Musicologica Olomucensia

The letters received by Antonín Dvořák during his life form a unique archive of exceptional interest. From the research standpoint they are even more valuable than the letters written by Dvořák, since 90% of them are unknown. Today the letters to Dvořák are gradually being published and translated.
These letters to Dvořák enable us to look behind the scenes of the business negotiations connected with publishing Dvořák´s music. There is for example a comprehensive correspondence from the Simrock publishing house (235 pieces in total), which evidences sometimes stubborn behaviour by both parties but also a friendship and respect between the two. Similarly valuable are letters from Novello, Ewer and Co. of London (47 letters). And letters from other publishers also reveal interesting aspects of Dvořák´s foreign contacts. These letters in many respects make more accurate our view about the composer´s social background and personality and about his family. We learn about his income from music publishing, from concerts at home and abroad, teaching income, royalties from operas and other compositions. Until 1891, when he became a professor of composition, Dvořák had been a real professional musician for 17 years, living promarily on the income from his creative work. Not until his visits to America was his family financially secure. Nor was Dvořák a conductor with any permanent musical orchestra. His main interest was supporting and fostering the reproductive tradition of his work. The letters to Dvořák reflect the extent of interest about this kind of artistic self-realisation, giving motivations and reasons why various organisers of concerts and festivals urged Dvořák so much to conduct his own work.
Depending on Dvořák´s relation to the sender, the letters have different natures - from intimate and familiar letters to semi-official or strictly official letters. They testify to the reflection of Dvořák´s work upon his life. This direct evidence bears witness to the evaluation and reception of Dvořák´s music, to the way it was perceived by people of various professions, nationalities, and various degrees of education. While the artistic inspiration cannot be grasped or defined, the incentive to creative action can be precisely captured. In the case of artists like Dvořák, the demand for their art also plays an important role.
Dvořák´s decisions at important moments in his life are known as facts, which influenced the further course of the composer´s life! But what was behind them? A certain key to their definition can be found in these letters. They tell us how warm a relation Dvořák´s contemporaries had towards him, how Dvořák was seen by people who knew him from direct contact. Dvořák was admired by his contemporaries for his brilliant art, for his genuine Czech national feeling, and for the veracity, which he took with himself everywhere. The admiration and respect shown by world famous musicians by educated and by common people was not accidental. The reason can be found in the very heart of Dvořák´s personality. And the letters to Dvořák being published now enable us to reveal this personality, to define it, to free it from all intentional or unintentional distortions.