Piano Trio No. 4 (Dvořák)

The Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 90, B. 166, (also called Dumky trio from the subtitle Dumky) is a piece by Antonín Dvořák for piano, violin and cello. It is among the composer's best-known works.

At the same time it is a prominent example for a piece of chamber music deviating strongly from the sonata form.

Dumky, the plural form of dumka, is a term introduced into Slavic languages from the Ukrainian. Originally, it is the diminutive form of the term duma, plural dumy, which refers to epic ballads, specifically a song or lament of captive people. During the nineteenth century, composers from other Slavic countries began using the duma as a classical form used to indicate a brooding, introspective composition with cheerful sections interspersed within. Dvořák used the dumka form in several other compositions, including his Dumka for Solo Piano, Op. 35; Slavonic Dance No. 2; String Sextet; and his Piano Quintet, Op. 81

Dvořák completed the trio on February 12, 1891. It premiered in Prague on April 11, 1891, with violinist Ferdinand Lachner, cellist Hanuš Wihan, and Dvořák himself on piano. The same evening, Prague's Charles University awarded the composer an honorary doctorate. The work was so well received that Dvořák performed it on his forty-concert farewell tour throughout Moravia and Bohemia, just before he left for the United States to head the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. The trio was published while Dvořák was in America and was proofread by his friend Johannes Brahms.

The piece is in six sections:

The composition features six dumky episodes throughout. The initial three dumky are connected together without interruption in the harmonically complementary keys given above, in effect forming a long first movement. The final three dumky are presented in unrelated keys, thus giving the overall impression of a four-movement structure.

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