“SLAVONIC DANCES” BY ANTONIN DVORAK IN INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS

Abstract

The article explores trends in updating the composer’s original text through its arrangements for various instrumental ensembles. The material chosen for the work is the cycle of “Slavic Dances” by Antonín Dvořák, which was written by the composer for a piano duet and is used in modern concert practice in new timbre variants. The factors that contributed to the popularization of this cycle are traced, related to J. Brahms’s help in publishing it in the edition of Fritz Zimrock. In addition to the well-known variants of the author of the cycle for the orchestra, information is provided about the arrangements of the dances for violin and piano by F. Kreisler, Richard Barth, Friedrich Hermann and the Ukrainian composer Vadim Zhuravytsky; for an orchestra with folk Ukrainian instruments by S.G. Omelchenko; for a piano trio by Gaston Borcha; for a string orchestra by Doris Preucil; for a flute with string instruments by Mike Magatagama; for clarinet ensemble by Nestor Janssen; for saxophones, piano and cello by Katerina Pavlikova. It is concluded that the artistic and expressive features of the music of Antonin Dvorak’s “Slavic Dances” due to the uniqueness of melodic turns and poetics, which take their impetus from folklore sources, significantly raise the content of the dance genre above entertainment music. Under the influence of the diverse rhythms and musical intonations of the “Hungarian Dances” of the mature romantic Johannes Brahms, Dvorak managed to create expressive-lyrical miniatures, in which the effective means of expression (the contrast between the massiveness of the textured sound and the subtle lyricism), the richness of colors and the beauty of the melodies are marked by the author’s ingenuity, which contributed to the emergence of various arrangements of the “Slavic Dances” (both individual dances and the entire opus) from chamber duet to orchestra.