595 - Antonín Dvořák Signed 1882 ‘My Home’ Overture Music Booklet (First Edition)

Antonín Dvořák Signed 1882 ‘My Home’ Overture Music Booklet (First Edition) Esteemed Czech composer (1841-1904) of orchestral and chamber music, best known for his Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World.' First edition softcover sheet music booklet for Antonín Dvořák’s overture Mein Heim (My Home), Op. 62, full orchestral score, 69 pages, 7 x 10.5, published by N. Simrock of Berlin in 1882. Signed and inscribed on the front cover in ink, “Ant: Dvorak, Berlin, 11/17 1882,” dating the presentation to the same year in which the work was composed, premiered, and first published. In fine condition with a central vertical bend and edgewear to the covers and spine. Presented in an attractive custom clamshell case. Accompanied by an unsigned 23-page softcover orchestral score for Dvořák’s Fest-Marsch (Festive March), Op. 54, published by Em. Starý of Prague and composed in celebration of the silver wedding anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Dvořák composed My Home, Op. 62, over just three days, from January 21-23, 1882, as the overture to his incidental music for František Ferdinand Šamberk’s play Josef Kajetán Tyl, centered on the celebrated Czech playwright and patriot. The overture develops two melodies associated with Tyl: the Czech folk song Na tom našem dvoře and Kde domov můj (Where Is My Home?), composed by František Škroup to words by Tyl and later adopted as the Czech national anthem. Around the time he was working on the theatrical music, Dvořák wrote to his publisher Fritz Simrock that he was composing an overture in which Czech songs would be developed, expressing his hope of creating a work comparable to Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture. Premiered with the stage work in Prague on February 3, 1882, under conductor Adolf Čech, My Home was published independently by Simrock in Berlin later that year.