Conductor - Andris Nelsons /City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Home
Related:
Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)
The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178 (Czech: Symfonie č. 9 e moll „Z nového světa“), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the modern repertoire. In older literature and recordings this symphony is often indicated as Symphony No. 5.
Movements
The piece has four movements:
I. Adagio, 4/8 — Allegro molto, 2/4, E minor
II. Largo, common time, D-flat major, then later C-sharp minor
III. Scherzo: Molto vivace — Poco sostenuto, 3/4, E minor
IV. Allegro con fuoco, common time, E minor, ends in E major
Influences
Dvořák was interested in the Native American music and African-American spirituals he heard in America. Upon his arrival in America, he stated:
"I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."
The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on December 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall conducted by Anton Seidl. A day earlier, in an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, Dvořák further explained how Native American music had been an influence on this symphony:
"I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour."
In a 2008 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, prominent musicologist Joseph Horowitz asserts that African-american spirituals were a major influence on the 9th symphony, quoting Dvořák from an 1893 interview in the New York Herald as saying, "In the negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music."
Despite all this, it is generally considered that, like other Dvořák pieces, the work has more in common with folk music of his native Bohemia than with that of the United States. Leonard Bernstein averred that the work was truly multinational in its foundations.
The Anthem of the Bureau of International Expositions was extracted from the starting part of the 4th Movement of the symphony.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)
