Search
Generic filters

Dvořák – Serenade for strings [analysis] – PART 2: movements 3, 4, and 5

Last updated May 12, 2021 | Published on Dec 24, 2020

Winner of a fellowship at the Bayreuther Festspiele, Mr. Griglio’s conducting has been praised for his “energy” and “fine details”. Mr. Griglio took part in the first world recording of music by composer Irwin Bazelon and conducted several world premieres like "The song of Eddie", by Harold Farberman, a candidate for the Pulitzer Prize. Principal Conductor of International Opera Theater Philadelphia for four years, Mr.Griglio is also active as a composer. His first opera, Camille Claudel, debuted in 2013 to a great success of audience and critics. Mr. Griglio is presently working on an opera on Caravaggio and Music Director of Opera Odyssey.
h

Table of contents

Antonín Dvořák: an analysis of the Serenade for strings – Mov. 3, 4 and 5

3rd movement: Scherzo

In case you don’t have it at hand, here’s a quick link to the score.

After the nocturnal atmosphere of the first movement and the gloominess of the second, Dvořák knew he needed to liven up the room. The 3rd movement is a fast-paced Scherzo, which literally means joke. We’re moving to the far key of F major: although if we read enharmonically the last chord of the valse, the F natural is the 3rd of the chord, therefore not so far.

There’s a curious thing about the structure of this movement. Normally a scherzo is built on an AB form, just like a Minuetto: A being the first section, B being the Trio. With a repeat of the A section. This is the structure we’ve seen in the Tempo di Valse. The Scherzo, here, resembles more of a sonata form: there are 2 contrasting themes (3 actually), a mini development, a recapitulation, and a coda.

The first theme is quite rhythmical in nature. Take a note of that first bar: the motivic cell will return all the way till the end of the movement. The cellos start with the theme: in their high register, something reserved normally for either a very light sound or something very lyrical in nature. Dvořák chooses this register to, yes, have a light atmosphere in the beginning. But right underneath he also writes “not too weak“, meaning it should still have a bite. It’s a piano dynamic, but still a vigorous one.
The game starts right on the second bar: the first violins echo the cellos in what it is – for 3 bars – a perfect canon.

Dvorak -Serenade for strings - mov 3-4-5 -ex 1
Oops...

This content is available for free with all memberships.

Already a member? Login here.

Not a member yet? Subscribe today and get access to more than 80 videos, scores analysis, technical episodes, and exercises.

Notes

Cover image by Lucas Craig from Pexels

Free Download

Conducting Pills

A FREE video series with an analysis of structure, phrasing, and, of course, conducting tips of repertoire works: from Mozart to Brahms, from Beethoven to Debussy. A new episode every week!

Pass the baton

10 chapters, 11 videos, practical exercises, and examples with scores: this video course produced for iClassical-Academy will show you, through a bar-by-bar analysis of excerpts ranging from Mozart to Mahler and Copland, how to build your own technique in the most logical and effective way.

Gianmaria Griglio is an intelligent, exceptional musician. There is no question about his conducting abilities: he has exceptionally clear baton technique that allows him to articulate whatever decisions he has made about the music.

Harold Farberman

0 Comments
Submit a Comment

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This