Цитата( М. Друскин. История зарубежной музыки)
Это наиболее популярное сочинение Дворжака: оно в равной мере восхищает и широчайшие круги любителей музыки, и профессионалов-музыкантов. «Славянские танцы» отличает динамичность развития, полного увлекательных «неожиданностей», изобретательность композиции, широта симфонического дыхания, но главное — поэтическое претворение танцевальных образов, в которых отразились жизнь, быт, характер народа.
Какой же народ запечатлен в этих танцах? Конечно, чешский! Будь то буйная радость или светлая печаль, сердечная задушевность или незлобивый юмор — все разнообразие настроений окрашено национальным складом индивидуальности композитора. В то же время он воспроизвел и отдельные типы танцев других славянских народов, и некоторые музыкально-стилистические особенности этих танцев. Можно даже утверждать, что ни в одном произведении Дворжака идеи «славянской взаимности» не получили столь яркого и убедительного своего претворения, как именно в данном сочинении.
Поводом к его созданию явилось предложение издателя Дворжака написать нечто подобное «Венгерским танцам» Брамса, но на другой национальной основе. Дворжака увлекла эта мысль. В течение двадцати дней весной 1878 года была завершена первая тетрадь (восемь пьес) «Славянских танцев». Их успех побудил издателя просить композитора продолжить серию.
Спустя восемь лет была написана вторая тетрадь (еще восемь пьес). В начальной редакции танцы предназначались для исполнения в четыре руки, затем появилась их оркестровая редакция (первая тетрадь — 1878, вторая тетрадь — 1887).
В десяти из шестнадцати пьес представлены чешские танцы: фуриант (I, 1 и 8, римской цифрой отмечена тетрадь, арабской — пьеса), соуседска (I, 4 и 6; II, 8), скочна (I, 5 и 7; II, 3), полька (I, 3), шпацирка — танец, основанный на сопоставлении плавного умеренного движения и быстрого, с подскоком (II, 5).
Среди остальных танцев: украинская думка (I, 2; II, 4), словацкий одземек (II, 1), польская мазурка (II, 2), польский полонез (II, 6), южнославянское, вернее сербское, коло — танец хороводного склада (II, 7).
Таким образом, все танцы первой тетради, за исключением № 2, чешского происхождения; пять пьес второй тетради написаны в характере танцев других славянских народов, а три — чешского склада (№ 3, 5, 8).
Вместе с тем надо учесть, что здесь указаны лишь основные народные прообразы, тогда как в каждой пьесе сплавлены элементы разных национальных типов. Например, если обратиться ко второй тетради, то обнаружится, что в № 2 мазурка сочетается с вальсом, а вальс в № 8 — с соуседской, тогда как в № 6 полонез сближен с той же соуседской. В таком сближении разнородных национальных типов заключается неповторимая творческая манера Дворжака, сумевшего благодаря этому создать обобщенные образы славянского танцевального искусства.
Различно и образное содержание пьес: в одних даны преимущественно жанрово-бытовые зарисовки, иногда с использованием народных напевов (I, 3 — в духе польки).
В других танцы более симфонизированы, вызывают представление о цельной, непрерывно развивающейся музыкальной картине: так, например, подвергается широкой разработке столь полюбившийся Дворжаку горделивый фуриант (I, 8).
В некоторых пьесах возникают более яркие контрасты в сопоставлении образов: то это изображение оживленной и веселой суеты народных ярмарок (II, 3); то мужественной массовой пляске противостоит «сольный», женственно-лирический эпизод (II, 1); то начинают преобладать поэтично-задушевные чувства, а отчетливо выраженная танцевальность явственнее ощущается в средних, контрастирующих разделах пьесы (II, 4, 2, 8).
При всем богатстве образно-смысловых оттенков музыку «Славянских танцев» отличает мудрая простота и доступность выражения. Этому способствует стройность композиции. Большинство пьес написано в сложной трехчастной форме, каждый раз по-своему варьированной. В некоторых танцах встречается форма рондо (I, 5 и II, 7) и лишь один раз — сложная двухчастная форма (II, 5).
Стройностью замысла отмечена и композиция каждой тетради: пьесы сопоставляются в темпе — за быстрой следует медленная, в метрическом движении — за двухдольным идет трехдольный танец, в характере настроения. Связь пьес укрепляется и тональными связями и тематическими перекличками. В последнем отношении важное значение имеет открывающий каждую тетрадь первый танец, отголоски которого прослеживаются и в некоторых других пьесах данного цикла. Так достигается единство сюитного построения при многообразии составляющих его частей.
ANTONНN DVOŘБK
Slavonic DancesIt was with the publication in Berlin in 1878 of his
Moravian Duets and the first set of eight Slavonic Dances for piano duet that Dvořбk first achieved recognition outside his Czech homeland. The impact of these "exotic" compositions can be gauged from the earliest biography of the composer, written by Hermann Krigar in Leipzig, just a year after their publication:
Цитата
The traveller from North Germany, when he crosses the Erzgebirge mountains into Bohemia, will notice the sudden change in the physiognomy of the inhabitants ... Penetrating deeper inside the country, he finds the Slavonic tribe, the Czechs. They are by no means inferior in their musical abilities to the German Bohemians; indeed they demonstrate an even greater and bolder individuality in their music, which perfectly reflects the true Czech nature ... They are the most artistically gifted of the Slavonic tribes.
Approximately a year ago, the news flashed across the German music world of a miraculous talent residing in Prague, who is holding forth in spirited creation with astonishing productivity and a striking wealth of melodies, and who for years has been laying up treasures, sprung from his muse, that are as mysterious as they are appealing.
This newly awakened talent is Anton Dvorak [sic], who has aroused widespread excitement in Germany with his Slavonic Dances.
The critic who initiated this wave of enthusiasm, which had resulted in a run on Dvorak's compositions in German music shops, was Louis Ehlert, to whom the grateful composer immediately dedicated his Wind Serenade in D minor. In November 1878 Ehlert had written in the Berlin daily paper
Nationalzeitung:
Цитата
Here at last is a complete and totally natural talent. I consider the Slavonic Dances to be a work which will make its triumphant way through the world in the same way as Brahms's Hungarian Dances. There is no question here of some kind of imitation; his dances are not in the least Brahmsian. Divine inspiration flows through this music, which is why it is so popular. There is not a trace of artificiality or constraint ... We are confronted here with perfect works of art and not some pastiche stuck together from scraps of national melody ... Whoever finds a jewel on the public highway is obliged to report his find.
The inception and publication of the
Slavonic Dances had come about through Brahms's recommendation of the
Moravian Duets to his Berlin publisher Fritz Simrock. Accepting the duets, though without offering a fee to Dvořбk or to his friend Josef Srb-Debrnov who had translated the folk texts into German, Simrock at once spotted a commercial opportunity. In a letter to Dvořбk in March 1878 he set out his proposal:
Цитата
I would like to ask you whether you would feel like writing a certain number, let's say two, of albums of "Czech" and "Moravian Dances" for piano four hands (modelled on the "Hungarian" ones by Brahms) using original national melodies which you consider suitable and which would be intertwined and combined with your own ideas. It seems to me, looking at your duets, that you would know how to make them especially attractive, I mean artistically attractive; what do you say to that? Naturally, I would pay you and I ask you to state your terms.
Some days later Simrock elaborated on his idea and came up with the final title:
Цитата
So that we understand each other concerning the "Dances": I do not mean literally "Dances" for dancing to, but rather more in the manner in which Brahms did the "Hungarian" ones. Perhaps a little easier, but not child's play: brilliant, effective, varied in mood and colour, varied in expression, and not too short. You can also call them "Slavonic Dances" — that concept is richer and wider — and don't rush things; seek out truly attractive, "memorable" (!) melodies. You will surely find such in the Slavonic spirit and in you yourself?
Dvořбk began to work on the
Dances on 18 March 1878, the day after completing his first
Slavonic Rhapsody, and even before he had completed all eight of them for piano duet he had started to orchestrate them. The first, second and fourth dances were performed by the orchestra of the Provisional Theatre in Prague conducted by Adolf Čech as early as 16 May that year; the following February August Mann included the first three in his Saturday Concerts at the Crystal Palace in London; and in November two were performed in Boston, USA. Ehlert's prediction that they would "make their triumphant way through the world" was being fulfilled with amazing rapidity.
They certainly pleased Brahms, who was no doubt flattered that Dvořбk had used his famous
Hungarian Dances as a model, as well as dedicating to him his String Quartet in D minor. Richard Heuberger witnessed the Maestro "glowing with enchantment", playing through the
Slavonic Dances "with true rapture, occasionally a word of wonderment escaping from his lips".
Simrock paid Dvořбk 300 marks (about Ј15 in those days) for the first set of Slavonic Dances and he himself made a fortune. In February 1880 he suggested that Dvořбk should write a second set, but the composer had more serious plans — including a violin sonata to impress violinist Joseph Joachim — though, ironically, he did agree later in the year to orchestrate five of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, for which he received 250 marks. Dvořбk rather hoped that Simrock's appetite for lucrative small-scale pieces would be satisfied when, the following year, he composed his ten
Legends, also originally for piano duet and later orchestrated. Despite their warm reception, Simrock evidently regarded them as no more than a stop-gap and in May 1885 he began pressurising Dvořбk for the second series of Slavonic Dances.
At a time when England was asking for symphonies and oratorios, Dvořбk could see little point in attempting to repeat an earlier success: "I must tell you that it won't be nearly as simple a matter as it was the first time round! To do the same thing twice is damnably difficult!" To add injury to insult, Simrock was reluctant to recognise the worth of the recently completed Seventh Symphony and tried to halve the fee Dvořбk wanted for it. As a result of this haggling the relationship between publisher and composer became severely strained. Eventually Dvořбk agreed to deliver a new series of
Slavonic Dances by 1 July 1886 at the latest — though not before Simrock had agreed to pay him ten times the fee he had received for the earlier set, albeit with a collection of four songs,
In Folk Tone, thrown in as a make-weight.
In the event, it took Dvořбk only four weeks to write the second series of
Slavonic Dances and, as he wrote to Simrock, he "enjoyed doing them immensely". The earlier set had taken him almost two months.
Simrock was delighted with the new dances and, predictably, insisted that they be orchestrated, offering 50 marks apiece. This Dvořбk undertook towards the end of the same year over a period of six weeks, and, playing the publisher at his own game, he asked for twice the proposed fee!
Whereas the earlier set had featured predominantly Czech dances (with the exception of the second which evoked the Ukranian
dumka — not, strictly speaking, a dance), the new set is more broadly Slavonic, incorporating Slovak, Polish, Serbian and Russian elements in addition to Dvorak's favourite melancholy
dumka strains. In these sixteen highly varied and colourful dances, Dvořбk had fulfilled his original brief to perfection, creating stylised, even idealised dance fantasias which intermingle folk elements with his own inspired melodies so effectively, so disarmingly and so artistically that for the most part they have defied attempts by musicologists to uncover the folk sources. Dvořбk justified his approach in 1894:
Цитата
From the rich stores of Slavonic folk music, in its Hungarian [i.e. Slovak], Russian, Bohemian and Polish varieties, the composers of the day have derived, and will continue to derive, much that is charming and novel in their music. Nor is there anything objectionable in this, for if the poet and painter base much of their best art on national legends, songs and traditions, why should not the musicians?
The
Slavonic Dances have become as much a national monument for the Czechs as Smetana's
Mб vlast. Vбclav Talich and other
Czech conductors often performed the
Dances as a complete cycle. However, Smetana was ambivalent about them. Though he is said to have "unreservedly praised" the first set on publication, he nevertheless objected to their vague characterisation and was prompted to compose his own second set of
Czech Dances in 1879 as a kind of corrective: "Dvořбk calls his pieces by the general title
Slavonic Dances and no-one knows which particular dance forms they use, or even if they really exist. Instead, I shall use the specific names we Czechs give to our national dances".
Towards the end of his life, in conversation with his former pupil Oskar Nedbal, Dvořбk explained the distinction: "Smetana's music is Czech and mine is Slavonic!"
Patrick Lambert