the spectre's bride

general characteristics and synopsis

Erben’s poem, which betrays a marked thematic similarity with the ballad Lenore by German poet Gottfried August Burger, has a powerful plot with numerous dramatic situations which offer all kinds of opportunities for a highly contrastive musical depiction of the individual scenes and characters. Dvorak makes use of this, employing his inexhaustible source of imagery without losing sight of the requirement for overall structural unity and conciseness. He found great inspiration in the stirring rhythms of Erben’s verse, whose impact he was able to reinforce through his music. The work retains its homogeneity throughout thanks to the motif of descending fifths which winds its way through the individual sections. Dvorak’s musical setting demonstrates a clear understanding of the text and a flawless synthesis of music and verse. The cantata is typical for its dramatic expression, inventive melodies and unusual rhythms, all told, a supreme example of the composer’s creative genius.

English title of the work

The Czech title of the work, Svatebni kosile [The Wedding Shirts], refers to an old folk custom which is described in the text: before her wedding a girl would give her betrothed a wedding shirt that she had made herself. A different title was chosen for the first performance of the cantata in England, namely “The Spectre’s Bride”, which passed into common usage for performances of the work outside the Czech environment.

period press review

The Athenaeum, 5 September 1885: 

“The culminating point of interest of the festival was reached on the Thursday evening, when Dvorak’s cantata ‘The Spectre’s Bride’ was produced. All the works of the great Bohemian master which have yet been heard in this country have shown such striking individuality of style and such complete mastery of technical resource, that curiosity was naturally excited to the highest pitch. [...] To avoid too great realism, and at the same time to give appropriate musical expression to the terrific situations of the libretto without overstepping the line of true beauty, would have taxed the utmost resources of any musician of less genius than Dvorak. That he has passed triumphantly through the ordeal, that he has been able throughout a cantata lasting more than an hour and a half in performance to keep the attention of the audience at the highest stretch, without inducing the slightest feeling of weariness or monotony, is an achievement of which he may well feel proud. A well-known musician remarked during the performance, “The man is a magician!” and we heartily endorse the statement. While the weird and supernatural elements of the story are treated with the and of a consummate master, the necessary relief is obtained by solos and duets of the most exquisite beauty. Dvorak never tortures his melodies; they flow as naturally as those of Mozart, while they are throughout perfectly fresh and original. Such numbers as the two soprano airs, “Mine did I once a lover call” and “O Virgin Mother, gracious be,” and the duets “Ah, dearest child,” “Fair is the night,” and “Now when the night so fair doth show,” are as beautiful as anything in music; while the choruses describing the fearful journey, and more especially the scene in the dead-house, are overwhelming in force and intensity. The orchestral colouring is wonderfully picturesque and dramatic, and it is not too much to say that ‘The Spectre’s Bride’ dwarfed into absolute insignificance all the other novelties of the festival. [...] The composer, who conducted his own work, received at the close an ovation which he will certainly never forget.”
 

The Monthly Musical Record, 1 October 1885:

“Thursday evening brought to hearing what was, after all, the real magnum opus of the festival – Dvorak’s cantata, The Spectre’s Bride. Within my assigned limits description or analysis is impossible. My readers will be sure to obtain such a masterpiece, and study it for themselves; but the pianoforte arrangement, clever as it is, conveys no sort of idea of the effect produced in performance. Such descriptive orchestral colouring, such weird, but always artistic, treatment of the supernatural, I never heard before.”