Songs, Op. 2, B123–B124
Opus number
2
Burghauser catalogue number
123, 124
Date of composition
1881 (?) 1882 (?)
Premiere - date and place
B123: 1 May 2014, Ostrava
Premiere performer(s)
Pavla Vykopalová, Róbert Pechanec
First edition
B123: Emanuel Starý, 1882, Prague (four-hand arrangement of piano accompaniment by Josef Zubatý)
B124: Editio Supraphon, 1979, Prague (original two-hand piano accompaniment)
Author of the text
Gustav Pfleger-Moravský
Parts / movements
B123:
1. You ardent songs, go forth through the night (Vy vroucí písně spějte)
2. Oh, it was a lovely, golden dream (Ó byl to krásný zlatý sen)
3. Around the house now I stagger (Kol domu se teď potácím)
4. Oh, that longed-for happiness does not bloom for our love (Ó naší lásce nekvete)
5. On the mountains quiet (Na horách ticho)
6. My heart often broods in pain (Mé srdce často v bolesti)
B124:
1. You ardent songs, go forth through the night (Vy vroucí písně spějte)
2. Oh, it was a lovely, golden dream (Ó byl to krásný zlatý sen)
3. My heart often broods in pain (Mé srdce často v bolesti)
4. On the mountains quiet (Na horách ticho)
Duration
B123: approx. 12 min.
B124: approx. 9 min.
The cycle Songs, attributed the misleading opus number 2, is a reworking of six songs from the cycle Cypresses, which originated in 1865. Dvořák 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, rendering of the four songs B124 was first published in Prague by Emanuel Starý back in 1882, in its Czech original with a German translation. Music critics wrote very highly of the songs and compared the stylisation of the piano part to Schubert’s lieder. The first known performance of all six songs took place on 1 May 2014 at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava.