PT Journal
AU Kuna, M
TI ANTONIN DVORAK IN THE VIEW OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2000
BP 101
EP 112
VL 5
IS 1
AB The letters received by Antonin Dvorak during his life form a unique archive of exceptional interest. From the research standpoint they are even more valuable than the letters written by Dvorak, since 90% of them are unknown. Today the letters to Dvorak are gradually being published and translated.These letters to Dvorak enable us to look behind the scenes of the business negotiations connected with publishing Dvorak´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 Dvorak´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, Dvorak 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 Dvorak a conductor with any permanent musical orchestra. His main interest was supporting and fostering the reproductive tradition of his work. The letters to Dvorak reflect the extent of interest about this kind of artistic self-realisation, giving motivations and reasons why various organisers of concerts and festivals urged Dvorak so much to conduct his own work.Depending on Dvorak´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 Dvorak´s work upon his life. This direct evidence bears witness to the evaluation and reception of Dvorak´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 Dvorak, the demand for their art also plays an important role.Dvorak´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 Dvorak´s contemporaries had towards him, how Dvorak was seen by people who knew him from direct contact. Dvorak 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 Dvorak´s personality. And the letters to Dvorak being published now enable us to reveal this personality, to define it, to free it from all intentional or unintentional distortions.
ER