Composed 1884; 6 minutes

The spirit of Bohemian folk music and a rising Czech national voice were already in the blood of the then little-known 37-year-old Antonín Dvořák when he composed the first of his eight Slavonic Dances. Completed in March 1878, they became his first works to secure international publication through Johannes Brahms’s Viennese publisher, Simrock. By August, the enterprising firm had issued all eight in both piano-duet and orchestral versions. A second set followed eight years later, confirming Dvořák’s growing reputation across Europe.

Between the two sets, Dvořák supplied Simrock with further piano-duet collections—music that strengthened both his standing and his bank balance as he supported a growing family of six children. The Ten Legends, Op. 59, came first, followed in 1884 by the six pieces From the Bohemian Forest, Op. 68. In these character pieces, scenes and evocations of nature alternate with sketches of rural life, shaped by an unmistakable melodic gift.

The fifth piece of the collection is the eloquent Silent Woods (aka Klid/Waldesruhe). Its gently descending, stepwise melody unfolds with an almost vocal tenderness, interrupted by a more urgent central episode before the opening calm returns. Built around a sentimental, stepwise descending melody, with a more urgent middle section, it became the best-known piece of the collection once Dvořák arranged it for cello, with either piano or orchestral accompaniment.