Antonin Dvorak, Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88

ANTONIN DVORAK
Born Mühlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, Czech Republic), 8 Sept. 1841. Died Prague, 1 May 1904.
SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN G MAJOR, OP. 88
Composed in the summer of 1889 and first performed on February 2, 1890 in Prague, with Dvorak conducting. The score calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani and strings. The work lasts approximately 36 minutes.

Among our most profound experiences is when we realize that two things we once thought to be mutually exclusive, like freedom and restraint, parents and teenagers, life and death, yin and yang, are in fact essential to each other, and dependent on each other. Coming to that realization requires the maturity to see past the obvious differences to the subtle, but vastly more meaningful interrelationships.

By the time Antonin Dvorak began work on his Eighth Symphony, he had reached the maturity to combine strikingly opporsite principles in his compositions in such a way that we sense their interrelatedness more than their disparity. So this symphony, while one of his most complex, is nevertheless built on a number of simple folk-like melodies which are heard throughout. It combines bright optimism and a certain dark sense of melancholy.

The symphony is in G major and its first movement is marked allegro con brio, and yet it begins with a slow, dark cello melody in minor. A bright, carefree flute motif, sometimes referred to as a "bird call" leads the transition to a quicker, more vigorous main section of the movement. A good part of the first movement's intrigue depends on Dvorak's ability to find the musical fabric to bring the darkness expressed by the opening cello line and the bright vigor of the music which follows into a unified musical whole.

The second movement is marked adagio, but while the first, ostensibly quick movement contains some strikingly slow music, this ostensibly slow movement often seems to move forward at a quicker pace than one might expect. It is plaintive, yet energetic, and it also plays on the ambiguity of major and minor, in this case the predominant C minor and a brighter C major.

The third movement also plays on the tension of opposites. It is a "scherzo," which means "joke," and typically signifies a light-hearted, even ironic movement, but Dvorak's begins with a sweeping, waltz-like melody that is more an expression of longing than of irony. Yet the mood of the movement pivots at the trio, and ends in a lighter tone, without entirely shedding its wistful undertone.

The finale spans the distance between brass fanfare to simply folk melody, and while recalling the sentiments of the first movement, from the simply naïveté of the restated flute motif to the deep melancholy of the earlier cello melody. So in the course of his Eighth Symphony Dvorak reconciles opposite musical devices in such a way as to express the intriguing complexity of human emotions. In the hands of a less mature composer it could have seemed like a hodge-podge. But Dvorak not only masters the difficulties of compositional technique; he makes us feel we can reconcile the divisions in the human soul.