Dvořák - Písně milostné (Love Songs), Op. 83 (Transcribed for Cello and Piano)

Dvořák's cycle Love Songs is an 1888 reworking of songs nos. 8, 3, 9, 6, 17, 14, 2, and 4 from the cycle Cypresses dating from 1865. The dedicatee of Cypresses was quite critical of Dvořák's unidiomatic treatment of the text, so Dvořák ended up recomposing many of the songs, splitting them up into 2 cycles.

These songs have a transcendent beauty.

Dvořák's cycle Love Songs is an 1888 reworking of songs nos. 8, 3, 9, 6, 17, 14, 2, and 4 from the cycle Cypresses dating from 1865. The dedicatee of Cypresses was quite critical of Dvořák's unidiomatic treatment of the text, so Dvořák ended up recomposing many of the songs, splitting them up into 2 cycles.

These songs have a transcendent beauty. In No. 7 of the Love Songs, Dvořák quotes the slow movement from the Piano Quintet.

The entire cycle lasts around 15 minutes, the shortest song being only a minute long. This transcription for cello and piano retains the original piano part. The cello part does not go above the A harmonic, everything is notated in the bass clef.

Contents: 1. Oh, that longed-for happiness does not bloom for our love (Ó naší lásce nekvete to vytoužené štěstí) 2. So many a heart is as though dead (V tak mnohém srdci mrtvo jest) 3. Around the house now I stagger (Kol domu se teď potácím) 4. I know that in sweet hope (Já vím, že v sladké naději) 5. Over the countryside reigns a light sleep (Nad krajem vévodí lehký spánek) 6. Here in the forest by a brook (Zde v lese u potoka) 7. In that sweet power of your eyes (V té sladké moci očí tvých) 8. Oh dear soul, the only one (Ó duše drahá jedinká)