Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Best Choice, Though Not An Easy One
I see that Mr. Beckerman has submitted a positive review, which is very gracious, considering that his book is the leading competitor on this subject.I purchased both "Dvorak in America" and "New Worlds of Dvorak," and (sorry, Mr. Beckerman) my vote is solidly for "Dvorak in America."

"Dvorak in America" is a simple, informative book with very little conjecture.Horowitz is clear in the opening pages that this is a book accessible to teenage readers, and he gets the story right in a concise and interesting way.His scholarly efforts are persuasive and he successfully merges divergent details to create a fascinating account of Dvorak's journey toward the first truly "American" symphony.

On the other hand, Beckerman's book shares much of the same research and even comes with a CD of excerpts, but the positives end there.Beckerman is bent on interpreting every phrase of the New World Symphony and resorts to conjecture, even delving into other writers' conjecture.It soon becomes a tangled mess in which the hard facts are no longer recognizable.

The truth is (sadly) simple:We don't really know much about Dvorak's intentions in the New World Symphony.He shared just enough to give the piece "American" credentials, then promptly shut up to avoid tagging it as a programmatic tone poem.And that's just the way we should enjoy it!We're supposed to accept the American inspiration while giving the notes themselves a fair chance to speak to us, and speak to us they do!If I had overlooked this piece before (mostly because of its overwhelming popularity), I now find it an inspiration and a joy--with greater thanks to Mr. Horowitz than Mr. Beckerman.

Read this wonderful little book and move quickly to the music itself.A singe phrase of this music says more than any scholarly volume.

A Brilliant Book for Young Readers!
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! ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

delightful and insightful
Who doesn't like Dvorak's powerful and heart stirring music. This book tries to show the same impact the man made on his family, colleagues and friends. Each chapter could stand on its own,with the characters voicing their thoughts and feelings about Dvorak in their own unique way, both in style and in feeling. I thought the novel expressed the overall feeling of a man of great humanity, humility and almost too ordinary to pay much attention to, while at the same time celebrating his genius. A subtle and insightful novel.

Dvorak in love with America
Probably the highest compliment I can pay to this amazing book is that right after I finished it I started listening to Dvorak nonstop. So many themes are explored here, and each with disarming subtlety. Skvorecky is a musician with the pen.

An absolutely wonderful book
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. ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great insights.
It seems almost by chance that Paul Polansky has been able to capture the exact frame of Anton?n Dvoř?k's that is of most interest to us today.That one of Dvoř?k's children would have written substantial memoirs of his father that had gone unfound for so many years is remarkable, but that this child was also the one who's window of memory match the composer's rise to fame is sublimely fortuitous.As Otakar ages through the course of the book and his memories become more detailed and rich, so rises his father's fame and stature in the world.Otakar becomes almost a symbol for his father's emergence in the history of music.
Although this book's publication has been limited, it clearly paints a picture of Dvoř?k that is more personal, more humanizing than other tomes about the composer.It is perhaps this human element, this treatment of Dvoř?k not as an eccentric genius, but as an individual like any other, who happened to have had a musical talent of monumental proportion.Perhaps it is this "everyday" perception of Dvoř?k that makes this book so unpopular with music scholars today.This treatment of the composer leads to some uncomfortable questions-if Dvoř?k was such an ordinary man in upbringing and personality, then why are there not scores of Dvoř?k's today?
The book's reception aside, Otakar's reminiscences are fresh and vibrant, they make it possible for the reader to actually imagine what the daily life of the composer was probably like; how he truly felt in Prague, New York, Vysok?, and Spillville; what his family life was really like. Granted, all memories are slanted by their hosts, and those of Otakar of his father are no exception, but where Otakar misplaces years and events he makes up for with precious accounts of interactions his father had with himself and others, and a general mood associated with places and times.This value of Otakar's experience is both promoted and hindered by Polansky.His corrections of misremembered material details and clarifications of unclear references in the form of footnotes are often useful, but they are just as often heavy-handed or dismissive of Otakar's legitimate expertise on his father.While it is important that we realize that the eyewitness accounts in the book are coming from a rather young child, we need not be reminded of this at every instance where the interpretation of events diverges from that of the editor.
The only truly uninteresting part of this book is the lengthy introduction and forward, which provide a rather inconsequential series of anecdotes detailing how the editor uncovered Otakar's unknown memoirs.Although this provides some genealogy of the composer and adds some local color to his old haunts in Bohemia, this section is rather drawn-out and adds little to Otakar's accounts.Although Polansky's work was substantial to bring us this volume, he need not describe his every footfall in the Czech Republic.

An inside look at a great figure.
Paul Polansky has done a first-rate job."Antonin Dvorak, My Father" gives insights into Dvorak's life that can only come from somebody who was so close to the man himself.Polansky is a seasoned researcher, and the quality of his scholarship shines through the whole book. ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Too Much Conjecture
I appreciate what Mr. Beckerman is trying to do here, but this book strays far from the path of scholarly research and well into the realm of conjecture.Beckerman tries to analyze every phrase of Dvorak's New World Symphony to uncover its meaning, but Dvorak left few or no details about his thoughts in composing it.Dvorak didn't want the New World Symphony to become a programmatic piece.Instead, he used Native American and African American musical concepts to create a vision of America as he saw it at the end of the nineteenth century.He believed strongly that America's musical future rested mostly with Native American and African American traditions.Unfortunately, Beckerman's insistence on analyzing every phrase puts him way out on a limb, grasping for any explanation and often fabricating rationales to suit his purpose.His love for the New World Symphony is evident, but the process itself is neither enlightening nor particularly interesting, so I'd have to say this book was a disappointment.Instead, I'd recommend "Dvorak in America," by Joseph Horowitz, which sticks to the facts.

An excellent book
I have loved working with this book.I conducted the 9th Symphony last year and this book was extremely helpful in studying the piece.

An interesting read, but take with a grain of salt.
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." ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Product Description
Composer Antonâin Dvoérâak was inspired by the vitality of the American people to create this magnificent symphony in 1892.This CD companion is a nine part exploration of the work including Dvoérâak's American experiences, expert on-screen commentary, an interactive glossary, a game and the complete, interactive score which rolls before the viewer as the music plays. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on April 1, 2010. The length of the article is 999 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Antonin Dvorak.(Sound recording review)
Author: Bohuslav Vitek
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2010
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 2Page: 46(1)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more