Capturing the Zeitgeist: DVOřák’s Prague Debut and the Politics of Patriotism

Abstract

Abstract While Dvořák’s Hymnus: Heirs of the White Mountain (1872) for chorus and orchestra is largely unknown today, its Prague premiere in 1873 was a landmark event in Dvořák’s career. This study shows that the work’s success at its first performance depended on cultural expectations and political circumstances that were particular to Prague in the 1870s. Audiences were accustomed to choral concerts of modest proportions, and the spectacle delivered by the Hlahol choral society on this occasion caught the public by surprise, as did Dvořák’s seemingly sudden emergence onto the scene. The performance also came in the midst of heated debates on the nature of Czech music, and Hymnus was harnessed in the service of certain critical agendas. Moreover, the work explores the aftermath of a crucial seventeenth-century Czech military defeat; this reference was timely in 1873, as Czech politicians had recently waged and lost their own battle in the Austrian parliament, leading audiences to relate in a unique way to Hymnus.