''Humoresques'' (), Op. 101 ( B. 187), is a

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

cycle by the Czech

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...

, 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, Biamonti Catalogue, Bia515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (, ), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most significant popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being disc ...

History

During his stay in the 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 Vysoká u Příbrami in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. 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 Humoresques shortly before Dvořák sent the score to his German publisher F. Simrock. The composition was published by Simrock in the autumn of 1894.

Structure

The cycle consists of eight pieces: #'' Vivace'' (E minor) #''Poco andante'' (B major) #''Poco andante e molto cantabile'' (A major) #''Poco andante'' (F major) #''Vivace'' (A minor) #''Poco

allegretto In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given composition, and is often also an indication of the composition's character or atmos ...

'' (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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

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 Ayenwatha or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and cofounder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some accounts, he ...

''. 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 toilets, beginning: "Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is standing ..." 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, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

'' refers to it: "The story of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

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 from 1939 to 1975. Douglas was known for his strong progressive and civil libertari ...

claimed that he and 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 Justi ...

were the first to combine the humorous lyrics with Dvořák's music. Ed Cray wrote, "Sometime in the early 1930s, according to his autobiography, ''Go East, Young Man'', 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 Mischa (Mikhail Saulovich) Elman (; January 20, 1891April 5, 1967) was a Russian-American violinist famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality. Early life Moses or Moishe Elman was born to a Jewish fa ...

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, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing, with marked por ...

each recorded their own violin and piano arrangements of Humoresque No. 7, both in 1910. They were released on

Victor Records The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

: catalogue numbers 74163 and 74180, respectively. *

Isaac Stern Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist. Born in Ukraine, Stern moved to the United States when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union a ...

and

Milton Katims Milton Katims (June 24, 1909February 27, 2006) was an American violist and conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 22 years (1954–76). In that time he added more than 75 works, made recordings, premiered new pieces and ...

recorded their own arrangements for violin and orchestra of Humoresque No. 7, in 1965 and 1973. *

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who achieved international fame as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. As the White Stripes disbanded, he sought success with his solo career, subse ...

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 Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-foun ...

while imprisoned in

Alcatraz Alcatraz Island () is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco in San Francisco Bay, California, near the Golden Gate Strait. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fo ...

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 Moravians, Moravian-born, Moravian-American classical pianist. Life Born in the Moravian town of Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček an ...

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), into a Jewish family. He studied piano and theory in Prague and, follow ...

for

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman (; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the First ina ...

(violin),

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...

(cello) and the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

, conducted by

Seiji Ozawa was a Japanese conductor known internationally for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), where he served from 1973 for 29 years. After cond ...

References

External links