dvořák's american adventures

Some thoughts on

Dvorak in Love: A light-hearted dream
Original title of the Czech edition: Scherzo capriccioso
1984
Josef Škvorecký

I have always been a fan of Antonín Dvořák's works from the American period (1893-1895), including his cello concerto in B minor, the New World symphony, the American quartet, the Sonatina, and the humoresque. I did not however, have a very clear view of how this body of work came into being, i.e. how the composer's "discovery" of this new world came about.

Josef Škvorecký's (1924-2012) light-hearted and indeed boisterous novelisation of this part of the composer's life gives a very vivid impression of how it may have happened. Although the second part of the title seems to suggest it's probably imagined. I guess to find out which parts of this were true I will have to re-read the relevant 30 pages of Neil Wenborn's biography: Dvořák: His life and music, which didn't leave much of a lasting impression when I read them more than 10 years ago.

Škvorecký's version is a very elaborate choreography swirling around just about everybody who had anything to do with the composer's decision to move to New York, and then with the decision not to stay after the expiration of his first contract. The best parts go to the women around him, including his employer, the very remarkable Jeannette Thurber (1850-1946), his wife Anna, her older sister Josephine, and his daughter Otylia. Men come in as love interests for these formidable women, and also for comic relief, which often involves some very heavy drinking.

Many of the chapters are like crowded rooms where it is at times difficult to keep track of the many characters and their multiple interactions, with the narration typically jumping between times as they reminisce about earlier encounters with each other or with the great composer. With hindsight I should have drawn a flow chart for this. The author must have had one and I imagine it may have had a beautiful symmetry too complex for me to grasp while juggling all these connections in my mind while reading.

Leaving aside the gossipy bits involving a lot of heavy drinking and extramarital adventures, there is enough food for musical thought to justify reading the book as a source to learn about Dvořák's work of the American period. Musical and other soundscape influences of the New World that we now find immortalised in his works are pointed out and put into their biographical context (or quite possibly into an imagined context). Conversely, there is also some thoughts on how Dvorak's work in New York influenced the nascent American music scene, and how both sides of the deal might have co-evolved further, if Dvořák had decided to stay in New York. Which he might have done if his daughter, allegedly torn between two admirers, had opted for the one based in the US. So this musical question kind of justifies the reporting of young Otilya's New World adventures.

Apart from the works mentioned above, the American (inspired) output also includes a string quintet (with a second viola) and a suite (written for piano then arranged for orchestra), both of which I only discovered recently, and the opera Rusalka, which strangely didn't capture me when I listened to it once or twice. Will try again.

the Trimbach connection

Ten years ago, I looked into the story of the miners migrating from Fischbach (Nahe) to Markirch (Sainte Marie Aux Mines) and mentioned several interesting leads connected to the Trimbach family which stayed in Markirch for several generations. (NB I'm using the German name for Sainte Marie aux Mines because it's a lot shorter. As I explained in the migrating miners entry, the town was split between territories, languages and confessions for several centuries.) There is a likely Huguenot connection, as well as a link to a wine-growing business still active today. All safely buried in a great big materials file I compiled at the time.

I was reminded of the Trimbachs now because I became interested in family names that are also place names and go back far enough to support the hypothesis that the first in the name line took the name of the place where he came from, for instance after being displaced and on arrival at a new place becoming known as the person from the previous place.

So Trimbach is such a case, and intriguingly one place with this name is half way on the well trodden path of the migrating miners between Fischbach and Markirch. Another is in Switzerland. But which could it be? Let's introduce some Trimbach people first:

We're starting from the supremely unsearchable Paul Simon, born 1740 in Markirch, who migrated to Böchingen, Palatinate, where his descendants became entangled with the Klundt Clan.

His mother was Maria Susanna Trimbach * 1713 + 1752 Markirch. Her male line ancestry goes:

Paul Trimbach * 1682/83 (calc.) Echery (now part of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines) ~ 1682 Markirch oo Maria Salome Klein five children + 1760 Markirch aged 77

Johann Georg Trimbach ~ 1635 Markirch oo (II.) 1667 Elisabeth Saass + 1693 Echery (the same person, identified by baptism and death dates and names of parents and first wife, is known as Paul Trimbach in the Gaudel genealogy)

Jakob Trimbach oo 1623 Ermelind Monschat (Irmel Besuchet) from Lapoutroie + 1669 Markirch

Jean Jacques Trimbach * around 1570 oo Susanne Marchand at least three children including a Jean Trimbach who on 15.9.1625 married Marguerite Reisser in Riquewihr. I'm assuming he is the same Jean Trimbach who in 1626 established himself as a wine grower in that very town, according to the Trimbach website. The business moved a couple of times while staying in the Trimbach family and is now located in Ribeauvillé. (Incidentally both Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr are today tourist destinations for all things Alsatian.) If I've got my maths right, the founder must be my 9xgreat grand uncle.

Laurent Trimbach * around 1540 Markirch oo 1570/71 Marie Anne Sturm in Riquewihr

the name line ends here, but six generations of Trimbachs in one spot isn't too shabby.

Now one village with the name of Trimbach is in the northeast corner of Alsace region, around 100 km north-northeast of Markirch. It has always had just a few hundred residents (435 in 1793). I was keen to connect the name to this one, as it is on the route from Fischbach, but others seem to have other information:

The history page of the Trimbach winery, however, says the family came to Markirch from Switzerland in the 16th century to work in the silver mines. There is a Trimbach town in the Canton Solothurn in the north of Switzerland, not all too far from Alsace (also just over 100 km from Markirch), so that would make sense too.

Trimbach is one of three names in my family tree that appear on wine labels to this day. The others are Klundt and Minges. All three are in the ancestry of Barbara Klundt (1847-1886).

The miners' tower at Echery.
Image source: Wikipedia / Von Rauenstein - Selbst fotografiert, CC BY-SA 3.0

In the hope that this will grow into a series, here's my nucleus list of blog entries exploring name/place connections:

1. Wolff (named after the Wolffskotten farm in Styrum);
2. Zeuzheim; further details re. the Zeuzheim family
3. Trimbach

save the fungi

Today's issue of Current Biology contains a special theme section on fungi, with lots of fascinating fungal facts. My contribution is focused on the conservation of fungal species which has long been a neglected field. Only this year a major catching up effort catapulted the number of fungi in the IUCN Red List to more than 1,000.

Like plants and animals, many fungi are at risk of extinction due to the effects of habitat loss, land use change, the climate catastrophe and/or invasive species. Only that the threats are much less well known in fungi, so a lot of work remains to be done.

My feature is out now:

Fungi in peril

Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 11, 9 June 2025, Pages R438-R440

Restricted access to full text and PDF download
(will become open access one year after publication)

Magic link for free access
(first seven weeks only)

See also my new Mastodon thread where I will highlight all this year's CB features.

My mastodon posts are also mirrored on Bluesky (starting 22.2.2025), but for this purpose I have to post them again, outside of the thread. (I think threads only transfer if the first post was transferred, so once I start a new thread it should work.)

Last year's thread is here .

Cover of Current Biology vol 35 issue 11. Cover image: the fly agaric, Amanita muscaria, releases its spores in the early morning light. Photograph © Jason O' Brien.

more violins to give away

Pirate Luthier update

After the arrival of violin no. 25, which I found during my recent travel on a flea market in Neuss, Germany, I now have ten violins in house that are ready to play, so I guess the time has come again to give away or lend out a few of these. The limiting factor is cases and bows, so if any takers have the accessories but are just lacking the instrument itself, that would help releasing more of them back into the wild. (I could rehair a few of the hairless bows I have, but cases are trickier to conjure up, I've already posted a call for cases on Freegle.)

First of all, number 25) looks like a European one at least as old as I am - so it falls into the more interesting category, as opposed to the more modern Chinese fiddles which I'm less interested in (although I have also handled a few that were ok). The derelict case made of cardboard and lined with paper would perhaps suggest 1930s, as it is similar to the one that came with violin 1).

It came with strings GDA that are black at both ends, like the ones on 22) and I added a random E string I had lying around. With that it is playable but not quite as nice as my favourites 22) and 24). Will play around with the setup a bit to see if I can improve it.

I think part of the reason for the weaker sound is that the angle of the neck is too flat, which I can do nothing about. Will try moving the bridge a millimetre or two:

I'm planning to offer on Freegle this month the full size violins 21) and 23) (see list below), each as a complete set with case and bow, and the 3/4 violin 10) which has a historic wooden case but doesn't have a 3/4 bow. That leaves me with the six more interesting (=old and European) ones. For any of those, I would want to know that they go to the right person who will be happy with it. Also, I am short of cases and bows for these, so if anybody out there has the accessories and is only short of the instrument, that might be a chance to match up instruments and cases. Also, if anybody has invested in a fancy case and has the common or garden one sitting around in the attic, I'd be interested in adopting it.

List of violins in the pirate luthier series:

violin 1) is the one my late aunt had since the 1930s, which got me started. After restoring it in November 2022, I played it almost every day for 14 months, until number 5) showed up.

violin 2) is a Stentor student 1 (a very widely used brand of cheap fiddles available everywhere and still being produced). I bought it very cheap on gumtree, mainly because I needed a case for number 1). It has a fault that is probably not worth repairing, see the blog entry on number 3) below. After stripping it of some accessories and spares, I am now inclined to keep it in a semi-functional state to try out experimental repairs, i.e. use it as a wooden guinea pig of sorts.

violin 3) came from a folkie friend who moved away. I put the soundpost back in its place and it has now found a new home.

violin 4) is a modern Chinese one which I bought from one musical friend and sold to another, no work needed.

violin 5) (donated by a friendly freegler) was my second favourite and the one I played in folk sessions for roughly a year until number 22) showed up.

violin 6) is the half-sized Lark which was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.

violin 7) is a skylark from 1991 which I bought on gumtree for £ 10 and fitted with a new bridge. Good enough for folk I would say. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.

violin 8) is the "ladies violin", a 7/8 skylark. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.

violin 9) is the one which needed a new bridge and a tailgut and turned out to sound quite lovely on the E string. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.

violin 10) is the 3/4 sized one with a broken neck and traces of multiple repair attempts, which I've now repaired.

violin 11) is the 3/4 sold by JP Guivier & Co Ltd. in the 1950s but may actually be older than that. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June.

violin 12) is a full-size Lark which a freegle user kindly donated and delivered after seeing my offer. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June 2024.

violins 13) through to 15) I bought locally through gumtree or facebook, nothing special to report.

violin 16) is the Sebastian Klotz branded one, sadly not made by the Mittenwald luthier, but by Yamaha Malaysia, who appear to have trademarked his name.

violin 17) is the supersized violin with a very strong sound.

violin 18) is the slightly drunken but nice sounding violin from Poland, which I restored and returned to its family.

violin 19) is a Stentor student 1 violin which only needed a little TLC, and within less than a week I had it brushed up and ready to move to our local school. The most intriguing problem it had was that somebody had put in the bridge the wrong way round, with the lower slope under the G string.

violin 20) is a Stentor student 1 violin I bought via GumTree. It sounds really nice for what it is, thanks in part to a good set-up with Dominant strings. My current plan is to make this one an official Cowley Orchestra instrument.

violin 21) is a nameless student violin I bought via facebook, not quite sure what to think of it. The fingerboard is horizontal, which is all wrong and may mean there is not enough pressure on the bridge to produce a good sound.

violin 22) is the 19th century Guarneri copy, still my favourite (although I'll have to fix that crack at some point).

violin 23) is a nameless student violin I bought from a charity shop. It looks unused but had no strings, so I set it up with a set of spare strings that came with another violin. It turned out to be no trouble at all and sounds ok for an instrument that looks really cheap (with the purfling painted on).

violin 24) is the densely cratered one I found lying on a chair at Oxfam, and which I currently play at sessions.

violin 25) is the fleamarket find from Neuss described above.

Balance 2.6.2025: Of the 25 violins listed above, 7 received via freegle, 3 from friends and family, 14 bought (gumtree, facebook, charity shops, flea markets, cost ranging £ 10 to £45), 1 taken in for repair only and returned to its family.
Of the 24 acquired, 6 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 10 currently in house and ready to play, 3 in house and still broken.

List of non-violins in the pirate luthier series:

An old Irish banjo

guitar 1) is the 100 year-old one from Valencia which I set up with frets and strings and handed back to its owner.

and finally a shout-out to our family-built hammered dulcimer, which dates from 2016, long before I got any ideas about violins.