{"id":2659,"date":"2017-11-07T08:58:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=2659"},"modified":"2017-11-07T08:58:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T14:58:11","slug":"dvorak-in-spillville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/11\/07\/dvorak-in-spillville\/","title":{"rendered":"Dvo\u0159\u00e1k in Spillville"},"content":{"rendered":"

While not American in nationality, Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k represented much of what American music was about. Specifically, he saw the value of early African-American and Native American music as rich sources to establish an American national identity. Dvo\u0159\u00e1k spent time in America from 1892 to 1895 as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. During this time, many Americans wrote letters to Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of interest to me are two correspondences to Dvo\u0159\u00e1k from Jan Josef Kova\u0159\u00edk, the father of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s secretary. Kova\u0159\u00edk lived in Spillville, Iowa, where Dvo\u0159\u00e1k spent some time in the summer of 1893. Both letters mention not his music, but instead offer a look into how Dvo\u0159\u00e1k was treated by people of the towns he visited. The first letter was sent in May of 1893 before Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s arrival. In it, Dvo\u0159\u00e1k is treated very cordially, and welcome with open arms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI would find you a cook; furnishings such as beds, pillows and blankets and bedsheets, all that we would have ready for you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, Kova\u0159\u00edk saw value in having Dvo\u0159\u00e1k visit Spillville, and wanted to ensure a pleasant stay. This one instance shows that Dvo\u0159\u00e1k was not viewed as an imposter or someone swooping down to bring up a \u201clesser\u201d culture. He was merely a visitor to a small town, and his host treated him with kindness and a certain level of familiarity. <\/span><\/p>\n

The second letter was sent in December of 1894, well over a year after Dvo\u0159\u00e1k had left Spillville. Kova\u0159\u00edk seems to lament the fact the no one writes to him. He opens the letter by stating that \u201cIn vain I have been waiting to hear from you.\u201d Despite not receiving responses from Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Kova\u0159\u00edk continues in a friendly tone. He discusses the town\u2019s going-ons as in a normal conversation. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cYour old friends Kumpal, Bily, Krnecek, Grandfather are all still alive\u2014every day they trek to the little church to worship and then to gossip a little on the way back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again, neither of these letters mention Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s music. However I think they still provide a valuable insight into how Dvo\u0159\u00e1k was viewed as a person both before and after meeting someone. It seems that he left a positive mark on Spillville, and was gracious with his time while he was there. That speaks well to the music he might have gathered from the community there, as well as to his intentions in other areas of America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n

Klaus D\u00f6ge.\u00a0“Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Anton\u00edn.”\u00a0Grove Music Online<\/i>.\u00a0Oxford Music Online<\/i>.\u00a0Oxford University Press, accessed\u00a0November 6, 2017,\u00a0http:\/\/www.oxfordmusiconline.com\/subscriber\/article\/grove\/music\/51222.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Letters from Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s American Period: A Selection of Unpublished Correspondence Received by Dvo\u0159\u00e1k in the United States.” In\u00a0Dvorak and His World<\/i>, edited by Beckerman Michael, 192-210. Princeton University Press, 1993.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While not American in nationality, Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k represented much of what American music was about. Specifically, he saw the value of early African-American and Native American music as rich sources to establish an American national identity. Dvo\u0159\u00e1k spent time in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2563,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[930,330],"class_list":["post-2659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antonin-dvorak","tag-correspondence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-GT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2563"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions\/2660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}