Songs, Op. 2, B123 - B124
Opus number
2
Burghauser catalogue number
123, 124
Date of composition
1881 (?) 1882 (?)
Premiere - date and place
unknown
Premiere performer(s)
unknown
First edition
Emanuel Stary, 1882, Prague (four-hand arrangement of piano accompaniment by Josef Zubaty)
Editio Supraphon, 1979, Prague (original two-hand piano accompanimen
Author of the text
Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky
Parts / movements
B123:
1. You ardent songs, go forth through the night (Vy vrouci pisne spejte)
2. Oh, it was a lovely, golden dream (O byl to krasny zlaty sen)
3. Around the house now I stagger (Kol domu se ted potacim)
4. Oh, that longed-for happiness does not bloom for our love (O nasi lasce...)
5. On the mountains quiet (Na horach ticho)
6. My heart often broods in pain (Me srdce casto v bolesti)
B124:
1. You ardent songs, go forth through the night (Vy vrouci pisne spejte)
2. Oh, it was a lovely, golden dream (O byl to krasny zlaty sen)
3. My heart often broods in pain (Me srdce casto v bolesti)
4. On the mountains quiet (Na horach 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. 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, this rendering was first published in Prague by Emanuel Stary 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.