Cypresses (Echo of Songs), B. 152

Quick Facts

• 12 pieces for string quartet based on Dvořák’s Cypresses (B. 11, 1865), a collection of 18 love songs for voice and piano.
  • The original Cypresses for voice and piano are settings of poems by Gustav Pfleger Moravský. The poems are from a collection called, “Cypresses,” hence the name.¹
• Dvořák titled the piece “Echo of Songs,” while publishers later changed the title to “Cypresses” in reference to its original material.
• Written in 1887; premiered in Prague in 1888
  • This work, along with the original song cycle, was not published during Dvořák’s lifetime. This was probably due to the work’s unusual form/ genre (for the time).
• English translation of the title of each piece within Cypresses:
  1. I know that on my love to thee (Moderato)
  2. Death reigns in many a human breast (Allegro ma non troppo)
  3. When thy sweet glances on me fall (Andante con moto)
  4. Never will love lead us to that glad goal (Poco adagio)
  5. Here I gaze at that dear letter (Andante)
  6. O charming, golden rose (Andante moderato)
  7. I wander oft past yonder house (Andante con moto)
  8. In deepest forest glade I stand (Lento)
  9. Thou only dear one, but for thee (Moderato)
  10. There stands an ancient crag (Andante maestoso)
  11. Nature lies peaceful in slumber and dreaming (Allegro scherzando)
  12. You ask why my songs are tempestuous (Allegro animato)

About the Piece

• Dvořák was inspired to write the original Cypresses song cycle as a young composer in response to his unrequited love for the actress Josefina Čermáková.
• For the string quartet version of Cypresses, the composer left the songs mostly in tact, with the melody carried by a single instrument (usually the violin), and the remaining instruments providing the harmony.²

1. “Echo of Songs, B.152 (Dvořák, Antonín),” IMSLP, accessed January 22, 2024, https://imslp.org/wiki/Cypresses,B.152(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k,_Anton%C3%ADn).
2. “Cypresses (for string quartet), B152,” Antonín Dvořák, accessed January 22, 2024, https://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/work/cypresses-for-string-quartet/.