Prague Waltzes, B99
Opus number
N/A
Burghauser catalogue number
99
Date of composition
? - 12 December 1879
Premiere - date and place
28 December 1879, Prague
Premiere performer(s)
36th Infantry Regiment Orchestra, conductor F. Sommer
First edition
Státní hudební vydavatelství, 1961, Prague
Main key
D major
Instrumentation
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, violins, violas, cellos, double basses
Duration
approx. 9 min.
At the beginning of 1879 Lumir magazine published an article by music critic Emanuel Chvala in which he points to the pedestrian state of contemporary dance music. The committee organising one of the highlights of the social calendar at the time, the Narodni beseda annual ball, responded to this by inviting leading Czech composers to write music for the gala 30th edition of the Prague ball. Dvorak contributed a piece comprising five successive parts with a coda, all incorporating the waltz rhythm. While Prague Waltzes are not particularly ambitious in musical terms (being primarily intended for the dance hall), they still provide an important testimony of the composer’s ability to craft small forms and of his inexhaustible melodic ingenuity.