sentences:  46, Dvořák was a relatively unknown composer and was of modest means.Consequently, he had applied for the Austrian State Prize fellowship (German "Stipendium") in order to fund his composing work.After he won the prize three times in four years (1874, 1876 and 1877), Johannes Brahms, as one of the members of the committee responsible for awarding the stipend, referred Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock.