Carnival Overture, Op. 92
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

THE STORY

Perhaps best remembered for his Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (1893) and his Cello Concerto (1894), Antonín Dvořák is the most celebrated composer of Czech nationalist music of the nineteenth century. However, Dvořák’s big break as a composer occurred later than most. An active musician in Prague, Dvořák’s career focused on his work as a church organist; he taught students and composed music as a supplement to that work. In 1874, he caught the attention of the international music community when he submitted compositions to the Austrian State Prize for Composition, which happened to be adjudicated by none other than Johannes Brahms. Brahms was struck by the talent of the 33-year-old composer—Dvořák won the prize and, crucially, Brahms recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Simrock. With a newfound publisher to commission works and distribute them to a wide audience, Dvořák became an international success. In 1892, Dvořák accepted a large salary to join the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City as its director. There he spent three productive years composing some of his most beloved works while inspiring a nascent American school of composition.

The Carnival Overture, Op. 92 was originally conceived as the second overture—called Life (Carnival)—in a cycle of three, collectively titled Nature, Life and Love (1891). While the three overtures share a common motivic idea that unites them, Dvořák began to recognize their value as individual pieces; after much debate, he published the set with distinct titles and opus numbers, resulting in the overtures In Nature’s Realm, Op. 91; Carnival, Op. 92; and Othello, Op. 93. Carnival Overture—the most enduring of the three—vividly renders the myriad scenes one might experience at a carnival, from the buzzing excitement of high-spirited crowds to what Dvořák referred to as a portrayal of “a pair of straying lovers.” While a Czech Carnival of the 1890s might look different from a contemporary North Carolina State Fair, Dvořák’s Carnival Overture captures the perennial joys of celebration and love, speaking as perceptibly to us today as at the work’s premiere in 1892.

LISTEN FOR

• The boisterous opening, in which Dvořák reveals his fondness for the percussion section with extensive use of tambourine and cymbals—this section returns at the end of the overture, perhaps portraying the entrance and exit to the carnival grounds
• A transition figure comprised of a variation on the opening section’s buzzing string parts that recurrently leads from one scene to another
• The four-note ostinato theme that accompanies the sentimental third scene—it develops from the transition figure, is stated in the English horn and woodwinds, and gradually moves into the low strings before launching back into the arresting transition figure once more

INSTRUMENTATION

Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings