DVINA, An important river of northern Russia, formed by the union of the Sukhona and the Jug. at the town of Veliki stug, Government of Vologda (Map: Russia, l' 2). It flows northeast to its junction with the Vitehegda, and then, turning northwest, enters the White Sea by a wide estuary, about twenty six miles below Archangel. The length of the river is over 760 miles from the source of the sukhona and over 1100 miles from the source of the Vitchegda. It is navigable from its junction with the Vitchegda, a distance of over 400 miles. The basin of the river has an area of over 140,000 square miles. Flue chief tributaries are the Vitchegda, which exceeds in the volume of it, waters the upper course of the Ocilla, the Pi nega, and the Vaga. The Vitchegda, Tug. and Sukhona are navigated by steamers. The Drina is connected by canals with the Volga and the Neva.
DVOkAK, ANToNIN (H41-1904). A famous Bohemian composer, born at Middhau sen. He was to follow the occupation of his father, the butcher and innkeeper of the vil lage, but. upon the advice of Dvoilik's school master, his first teacher in singing and vio lin. he Avas sent. at the age of twelve, to ZIonitz to study the piano, organ, and theory of music. and. two years later. to Kamenitz, whew lie remained for a year with the organist llancke. The result of his studies, a polka in orchestral score, at its first performance proved a failure: the young composer was innocent of the existence of transposing instruments, and the trumpets played a fourth higher than intended. In 1857, on his father's promise of a small allowance, he entered the organ school of the Society for Church Music, at Prague. Shortly afterwards the meagre pittance was cut off. and the composer had to make a living by playing the viola in small bands and cafis, until, in 1862, the orches tra of which he was a member was engaged at the newly opened Bohemian Theatre in Prague. in 1571 became the National Theatre. here he became acquainted with Karl Bendl, and through him first obtained ace..., to orchestral scores of Beethoven's compositions. The study of original scores induced him to try his hand in the burger forms, and he wrote symphonies, an opera, and chamber music, though his first important work to be heard, the cantata Die Erben des weissen Berg•s, was not given until 1573. Its success was quite out of the ordinary, and the Austrian Government, after a time, granted him, for his Sounds from Moraria, an annual stipend of •160, later increased to $240. The eomposer now heard Die Meistersinger, and set out to write a comic opera, The King and the Caitiff (157 4) . The score proved such an unprodueible monstrosity that it had to be re written from the first bar to the last, and then it won quite a success (1S751. About this time, through the offices of Han-di•k and Brahma. the
judges who had awarded him the stipend, pro ffik received an order from Simrock. of Berlin, and the resulting set of Slaronic Danres for pianoforte duets rivaled Brahms's Gypsy Dances in their sudden and continued popularity. But his greatest success awaited him in Eng land. In 1883 his .'robot Nutt r, once re jected by the Austrian t;overnment jury, stirred up a genuine furor, and thereafter England be came the home of his musical activity. The spectre's Bride (cantata, Birmingham, 1885) re peated the success of Stale+ I Mat. r. Saint Bud milla (oratorio, Leeds, 1886) and the 11(quient Mass (1591) were other works written for Eng lish festivals. In 1892 he was engaged as di rector of the New York National Conservatory at a salary of $15,000 a year, a post which he held for three years. While in the United States he grew interested in the music of negroes and 'Indians to the point of introducing their melo dies into his symphony from the Yee' World, and the overture in Nature. After 1895 be lived in Prague, writing in 1899 the opera Der Teufel nial die leilde Itlithe. He was made an honorary member of many musical organiza tions, and the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon him by the universities of Prague and Cambridge. Later he was called to the Aus trian House of Peers. Besides much chamber music, he wrote five symphonies, ninny sacred compositions, and a number of operas which enjoy great popularity in his native land. His pianoforte compositions are the least significant portions of his contributions to contemporary music. With Smetana (q.v.) and the Young Russian School, Dva:lk has called the world's attention to the inexhaustible wealth of folk songs possessed by the Slays. While strongly national in the character of their music, the Slavic composers, and Dvoi•k among them. as a ride do not transplant the folk-themes bodily, as did Liszt_ with the Magyar melodies. They imbue their music with the national spirit, which is most striking in rhythms and har mony; and in this line, Dvoirik's themes, though at times cheap in texture, carry the musician away by the sheer force of their originality and freshness. A master of orchestral color after long years of practical apprenticeship in the orehestra. Dvorak reveals his weakness when attempting to write within the boundaries of strictly classical forms, in which he had little training beyond his own studies of scores. Yet to this very independence the world is indebted for the introduction of new fo•ms—the Dumka (literally a little musing, a sort of intermedi ary between elegy and ballad) for the slow move ment. and the Furiant (a sharply accented Bohemian dance of vertiginous rapidity and ever changing rhythm) for the scherzo. Consult Zu balky, Droi-ok (Prague, 1886).