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PAN PIPES SPRING 2015 SAI-NATIONAL.ORG 18 all the recordings, including string quartets, brass and chamber orchestras, and choruses. In the adjoining room, the largest, is a music salon, which was set up with 36 chairs for the evening performance I was unable to attend. But I did have time to admire the original ceiling fresco, Rise of Apollo by Jan Ferdinand Schor (1686-1767). e next morning, to my delight, I discovered there was another Dvořák museum only 15 miles north of the city. A local friend drove me to see this place where Dvořák was born. His father, an innkeeper and a butcher, was also a musician who played the zither. In 1901, Emperor Franz Joseph appointed Dvořák a lifelong member of the Austrian House of Lords. As I entered the museum, a train passing nearby reminded me the composer had come a long way from his humble beginning. e displays in this museum's three rooms consisted mainly of posters and photos and facsimiles. Item descriptions were on papers affixed to a stand and couldn't be moved, so I found myself going back and forth to figure out exactly what a, b, c and 1, 2, 3 were as I looked around. But his rocking chair, bronze bust (1905), family tree, and another one of his violas, of course, needed no labels. ere were categorized posters, such as "Towards European and Worldwide Glory" and "Artistic Friendships," including Johannes Brahms who in 1887 by recommending to his publisher, Fritz Simrock, the music of Dvořák helped further his career. In fact, the friendship of Brahms and Dvořák has been described as "one of noblest in the history of music." Although he composed a lot of music during the decade of the 1860s, none was performed or published. Because he is such a popular composer today, it is hard to imagine that for so long he was unknown and composed without hope of having his music published or performed. In fact, he even destroyed some manuscripts himself. Aer his first success occurred in 1873, he was renowned from then on. In 1896, Dvořák conducted the first concert of the Czech Philharmonic in what is now called Dvořák Hall in Prague's Rudolfinum. His statue (erected in 2000) stands outside the building to greet concertgoers today. He once said: "My motto is and always will be: God, Love, and Homeland! Only these things lead to ultimate happiness." Even without seeing more original objects associated with the composer, just being in his birth house was thrilling and worthwhile. During my visit there, a recording of his opera Rusalka played on speakers. Althoughcomposed in 1900, its Metropolitan Opera premier was in 1993. In 1884, aer spending summers there previously, this Bohemian composer purchased farmstead property from his brother-in-law's estate and built his own Villa Rusalka where he composed this beautiful opera about a water nymph. Next time I'm in Prague, I'll head 38 miles south to see yet another collection, the Antonín Dvořák Memorial at Vysoká u Příbrami. Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, the sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co-author of Learning Latin rough Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991). For more information, visit nm.cz CLICK FOR MORE The museum collections include personal effects such as his 1879 piano (left) and the area he composed his manuscripts (above). Photos: National Museum - Czech Museum of Music - Museum of Antonín Dvořák A WORLD OF MUSIC MUSEUM continued from page 17

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