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SAI-NATIONAL.ORG SPRING 2015 PAN PIPES 17 By Jayne i. HanLin P assionate about trains, Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) once said: "I would give all my symphonies for inventing the locomotive." ank goodness George Stephenson had beaten him to it. What a void there would be in the world without the gorgeous classical music of this Czech composer! He wrote operas, concerti, short pieces, chamber music, and nine symphonies. He was born across from the train tracks in Nelahozeves, a small village. A statement confirming his fascination with trains and railroads is on the partitur of his seventh symphony: "I got this main theme when the special train from Pest was arriving in the State Station in 1884." ere is no documentation to prove whether or not the rhythm of his famous melody in Humoresque No. 7 (one of my mom's earliest violin solos) is related to a train in motion, so the topic is still debatable. In America (1892-1895), Dvořák composed his beloved cello concerto and also his last, and best-known, New World Symphony (which premiered in New York's Carnegie Hall). At that time, as the Director of National Conservatory of Music in New York, he received $15,000, an impressive salary, which was more than that of the city's mayor and thirty times more than his previous salary as a faculty member at the music conservatory in Prague. Today, there are many ways to access Dvořák's wonderful music without leaving home, but if you want to see, among other objects of interest, the actual robe he wore in June 1891 when the University of Cambridge in England conferred his honorary degree, you must visit the National Museum - Czech Museum of Music - Museum of Antonín Dvořák, which opened in Prague. It was only a short walk from my hotel in this "City of a Hundred Spires" but easily accessible as well by metro stop I. P. Pavlova on Line C (Red). You'll know you have reached the former 18 th -century summer palace by its bright pinkish-red color. Nicknamed "Vila Amerika," the building was once a garden restaurant called Amerika that opened in 1826. Upon entering the museum, I realized the layout of the displays in the extensive collection had been redesigned since my first visit in 2001. Quite an improvement! Along with photocopies of original documents, the first-floor glass cases contain many of the composer's personal effects, including a silver cup, a memento of his 1890 concert tour in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the invitation extended by Tschaikovsky aer the two had met in Prague in 1888. ere are also a pocket watch with a key, eyeglasses with a case, an ink stand with two ink-pots, a quill pen, one of his violas, and a bow. For nine years, the composer had been a violist in the Provisional Czech eater's orchestra, which for a time was conducted by famed countryman Bedřich Smetana. In an adjoining small room of the museum is his 1879 Bösendorfer piano. Upstairs is a listening station with 25 selections available — solos as well as chamber and orchestral works. Especially fascinating to me were ones with instrumentation different from the original. As a cellist, my top choice was the melodic theme from the second movement of New World Symphony arranged for cello octet. With my headphones on, I was quite content listening to the recordings. Why not? Performing were top-notch musicians, such as Vladimir Ashkenazy and Josef Suk, great-grandson of Dvořák himself. (His daughter Otilie had married one of her father's students, composer Josef Suk.) I wish I'd had enough time to listen to A WORLD OF MUSIC A World of Music A World of Music A biographical timeline of Antonin Dvorák in a Prague museum. Visting Prague's Two Antonín Dvorák Museums MUSEUM continued on page 18

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