Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 11/24/1999, uploaded on 03/01/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Enamored with an actress by the name of Josefina Cermáková, a youthful Dvořák of only twenty-four years of age took the love poems of Pfleger-Moravský’s and determined to set them to music. Surely, the task proved a challenge to the young composer as Dvořák, up to this point, had not ventured outside of instrumental composition. The result of his efforts was given the title Cypresses. Full of passionate and intense feelings, Dvořák’s first attempt at song was, nevertheless, lackluster at best. Though at times beautifully lyrical melodies shine through, he struggled to effectively capture the essence of the poems in music. To his credit (and perhaps a trait he picked up from his idol Johannes Brahms) Dvořák was able to place objective judgment over any sentimental feelings towards his work. He returned multiple times to the songs, recasting their forms and melodies, among which the most notable is Love Songs, op. 83. With years of experience to draw on, Dvořák breathed new life into the works of his youth.

First of the set, “Never shall love lead us” begins in the key of D major. Chromatic inflections convey the troubled spirit of the narrator who, though entranced with his beloved, fears that love will only lead to separation and anguish. The following song, “Death reigns in many a human breast,” with its theme juxtaposing death and dreams, opens in the key of F-sharp minor with a piano figure capturing what could be the icy grip of death itself. As if awakening from a numbing trance, the narrator once again beholds the dreams of love and the key changes to a brilliant D major with full rolled chords in the accompaniment. In a display of his crafty use of harmony, Dvořák wavers between the keys of D major and F-sharp major during this brief section until the latter establishes itself at the cadence during the final line of text. However, like an old wound that cannot be forgotten, the music returns to the chill of F-sharp minor in the final bars.

The next to last song, “When thy sweet glances on me fall,” begins in a dreamy state with quiet arpeggios in the piano. Ingeniously disguising the key, the tonic of G minor is not established until after the entry of the voice. The narrator mentions a former wound of love, yet the “sunny smile” of his beloved will bring him to life again. Accompanying these words is a long trek from G minor to G major. It is not until the repetition of the final line that the latter key is conclusively reached but, even then, the introduction of an augmented sixth harmony in the final cadence adds a tinge of the minor key and adds a sense of pathos to the ending.        Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.