Serenade for wind instruments, cello and double-bass in D minor, Op. 44 (B. 77), is a chamber composition by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.
It was created in 1878, shortly after the première of the opera The Cunning Peasant. The work was premiered on 17 November 1878 at a concert featuring exclusively Dvořák's works, with the Prague orchestra of the Provisional (Czech: Prozatímní) Theatre. The composition was performed under the composer's baton.
The Serenade evokes the old-world atmosphere of the musical performances on the castles of the Rococo period, where the worlds of the aristocracy and the common folk merged[1]. It is composed in a "Slavonic style" (shortly before the Slavonic Dances), and the middle part of the second movement contains rhythms reminiscent of the furiant dance form[2].
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The work consists of four movements:
The Serenade is written for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and for three horns. The composer later added parts for cello and double bass to enhance the force of the bass line.[2] The double bassoon part was attached ad lib, since in Dvořák's time it was not easy to obtain this unusual instrument.[2]
An excerpt from the third movement is performed by a chamber ensemble in a scene from the film Iron Jawed Angels.