Slavonic Dance in E minor, op. 72 no. 2

Dvořák wrote the second set of Slavonic Dances in 1886, eight years after the first, again at Simrock's urging and again orchestrating them himself. The second of the set carries the label Starodávný, an old-time dance: an Allegretto grazioso in E minor, unhurried and elegant, with the pulse of a mazurka beneath the surface rather than on it. Its melodies lean towards the Ukrainian dumka, the old ballad-like song with instrumental accompaniment found across the Slavic lands. It is the best known number in the second book.