Dvorak Miscellaneous works
The Slavonic Dances (Czech: Slovanské tance) are a series of sixteen orchestral pieces composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1878 and 1886, and published in two sets as Opus 46 and Opus 72, respectively. Originally written for piano four-hands, the Slavonic Dances were inspired by Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances and were later orchestrated by Dvořák. The sixteen dances are sometimes numbered separately from #1 to #8 for Opus 46, and from #9 to #16 for Opus 72. These lively and nationalistic pieces, were well-received in Dvořák's time, and today are among the composer's most memorable works, occasionally appearing in popular culture.
The Opus 46 set is listed in the Burghauser catalog as B.78 in the original piano four-hand version, and as B.83 in the orchestral version. The Opus 72 set is cataloged as B.145 in the piano four-hand version, and as B.147 in the orchestral version.
Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904) was a great Czech composer of the late Romantic period. Renowned for his lively Czech folk-melodies, he also played a significant role in the development of music in the United States, where he lived from 1892 to 1895. His best-known works include the New World Symphony, the Slavonic Dances, the American String Quartet, the opera Rusalka, the Cello Concerto, and the choral works Stabat Mater, Requiem (Opus 89), and Te Deum.
