Harmony

The relatively frequent alternation of harmonic functions within short passages of music is typical of Dvořák’s works. This tendency particularly increased in the works he composed during the last stage of his career. During his Slavic period, the composer often favoured alternation between the same-note major and minor keys, and the so-called Moravian modulation, which is the shifting of the key to a lower second. Dvořák attempted his most daring modulation plans over more extensive passages during his “Wagnerian” period, i.e. the late 1860s and early 1870s.