The Wood Dove, Op. 110, B. 198 - Antonín Dvořák

The Wood Dove, Op. 110, B. 198 by Antonín Dvořák

Dvořák completed the first version of this short work for orchestra in 1896, and a final revision in January of 1897. The premiere performance would take place in March of 1898 in Brno, of the southern Czech Republic.

The work is based on the poem of the same name taken from the ballad collection ‘Kytice z pověstí národních’ (A Bouquet of Folk Legends) by the Czech author Karel Jaromir Erben. This collection was first compiled by Erben in 1853, with a second edition published in 1861. The collection is more commonly referred to as Kytice (bouquet) and includes 13 poems based on Czech folklore.

The Wood dove (also Wild dove) is the story of a woman who murders her husband by poisoning him. Feigning grief, the woman soon finds a younger man to marry and has an extravagant wedding with many guests. While thinking she has gotten away with murder, a dove comes to sit on the grave of her dead husband. The incessant cooing from the dove acts as a constant reminder of the guilt the woman feels. Guilt then turns to insanity and the woman commits suicide by jumping in a river.

This work is comprised of a single movement.