- 02:39A quiet beginning: sorrow, syncopation, and sequence
- 00:58Instrumental colour as a prime element: clarinets and bassoons, an outburst by the French horn
- 00:32The opening tune again, with different instrumental colouring: now flutes and oboes
- 00:37The first big surprise: strings, shattering drumbeats, shrieks from flutes, oboes, and clarinets
- 00:32Cellos and basses take us into a new key while flutes and oboes dance in syncopation.
- 00:32Horns, violas, and cellos introduce a new idea, soon to evolve into the main theme.
- 00:43A tiny detail from the opening culminates in a wild drumming that heralds A Major event
- 02:05Introduction complete
- 00:39A solo horn introduces the main theme, perkily answered by bassoons and horns.
- 00:33The theme moves to G Major; answering phrase from flutes, oboes, bassoons.
- 00:39Long crescendo, tremolo strings, back to tonic and biggest statement yet of the main theme.
- 01:37Transition to the secondary theme through the use of sequence. Sonata form; satability and flux
- 00:35Three-bar groupings and again the use of sequence, spelling out a chord
- 00:18The sequence continues to rise, and the four-bar phrase returns as the standard unit.
- 00:21The first violins start off the next phrase, but the melodic shape is more compact.
- 00:10The violins fall silent; the violas and cellos answer with a new figure
- 00:07So now we have a two-bar group, made up of statement and answer.
- 00:06The same thing again (though not quite the same)
- 01:00Transition complete. The secondary theme arrives, with French horns as 'bagpipes'.
- 00:20The 'bagpipe drone' is taken over by cellos, with their insistently repeated G and D.
- 00:58The tune is taken up by cellos and double-basses, 'shadowed' by the second violins.
- 00:33The violins continue a pattern of steady pairs, and the cellos and basses introduce a new idea.
- 00:26Unexpectedly, we find ourselves back with the secondary theme. A new idea emerges.
- 00:34Again we hear the shortened version of the secondary theme
- 00:26The suspense is heightened as everything slows down
- 00:47This beautiful flute tune is said to resemble 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'.
- 01:16A big crescendo leads to a final statement of the closing theme
- 01:09The development section begins with a conversation between cellos, double-bases, and violins.
- 00:18The beginning of the closing theme is taken up in turn by the horn, piccolo, and trumpet.
- 00:18Sequential chirping from the oboes based on the 'answering' part of the main theme, now in thE Major
- 00:19Much of the development comes from a diminution of the closing theme from the exposition.
- 00:31A tiny detail becomes A Major ingredient, giving an agitated quality to an originally sunny tune.
- 00:38Through a sequence of keys so quickly that it is hard to keep track of them
- 01:47The main theme from massed cellos and double-basses, topped by two trumpets over tremolo violas
- 01:05After that major climax, we arrive at the threshold of the recapitulation
- 01:11Dvorak flouts tradition by setting the secondary theme and the closing theme in unexpected keys.
- 03:09The tumultuous convulsion of the coda brings the first movement to its epic close.
- 00:21Humpty Dumpty: putting the bits back together again
- 11:37First movement (complete)
- 01:06The very opening chords unmistakably herald the arrival of something special.
- 01:10The role of instrumentation in setting the scene...
- 01:30...and in enhancing the quality of one of the most famous tunes in symphonic history.
- 01:08The cor anglais is joined by the clarinet, creating a fascinating change in the timbre.
- 00:25For the closing part of the tune, there is another new sonority: cor anglais plus bassoon.
- 00:28The closing bar is repeated by clarinets and bassoons, the horn adding a new touch
- 02:24Back to the start to hear the whole of the story so far, this time without commentary
- 01:14A change of scoring: the slow opening chords return, this time played by the winds alone.
- 02:35The changes in scoring are just beginning.
- 01:05The flutes and oboes introduce a new tune, over hushed tremolo strings.
- 01:29A memorable combination of continuous, asymmetrical melody with steady, march-like counterpoint.
- 01:33Back in that woodland glade, the light and shadows have changed, revealing new shapes and patterns.
- 01:31The next section is new and forward-looking, yet also a kind of dream-recollection of a past scene.
- 02:01An abrupt change of mood, much discussion and embellishment, and a hushed note of expectancy
- 05:14Subjectivity and expertise; Sourek and Tovey disagree; onwards, into the final section
- 00:11Cue to whole movement
- 12:01Second movement (complete)
- 01:54Dvorak, Beethoven, and the Scherzo. Dvorak purposely confuses the listener's expectations.
- 00:21Using a little fanfare, Dvorak further builds up expectation before revealing the main theme.
- 00:37When the theme is revealed, we find that it is not exactly a tune.
- 00:25Two little bursts of rhythm provide the seeds from which much of the movement grows.
- 00:23It is the second half of the theme that dominates.
- 00:48Back to the beginning to hear the whole of this opening section
- 00:21Without ever being remotely 'academic' or 'intellectual', there is much counterpoint going on here.
- 02:32Dvorak's very Czech love of combining conflicting rhythms, sometimes metres
- 00:30A clearly transitional passage, obsessed with the rhythmic tag that both opens and closes the theme
- 01:07Sooner than we may have expected, we seem to have arrived at the Trio section.
- 00:36A new kind of tone quality sheds a subtly different light on the theme.
- 00:22The flutes and oboes now chime in with an answering variant of the opening...
- 00:43...and the cellos and bassoons take up the original version of the theme.
- 00:52A false alarm: it was not the traditional Trio section at all, but rather part 2 of Scherzo proper
- 01:14Soon, after a very rapid build, the Scherzo proper does reach its final phase.
- 01:28The orchestral texture thins dramatically, and we approach what this time really is the Trio section.
- 00:51The Trio section is reminiscent more of the 'Old World' than the 'New'.
- 01:00In the second half of the Trio, a new tune emerges, a kind of Slavonic waltz.
- 00:36The main theme of the Trio returns against a much fuller orchestral background.
- 01:16Then it is all a matter of repeats, until we reach the coda, which ends with an explosive bang.
- 08:07Third movement (complete)
- 00:47Like the first movement, the fourth begins not with its main theme but with an introduction.
- 00:48The main theme: an imposing march, introduced by trumpets and trombones, with timpani
- 01:01The main theme, part two. A codetta-like passage closes off the march
- 00:54The 'transitional' theme, while outwardly contrasting, is actually a hidden variant of the march.
- 00:17A point of future obsession
- 00:17The second half of this 'transitional' theme is given to the winds the strings have finished.
- 00:57The 'obsession' takes root, with a ten-fold repetition, before the arrival of the second subject.
- 02:31The hidden traps in sonata-form terminology: 'second main theme' vx. 'second subject'
- 01:24The unexpected entry and subsequent ubiquity of 'Three Blind Mice'
- 00:37We meet the mice again, now in the cellos and double-basses, where they persistently refuse to run.
- 00:31More 'Three Blind Mice' material
- 00:19The mice return to the basement, where the bassoons have joined the cellos and double-basses.
- 00:19Next, they are back with the clarinets who pass them back to the cellos
- 00:15Now they return to the high winds, delicately trilling.
- 00:35Relief, at last: the mice back off, making way for a remainder of the main theme from the trumpets.
- 01:08The mice yield to woodpeckers; the main theme is now doubled in speed
- 00:24The triplets of the 'transitional' theme are now handed down through strings
- 00:28Reminders of past movements begin to fly by, thick and fast, sometimes very fast.
- 00:24In fact there are three bits of quotation going on here simultaneously.
- 00:13The violas react every time the 'Goin' Home' theme is quoted by the winds.
- 00:35The rhythm of the opening of the 'Goin' Home' theme dominates, transformed by trumpets
- 01:56The march theme reappears as a Mendelssohnian fairy; the main theme from the 1st mov. now returns.
- 01:05We reach an interesting point: have we heard the beginning of the recapitulation, or not?
- 01:41Perhaps this is it? Back for a reminder of the theme proper, as we first heard it
- 01:27Tovey places the start of the recapitulation here.
- 01:51The main theme recast in pathetic rather than heroic terms - and with magical scoring
- 01:50This unexpected crisis in confidence plays A Major role in the overall dramatic impact of the mov.
- 01:30The main theme returns - not complete, but chopped up into shorter and shorter fragments.
- 00:56A glorious thematic stew; high drama, a powerful build-up... but then?
- 01:27The dramatic highpoint of the mov., an astonishing transformation, but first, back to the original
- 01:10The same chords again, this time blasted out by the entire wind and brass sections
- 01:43Now we are into the finishing stretch, but the surprises continue to the very end of the very end.
- 01:05Summary, context, and cue into the whole movement
- 11:05Fourth movement (complete)
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