Cocktail Party Fact: The music follows the story of this folk ballad so closely that in places you can actually set the words to the music–in Czech, of course!

Commitment Factor: About 18 - 20 minutes

Vital Statistics: Romantic Period (1896). The form of this symphonic poem is a rondo: an orchestral refrain with interludes that takes the form ABACADA, etc.

What to Listen For: The opening tune represents the Water Goblin, at first seemingly harmless, and then malevolent. Here’s the story: a young woman is warned by her mother not to go to close to the lake, because the water goblin has been seen lurking there. Naturally, she ignores the advice, and goes out to do the laundry. Spying her, the water goblin knocks the bridge she’s on out from under her, and takes her to his underwater home. At first, she’s unhappy, then the arrival of baby goblin serves to cheer her up somewhat. She asks her grotesque hubby if she can pay a visit to mother, and he agrees, but keeps the baby to ensure her safe return. On arriving home, her mother refuses to let her leave. A storm blows up, and as the vespers bell rings, the goblin pounds on the front door of her house demanding her return. When she does not reply, he decapitates the baby and leaves it on the doorstep. Yuck. But the music is just te rrific–great tunes, brilliant orchestration, lurid climaxes–and it could be worse; take a look at the stories of the other Dvorak tone poems of 1896!