
By Hector Berlioz Born December u, 1803, at Cote St. Andre; died March 8, 1869, at Paris
"Rome'o et Juliette, Symphonie dramatique avec Choeurs, Solos de Chant et Prologue en ricitatij choral, compose'e d'apres la Tragedie de Shakespeare," was written in 1839. The first performance was at the auditorium of the Conservatoire in Paris, November 24, 1839, Berlioz conducting.
The Love Scene calls for 2 flutes, oboe and English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and strings. The Scherzo adds piccolo, 2 bassoons, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, small cymbals, and 2 harps. The movement of the Capulets' ball further adds 2 cornets-a-piston, 3 trombones, 2 triangles, and 2 tambourines.
The score was revised and published in 1847, and published in further revision in 1857. It is dedicated to Nicolo Paganini. The text was written by Emile Deschamps.
"rr-i here should be no doubt about the character of this work," -I writes Berlioz in a preface to the score. "Although voices are frequently employed, this is not a concert-opera, a cantata, but a sym?phony with chorus. If song occurs in the beginning, it is for the pur?pose of preparing the mind of the hearer for the dramatic scenes in which sentiments and passions are to be expressed by the orchestra." The symphony opens with an orchestral introduction which is labelled "Combats. Tumult. Intervention of the Prince." There is a Prologue for Contralto Solo and Chorus, which Berlioz describes as "After the example of the Prologue by Shakespeare himself, in which the chorus exposes the action, and is sung by only fourteen voices." In a Scher-zetto a tenor solo with small chorus gives a foretaste of the Queen Mab Scherzo to come. The second movement (here played) shows Romeo in lone meditation at the house of the Capulets. The Love Scene is the third movement (measures with chorus in the opening Allegretto are here omitted). The Queen Mab Scherzo is the only episode in which the Symphony does not strictly follow the chronology of the play. After it is a section entitled "Juliet's Funeral Procession (Fugued March for Chorus and Orchestra)." Mourners scatter flowers
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upon Juliet's bier. There follows: "Romeo at the Tomb of the Capulets. Invocation. Juliet's Awakening. Delirious Joy. Despair. Last Death Agony of the Two Lovers. For Orchestra alone. Finale (Two Choruses representing the Capulets and the Montagues sing separately and, at the last, together). The Crowd enters the cemetery. Fight of Capulets and Montagues. Air of Friar Laurence (Tenor Solo). Oath of Reconciliation."
(III.) Scene d'amour. Nuit sereine -Le Jardin de Capulet, silencieux et desert.
"If you would ask me which of my works I prefer," wrote Berlioz in 1858, "my answer is that of most artists: the love scene in 'Romeo and Juliet.'"
The movement opens with an allegretto (pianissimo) for the strings, to which voices of the horns and flutes are added. An adagio begins with the muted strings; expressive single voices of the violas, horn, and 'cellos stand out in music of increasing ardor and richness. A recitative passage from the solo 'cello suggests the voice of Romeo, although the movement is developed in purely musical fashion. It dies away at last and ends upon a pizzicato chord.
(IV.) La reine Mab, ou la fee des songes. Scherzo.
The Scherzo, Prestissimo, is pianissimo almost throughout. The place of a Trio is taken by an allegretto section which recurs. "Queen Mab in her microscopic car," wrote Berlioz to his friend Heine, "attended by the buzzing insects of a summer's night and launched at full gallop by her tiny horses, fully displayed to the Brunswick public her lovely drollery and her thousand caprices. But you will under?stand my anxiety on this subject; for you, the poet of fairies and elves, the own brother of those graceful and malicious little creatures, know only too well with what slender thread their veil of gauze is woven, and how serene must be the sky beneath which their many-colored tints sport freely in the pale starlight."
II. Romeo seul -Tristesse -Concert et Bal. Grande Fete chez Capulet.
The movement opens Andante malinconico e sostenuto with a pianissimo phrase for the violins, which, developed into increasingly fervid expression, seems to reflect the contemplation of the melancholy lover who has strayed into the hostile territory of the Capulets' palace. Dancing rhythms become the background of his thoughts. In a sec?tion marked Larghetto espressivo there is a melody for the wood winds over pizzicato arabesques for the 'cellos. The tempo becomes allegro and the ballroom strains more insistent. The themes of the Larghetto and the Allegro are combined. The isolated figure of Romeo intermittently holds the attention, the music of festivity recurring and bringing the close.
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RCA VICTOR RECORDS
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Recorded under the leadership of Charles Munch Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Symphony No. 1 Iicrlioz "Romeo et Juliette" (with chorus and soloists)
"The Damnation of Faust" (with chorus and soloists) Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 (Soloist, Artur Rubinstein);
Symphony No. 4
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1, in G minor (Soloist, Yehudi Menuhin) Handel "Water Music" Haydn Symphony No. 103 ("Drum Roll")
Symphony No. 104 ("London") Honcggcr Symphony No. 5 Ravel Pavane
Roused "Bacchus et Ariane" Schubert Symphony No. 2
Schumann Symphony No. 1 ("Spring") : Overture. "Genoveva" straits Don Quixote (Soloist. Gregor Piatigorsky) ALBUM : Ravel, "Rapsodle Espagnole." "La Valse" ; Overtures, Berlioz. "Bentrice and Benedick"; I.alo "Ie Roi d'Ys"; Saint-Saens, "La Princesse Jaune"
Among the recordings under the leadership of Serge Koussevitzky
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, Nos. 1 & 0. Suites Xos. 1 & 4
Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 3. 5 & 9 Brahms Symphony No. 3
Copland "Appalachian Spring": "A Lincoln Portrait"
Haydn Symphonies Nos. 92 & 94
Khatrhnturian Piano Concerto (Wil?liam Kapcll) Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4
Mozart Eine kleine Xachtmusik ; Sere?nade No. 10. K. 3C1; Syniiihonies Nos. 36 & 39
Prnkoflcff Concerto No. 2 (Jascha Heifetz) ; Symphony No. 5; Peter and the Wolf, Op. 07, Eleanor Roorevelt, narrator Ravel Bolero; Ma Mere I.'Oye Suite Schubert Symphony, "Unfinished" Tchaikovsky Serenade in C; Sym?phonies Nos. 4 & 5
COMMEMORATIVE ALBUM Sibelius Symphony Xo. 2, in D, Op. 43 R. Strauss Don Juan. Op. 20 Wagner Siegfried Idyll
Recorded under the leadership of Pierre Monteux
Liszt Les Preludes
Mozart Piano Concertos. Kos. 12 & IS (Mil Kraus)
Scriahin Le Poeme de l'Extase
Stravinsky "Le Sac-re du Printemps"
Recorded under the leadership of Leonard Bkknstein Stravintky "L'Histoire d'un Soldat"
Octet for Wind Instruments
The above recordings are available on both Long Play (3Z]3 r.p.m.) and (in most cases) 45 r.p.m.
The following are available on 45 r.p.m. only :
Serge Koussevitzky conducting: Haydn, "Toy" Symphony ; "Wagner, Prelude to "Lohengrin."
Some of the above recordings and ninny others not here listed are also available on 78 r.p.m.
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