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Old or New in Antonín Dvořák's Serenade op. 44

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2016

Abstract

The paper considers the genre of the orchestral serenade in the context of reflections on "old" and "new". The serenade form was rediscovered for the 19th century by the German composer Johannes Brahms, who built on the legacy of Viennese classicism.

In the case of Antonín Dvořák's Serenade for Wind Instruments, op. 44, it is also possible, on the basis of analysis and historical connections, to speculate about classicist models, specifically Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Serenade in B Flat Major, KV 361/370a. Dvořák took Brahms' initiative a step further, with his Serenade op. 44 presaging the trend in development towards neoclassicism, which, however, was to come much later.