Music with Ease > Classical Music > Concert Guide: Nationalist Era > Slavic Rhapsody, No. 3. Op. 45 - Dvorák

The "Slavic" Rhapsody is somewhat unique, being in four sections, but constructed upon a single theme, which is first stated by the harp alone, and is then taken up in the woodwinds in an andante maestoso, and further developed in the cellos, woodwinds, and harp. In the second section the theme appears in ever-shifting figures, at last worked up to a powerful fortissimo in full orchestra. In the third section the theme appears in its first form in the woodwinds, most ingeniously elaborated, and also in its second form. In the final section it returns in many new shapes, and in the Coda two more variants of it appear. As the title indicates, the color of the rhapsody is Slavic.