''Humoresques'' ( cs, Humoresky, link=no), Op. 101 ( B. 187), is a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

cycle by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, written during the summer of 1894. Music critic David Hurwitz says "the seventh Humoresque is probably the most famous small piano work ever written after Beethoven's

Für Elise Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor ( WoO59, Bia515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (, ), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) 40 ye ...

History

During his stay in United States, when Dvořák was director of the Conservatory in New York from 1892 to 1895, the composer collected many interesting musical themes in his sketchbooks. He used some of these ideas in other compositions, notably the "New World" Symphony, the "American" String Quartet, the Quintet in E major, and the Sonatina for Violin, but some remained unused. In 1894 Dvořák spent the summer with his family in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

, at Vysoká u Příbrami. During this "vacation", Dvořák began to use the collected material and to compose a new cycle of short piano pieces. On 19 July 1894, Dvořák sketched the first Humoresque in B major, today number 6 in the cycle. However, the composer soon started to create scores for the pieces that were intended to be published. The score was completed on 27 August 1894. The cycle was entitled

Humoresque Humoresque (or Humoreske) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit. History The name refers to the German term ''Humoreske'', which was given from the 1800s (decade) onward to h ...

s shortly before Dvořák sent the score to his German publisher F. Simrock. The composition was published by Simrock in Autumn, 1894.

Structure

The cycle consists of eight pieces: #''

Vivace In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

'' (E minor) #''Poco

andante Andante may refer to: Arts * Andante (tempo), a moderately slow musical tempo * Andante (manga), ''Andante'' (manga), a shōjo manga by Miho Obana * Andante (song), "Andante" (song), a song by Hitomi Yaida * "Andante, Andante", a 1980 song by A ...

'' (B major) #''Poco andante e molto cantabile'' (A major) #''Poco andante'' (F major) #''Vivace'' (A minor) #''Poco

allegretto In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

'' (B major) #''Poco lento e grazioso'' (G major) #''Poco andante — Vivace – Meno mosso, quasi Tempo I'' (B minor) The main theme of the first Humoresque was sketched in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

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1892, with the inscription ''Marche funèbre''. The minor theme was accompanied with the inscription "people singing in the street". The opening theme of the fourth piece was also sketched in New York, among ideas intended for the unrealized opera ''

Hiawatha Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...

''. The "American" style is also apparent in other themes of the ''Humoresques''.

"Passengers will please refrain..."

In the United States, Dvořák's Humoresque No. 7 became the setting for a series of mildly scatological humorous verses, regarding

passenger train toilet Many passenger trains (usually medium and long-distance) have toilet facilities, often at the ends of carriages. Toilets suitable for wheelchair users are larger, and hence trains with such facilities may not have toilets in each carriage. Hopp ...

s, beginning: "Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing still within the stationhouse." The tune together with these words has achieved the status of a "traditional" folk song, often entitled simply "Humoresque". As with all folk art, there are many variations and innumerable verses, often describing troublesome bathroom predicaments and unlikely solutions. A 1989 letter published in the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' refers to it: "The story of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

waste disposal brings to mind an amusing song of 40 to 50 years ago. I have no idea who wrote the lyrics but they were sung to the tune of Dvorak's Humoresque." This dating is consistent with the song's mention in a 1941 novel. A 2008 memoir of 1930s life on a Carolina plantation describes a railroad trip in a Pullman car and notes: "A sign over the toilet contained a memorable warning, and all of us children sang its words to the melody of Dvorak's Humoresque." Supreme Court Justice

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often ci ...

claimed that the humorous lyrics to Dvořák's music were the work of himself and of Yale law professor

Thurman Arnold Thurman Wesley Arnold (June 2, 1891 – November 7, 1969) was an American lawyer best known for his trust-busting campaign as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Department of Justic ...

Ed Cray Edward Beryl Cray (July 3, 1933 – October 8, 2019) was an American journalist, biographer and educator. Cray was best known for his biographies of Woody Guthrie and Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American ...

wrote, "Sometime in the early 1930s, according to his autobiography, ''Go East, Young Man'' (pp. 171–172), William O. Douglas and fellow Yale law school professor Thurman Arnold were riding the New Haven Railroad and were inspired by a sign in the toilet. 'Thurman and I got the idea of putting these memorable words to music, and Thurman quickly came up with the musical refrain from ''Humoresque''.' " According to this source, the actual wording of the train restroom placard was "Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing in or passing through a station".

Recordings

* Mischa Elman and

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...

each recorded his own arrangement of Humoresque No. 7 for violin and piano in 1910. Both were released on

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...

: catalogue numbers 74163 and 74180, respectively. *

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

recorded a lyricized version of this song for his 2018 album '' Boarding House Reach''. The lyrics of this version were created by notorious gangster Al Capone while imprisoned in

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...

in the 1920s. White purchased the original manuscript written by Capone at an auction in 2017. *'' Dvořák in Prague: A Celebration'', released on CD by Sony in 1994 and by Kultur on DVD in 2007, includes a performance of Humoresque No. 1 by

Rudolf Firkušný Rudolf Firkušný (; 11 February 191219 July 1994) was a Moravian-born, Moravian-American classical pianist. Life Born in Moravian town Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and ...

and a performance of Humoresque No. 7 in a version arranged by

Oskar Morawetz Oskar Morawetz, (January 17, 1917 – June 13, 2007) was a Canadian composer. Biography Morawetz was born in Světlá nad Sázavou, Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). He studied piano and theory in Prague and, following the Nazi takeov ...

for Itzhak Perlman (violin),

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

(cello) and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

References

External links