Love Songs, Op. 83, B160

Opus number

83

Burghauser catalogue number

160

Date of composition

December 1888

Premiere - date and place

unknown

Premiere performer(s)

unknown

First edition

Simrock, 1889, Berlin

Author of the text

Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky

Parts / movements

1. Oh, that longed-for happiness does not bloom for our love (O nasi lasce...)
2. So many a heart is as though dead (V tak mnohem srdci mrtvo jest)
3. Around the house now I stagger (Kol domu se ted potacim)
4. I know that in sweet hope (Ja vim, ze v sladke nadeji)
5. Over the countryside reigns a light sleep (Nad krajem vevodi lehky spanek)
6. Here in the forest by a brook (Zde v lese u potoka)
7. In that sweet power of your eyes (V te sladke moci oci tvych)
8. Oh dear soul, the only one (O duse draha jedinka)

Duration

approx. 15 min.

The cycle Love Songs is a reworking of songs nos. 8, 3, 9, 6, 17, 14, 2 and 4 from the cycle Cypresses dating from 1865. Dvorak preserved the mood and the basic harmonic and melodic ideas, and focused more on improving the declamation of the songs’ text, adjustments which led to certain major changes to the rhythmical structure. The piano accompaniment was moderated and revised to give more transparency. While the original version of Cypresses only came out in print in 2008, Love Songs was first published in 1889 by Simrock in its Czech original with German and English translations.