In 1873 he married. He got a job as church organist. His Third Symphony was performed at a concert conducted by Smetana. Dvořák rewrote his opera "King and Charcoal Burner", using completely different music. It was performed in 1874. He composed a lot more music.
In 1877 he had a letter from Hanslick to say that he had won a prize of 600 gulden and that the great composer Johannes Brahms was interested in his music. His music started to be published by Simrock, a well-known German music publisher, and his music was performed in many countries, even as far away as New York. His fame spread. Even his operas were performed abroad. "Dimitrij" was particularly successful. Brahms was a great friend and helped him a lot. Brahms and Hanslick tried to persuade him to move to Vienna because it was a great musical city, but Dvořák wanted to stay in his own country.
Dvořák's "Slavonic Dances" were published in 1878 and have always been very popular. The conductor Hans Richter conducted the Slavonic Rhapsody no 3 in Vienna. His "Stabat Mater" (1880) was performed abroad, and Dvořák was invited to visit England in 1884. He became very popular in England and went there many times. The English choirs liked to sing his choral works. His "Requiem Mass" was given its first performance in Birmingham at the Triennial Music Festival. He was given an honorary degree from Cambridge University. Tchaikovsky invited him to Russia in 1890.
From 1892 to 1895, Dvořák was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. He earned a lot of money: $15,000 a year. Dvořák was interested in the music of black Americans. He met the student Harry T. Burleigh, one of the earliest African-American composers, who introduced him to traditional American Spirituals.
In the winter and spring of 1893, while in New York, Dvořák wrote his most popular work, the "Symphony No.9, "From the New World"". He spent the summer of 1893 with his family in the Czech-speaking community of Spillville, Iowa, where some of his cousins lived. He also composed chamber music there, including a String Quartet in F which is known as the “American”, and a Sonatina for Violin and Piano.
In 1895, Dvořák wrote his "Cello Concerto in B minor", which was to become one of his most popular works. However, he wanted to go back to his own country. He was also not being paid all his salary. He heard that he had been made an honorary member of the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" in Vienna. He decided to return to Bohemia and continue his job as professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory.
During his last years, Dvořák spent most of his time writing operas. "Rusalka" is particularly popular, especially the famous aria for soprano "To the Moon". The opera is about a fairy-tale and the story is based on Hans Anderson’s story of the "Little Mermaid". In 1896 he visited London for the last time to hear the first performance of his Cello Concerto. In 1897 his daughter married his pupil, the composer Josef Suk.
He died in 1904 after a short illness.
Dvořák wrote lots of kinds of music. Although he based his style on the classical forms such as those of Beethoven, they also show the influence of Czech folksong. He lived at a time when Nationalistic feelings were felt very strongly by the Czech people. Smetana wrote music which was very Czech in character. Dvořák learned from Smetana’s music, but never imitated his style. Only five of his nine symphonies were known in his lifetime. When the other four were discovered and published in the 1960s the symphonies were all renumbered. The last three symphonies, numbers 7, 8 and 9 (which used to be called numbers 2, 4 and 5) are the most often performed. The Ninth Symphony: "From the New World" is one of the most popular symphonies ever written. The two sets of Slavonic Dances are extremely well-known. They are often played as a piano duet. He wrote concertos for the violin, cello and piano. Dvořák wrote many operas (the best known of which is "Rusalka"); chamber music (including a number of string quartets, and quintets); songs; choral music; and piano music.
Slavonic rhapsody: The life of Antonín Dvořák, by Barthold Fles
Leoš Janáček
Most of his greatest works were written towards the end of his life. At this time he was in love with a young woman called Kamila. She was the inspiration for many of his last compositions.
Janáček’s family were poor people who lived in the countryside in Moravia. His grandfather and his father were both musicians and school teachers. Leoš was the fifth of nine children. As the tiny house was so crowded he was sent to Brno when he was eleven. There he went to a choir school, but soon the choir had to stop. He continued his music education there. After his final exams he had an unpaid job as teacher for two years. He became conductor of a monastery choir as well as a male-voice choir called Svatopluk. He made them a better choir and wrote music for them. He studied at the Prague Organ School for a year, but he was very poor and could not afford to go to concerts. He continued to conduct choirs and became friends with Dvořák. He spent a short time in Leipzig and Vienna.
When he returned to Brno he became engaged to his piano pupil Zdenka Schulzová who was only 14. She was still under 16 when they married. Janáček founded (started) an organ school in Brno. He was the director of this school. He also taught music at the Old Brno Gymnasium. His marriage was unhappy and, although they remained married all his life, they spent a lot of time separated. He went on a journey to northern Moravia to collect folk songs which he used in some of his dances for orchestra.
Janáček’s spent several years writing his opera "Jenůfa". By the time he was finishing it his daughter had died. Some of his sadness can be felt in the opera. He also worked on a system of speech-melody (making his melodies sound like the rhythm of his language) which was to influence his operas for the rest of his life. "Jenůfa" was very successful when it was first performed in 1904. By this time Janáček was already 50.
Janáček was now doing less teaching and concentrating on organizing the Brno Organ School which had moved into a new building because it now had 70 students. His next opera was called "Osud" ("Fate"), but it was not performed during his lifetime. The music is very good but the libretto (words) were poor. This is also true of his next opera: "Mr Brouček’s excursion to the moon". He wrote chamber music during this period, as well as some very good choral music.
When World War I broke out Janáček was 60. He was well known in Moravia, but hardly known in other countries. His compositions from the war years include "Taras Bulba" which is a work for orchestra which describes a story by the Russian writer Gogol. He wrote a short, patriotic opera to follow Mr Brouček’s adventures. It was about a landlord from Prague who finds himself in the middle of the 15th century Hussite wars.
In his final years Janáček wrote most of the great works for which he is world-famous. His opera "Jenůfa" was performed in Prague. This made him internationally famous. He was very proud when his country became independent after the war. He was also very happy because he was in love with Kamila Stösslová, who was 38 years younger than himself. He wrote three of his finest operas: "Katya Kabanová", "The Cunning Little Vixen" and "The Makropulos Affair". These operas were performed in Brno and then in Prague, and they were also published. He wrote two string quartets and a wind sextet: "Mládi" ("Youth"). By the time he was 70 he had retired from the Brno Organ School. In 1926 he wrote an orchestral work: "Sinfonietta", followed by a piano concerto for the left hand (pianist just playing with the left hand) and chamber ensemble, and the "Glagolitic Mass". All these works had enormous success in Czechoslovakia as well as abroad, even as far away as New York.