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Tag: Karel Jaromir Erben

Dvořák’s Pigeons Dark Tales and Hidden Depths

One of Antonín Dvořák’s great joys – when he wasn’t busy trainspotting, that is – was keeping pigeons.

At his summer home in Vysoká, he was pretty relaxed about providing free room and board to whatever winged companion would follow him home. And while he was away, he kept up a correspondence with a local miner to whom he entrusted care of the property. This included the house, the garden, and of course the pigeons. Dvořák’s letters were full of meticulous instructions as to how best to keep his little friends healthy and contented.

Word got out about Dvořák’s enthusiasm. At a concert in England, his wife was asked by a member of the royal family what types of things Dvořák really enjoyed. This resulted in the surprise delivery, back at home, of six braces of English pigeons!

In 1896, Dvořák wrote a series of symphonic poems inspired by the grim fairy tales of Karel Jaromir Erben. These include “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch,” and “The Golden Spinning Wheel.” His opera, “Rusalka,” written a few years later, also bears Erben’s influence.

I imagine his fondness for Columbidae would have made it difficult to pass up “The Wood Dove” (also translated as “The Wild Dove”). The story, from Erben’s collection of poetic ballads, “Kytice,” tells of a woman who poisons her husband and marries another man. Day after day, a dove perches on the husband’s grave and sings a mournful song, until the wife, overcome with guilt, commits suicide by hurling herself into a river.

The premiere of Dvořák’s symphonic poem was given in Brno, on March 20, 1898, under the baton of Leoš Janáček.

Hard to believe that the composer of the Serenade for Strings and the sunny Symphony No. 8 could write these lurid potboilers after Czech fairy tales, and that he could find so much depth and melancholy in simple children’s stories.

Happy birthday, Antonín Dvořák!

Light Dvořák: Symphony No. 8

Dark Dvořák: “The Wood Dove”

September 8, 2023
Erben’s Dark Tales A Mother’s Day Scare

Happy Mother’s Day!

Perhaps it’s a good thing I am not a parent; otherwise I’d scare the bejesus out of my kids with stories from Karel Jaromir Erben’s “Kytice,” or “Bouquet.”

Like the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Erben synthesized native folk tales into often gruesome fairy stories. In doing so, he became an important figure in the establishment of a Czech national identity. His stories are recited by Czech schoolchildren and recalled proudly by the Czech people. Despite its influence, “Kytice” did not appear in a complete English translation until 2013.

Antonin Dvořák was particularly fond of Erben’s tales. In 1896, he composed a series of symphonic poems after Erben ballads, including “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch” and “The Wood Dove.” Erben’s influence also hangs over Dvořák’s most famous opera, “Rusalka.”

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we salute Erben with two Dvořák works: the symphonic poem “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and the final scene from the dramatic cantata “The Spectre’s Bride.”

“The Golden Spinning Wheel” is a Cinderella story gone very, very wrong, as a wicked stepmother and stepsister not only murder but dismember an unfortunate maiden favored by the king. Not to give too much away, but the titular appliance proves to be their undoing.

“The Spectre’s Bride” is another in the seemingly infinite variations on the tale of a young woman being swept off by the ghost of her lover. The climax of Dvořák’s cantata places the heroine in a cottage besieged by howling spirits, as a corpse on the table, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.

It’s not exactly “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” Join me, if you dare, for “Erben Legends,” as we celebrate Karel Jaromir Erben on Mother’s Day, this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

For Mom

For violin

May 8, 2022
Dvořák’s Spectre’s Bride Too Long? Try This!

If, like me, you think Dvořák’s “The Spectre’s Bride” is too long – with not enough puppets! – then this should be the very thing for you.

At 43, Dvořák was at the peak of his creative powers (he had only just completed the Symphony No. 7) when he composed his dramatic cantata, and its premiere, in London, in 1885, was an astonishing success. In fact, Dvořák claimed it was the greatest success he had enjoyed up to that time. The Victorians always were rather mad for their oratorios.

I have listened to “The Spectre’s Bride” a number of times on recordings and have found it to be only fitfully interesting. This is especially surprising to me, since the story is so lurid it should grip my inner eight year-old and not let go. The tale may be a familiar one from many European folk tales: a maiden is abducted by the ghost of her fiancé, who gallops off with her, through the air and across a forbidding landscape, with the aim of reaching the phantom’s “castle” – in reality, a graveyard. At the work’s macabre climax, the maiden wrests free and bolts herself inside a cottage, spirits howling at the door. Inside, a corpse, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.

Admittedly, this is an effective setpiece, but until then, I must say, it’s not just the graves that are yawning. And I offer this as someone who generally admires Dvořák. No doubt there are those who have sung the work who could be of a different opinion, and perhaps hearing it in concert is a more compelling experience than listening to it at home.

Dvořák’s setting is based on a poem by Karel Jaromir Erben. Erben, who lived from 1811 to 1870, was an important figure in the development of a Czech national identity. He served as a kind of Brothers Grimm to the Czech people, synthesizing works based on traditional and folkloric themes, into gruesome ballads full of witches, goblins and ghosts. So far, so good.

In my opinion, however, Dvořák was much more inspired when writing his other, more colorful, Erben-influenced pieces, including the comparatively compact symphonic poems “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch,” “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and “The Wild Dove,” and the enchantingly melancholy, ceaselessly melodic opera “Rusalka.”

Therefore it is with great relief that I stumble across this lean, 29-minute distillation. From its fragmentary nature, I assume that it was designed to be projected at certain key moments during live performance. Maybe that’s what a guy like me needs. Visual aids. But I don’t think so. I just think it’s not that interesting a piece, to demand an investment of 80 minutes. It seems like a miscalculation by a less experienced composer. And I offer this as someone who is generally captivated by Dvořák’s operas, or at least the ones I have seen and own. Of those, “Rusalka” must be near the top of my list of favorites, by any composer.

The puppets are designed by Francesca Borgatta, and they’re all crafted from “recycled objects and materials taken from nature.” Good. If you’re going have them dragged into the gaping maw of Hell, it’s best that they’re biodegradable.

You can learn more about Borgatta at her website, puppetfigures.com.

October 21, 2020
Erben’s Dark Tales Inspiring Dvořák for Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day! Perhaps it’s a good thing I am not a parent; otherwise I would scare the bejesus out of my kids with stories from Karel Jaromir Erben’s “Kytice,” or “Bouquet.”

Like the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Erben synthesized native folk tales into often gruesome fairy stories. In doing so, he became an important figure in the establishment of a Czech national identity. His stories are recited by Czech schoolchildren and recalled proudly by the Czech people. Despite its influence, “Kytice” did not appear in a complete English translation until 2013.

Antonin Dvořák was particularly fond of Erben’s tales. In 1896, he composed a series of symphonic poems after Erben ballads, including “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch” and “The Wood Dove.” Erben’s influence also hangs over Dvořák’s most famous opera, “Rusalka.”

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we salute Erben with two Dvořák works: the symphonic poem “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and the final scene from the dramatic cantata “The Spectre’s Bride.”

“The Golden Spinning Wheel” is a Cinderella story gone very, very wrong, as a wicked stepmother and stepsister not only murder but dismember an unfortunate maiden favored by the king. Not to give too much away, but the titular appliance proves their undoing.

“The Spectre’s Bride” is another in the seemingly infinite variations on the tale of a young woman being swept off by the ghost of her lover. The climax of Dvořák’s cantata places the heroine in a cottage besieged by howling spirits, as a corpse on the table, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.

Forget Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” Join me for “Erben Legends,” as we celebrate Karel Jaromir Erben, this Mother’s Day at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

May 11, 2014

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