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 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from
1892 to 1895. It has been described as one of the most popular of all symphonies.[1] In older
literature and recordings, this symphony was – as for its first publication – numbered as Symphony
No. 5. Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a tape recording of the New World Symphony along during
the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969.[2] The symphony was completed in the building
that now houses the Bily Clocks Museum.[3]

Contents

 1Instrumentation
 2Form
o 2.1I. Adagio - Allegro molto
o 2.2II. Largo
o 2.3III. Molto vivace
o 2.4IV. Allegro con fuoco
 3Influences
 4Reception
 5"Goin' Home"
 6References
 7Further reading
 8External links

Instrumentation[edit]

Opening English horn theme from the second movement of the work
This symphony is scored for the following orchestra:

 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo)[4]

 2 oboes (one doubling English horn)
 2 clarinets in B flat & A
 2 bassoons
 4 horns in E, C and F
 2 trumpets in E, C and E♭
 Alto trombone
 Tenor trombone
 Bass trombone
 Tuba (second movement only)[5]
 Timpani
 Triangle (third movement only)
 Cymbals (fourth movement only)
 Strings

Form[edit]

A typical performance usually lasts around 40 minutes. The work is in four movements:

I. Adagio, 4
8 – Allegro molto, 2

4, E minor

II. Largo, , begins E major to D♭ major, then later C♯ minor

III. Scherzo: Molto vivace – Poco sostenuto, 3
4, E minor, Trio in C major

IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco, , E minor, ends in E major on a Picardy third over an altered
form of the plagal cadence
I. Adagio - Allegro molto[edit]
The movement is written in sonata form and begins with an introductory leitmotif in Adagio. This
melodic outline also appears in the third movement of Dvořák's String Quintet No. 3 in E♭ major and
his Humoresque No. 1. The exposition is based on three thematic subjects. The first in E minor is
notable for its announcing and responsive phrases. The second is in G minor and undergoes a
transformation such that it resembles a Czech polka. The exposition's closing theme in G major is
known for being similar to the American negro spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". The
development primarily focuses on the main and closing themes, and the recapitulation consists of a
repetition of the main theme as well as a transposition of the second and closing themes up a
semitone. The movement is concluded with a coda, with the main theme stated by the brass above
an orchestral tutti.

II. Largo[edit]
The second movement is introduced by a harmonic progression of chords in the wind instruments.
Beckerman interprets these chords as a musical rendition of the narrative formula “Once upon a
time”. The main theme is then played by the cor anglais accompanied by muted strings. Dvořák was
said to have changed the theme from clarinet to cor anglais as it reminded him of the voice of Harry
Burleigh. The movement's middle section contains a passage in C♯ minor evoking a nostalgic and
desolate mood which eventually leads into a funeral march above pizzicato steps in the basses. It is
followed by a quasi-scherzo that incorporates this movement's theme and first movement's main and
closing themes. The Largo is concluded with soft return of the main theme and introductory chords.

III. Molto vivace[edit]

The movement is a scherzo written in ternary form, with influences from Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha. The stirring rhythm of the first part is interrupted by a trio middle
section. The first part is then repeated, followed by an echo in the coda of the first movement's main
theme.[6]

IV. Allegro con fuoco[edit]

The final movement is also written in sonata form. After a brief introduction, the horns and trumpets
declare the movement's main theme against sharp chords played by the rest of the orchestra. The
second theme is then presented by the clarinet above tremolos in the strings. The development not
only works with these two themes but also recalls the main themes of the first and second
movements and a fragment of the Scherzo. Following the recapitulation, the movement reaches its
climax in the coda in which materials from the first three movements are reviewed for a final time.[7]

Influences[edit]
Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African-American spirituals he heard in
North America. While director of the National Conservatory he encountered an African-American
student, Harry T. Burleigh, who sang traditional spirituals to him. Burleigh, later a composer himself,
said that Dvořák had absorbed their 'spirit' before writing his own melodies.[8] Dvořák 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.[9]
The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on 16 December
1893, at Carnegie Hall conducted by Anton Seidl. A day earlier, in an article published in the New
York Herald on 15 December 1893, Dvořák further explained how Native American music influenced
his 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.[10]
In the same article, Dvořák stated that he regarded the symphony's second movement as a "sketch
or study for a later work, either a cantata or opera ... which will be based
upon Longfellow's Hiawatha"[11] (Dvořák never actually wrote such a piece).[11] He also wrote that the
third movement scherzo was "suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians
dance".[11]
In 1893, a newspaper interview quoted Dvořák as saying "I found that the music of the negroes and
of the Indians was practically identical", and that "the music of the two races bore a remarkable
similarity to the music of Scotland".[12][13] Most historians agree that Dvořák is referring to
the pentatonic scale, which is typical of each of these musical traditions.[14]
In a 2008 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, prominent musicologist Joseph
Horowitz states that African-American spirituals were a major influence on Dvořák's music written in
North America, quoting him 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."[15] Dvořák
did, it seems, borrow rhythms from the music of his native Bohemia, as notably in his Slavonic
Dances, and the pentatonic scale in some of his music written in North America from African-
American and/or Native American sources. Statements that he borrowed melodies are often made
but seldom supported by specifics. One verified example is the song of the Scarlet Tanager in the
Quartet. Michael Steinberg writes[16] that a flute solo theme in the first movement of the symphony
resembles the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".[17] Leonard Bernstein averred that the symphony
was truly multinational in its foundations.[18]
Dvořák was influenced not only by music he had heard, but by what he had seen, in America. He
wrote that he would not have composed his American pieces as he had, if he had not seen
America.[19] It has been said that Dvořák was inspired by the American "wide open spaces" such as
prairies he may have seen on his trip to Iowa in the summer of 1893.[20] Notices about several
performances of the symphony include the phrase "wide open spaces" about what inspired the
symphony and/or about the feelings it conveys to listeners.[21]
Dvořák was also influenced by the style and techniques used by earlier classical composers
including Beethoven and Schubert.[22] The falling fourths and timpani strokes in the New World
Symphony's Scherzo movement evoke the Scherzo of Beethoven's Choral Symphony (Symphony
No. 9). The use of flashbacks to prior movements in the New World Symphony's last movement is
reminiscent of Beethoven quoting prior movements in the opening Presto of the Choral Symphony's
final movement.[23]

Reception[edit]
At the premiere in Carnegie Hall, the end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping and
Dvořák felt obliged to stand up and bow.[1] This was one of the greatest public triumphs of Dvořák's
career. When the symphony was published, several European orchestras soon performed
it. Alexander Mackenzie conducted the London Philharmonic Society in the European premiere on
21 June 1894.[1] Clapham says the symphony became "one of the most popular of all time" and at a
time when the composer's main works were being welcomed in no more than ten countries, this
symphony reached the rest of the musical world and has become a "universal favorite."[1] It had been
performed [as of 1978] more often "than any other symphony at the Royal Festival Hall, London" and
is in "tremendous demand in Japan."[1]

\\\

Antonín Dvořák spent the better part of three years in America (1892-95) as the director
of the National Conservatory of Music of America. It was Dvořák's nationalist
credentials that had attracted Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, founder of the conservatory, to
select him as their new director, for at the top of her agenda was the establishment of an
American school of composers. Dvořák's folk-inspired music was closely identified
with the national struggle to free Bohemia and Moravia from the domination, cultural
as well as political, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a role he inherited from the father
of "Czechish" music, Bedřich Smetana. Mrs. Thurber offered incentives – a rather large
annual fee, half paid in advance, guest-conducting appearances and commissions for
new works. But Dvořák's strongly held humanist convictions made America
particularly attractive. Its welcome call, "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free," had already beckoned tens of thousands of his Czech-
speaking countrymen to emigrate to the United States. He himself loved to travel;
between the autumn of 1884 and the spring of 1891 he crisscrossed the English Channel
nine times to direct concerts of his music in London, Birmingham and other major cities
– which explains his proficiency in English. And, here was an opportunity to introduce
his entire family, his wife and six children, to the excitements of America.

Dvořák's influence on American music and musicians is evidenced by the widespread

news coverage given on both sides of the Atlantic to his novel observations and
"radical" statements that "the future American school will be based upon the music of
the Negro," and by the distinguished and ongoing teacher-student legacy he initiated –
among his dozen or so composition students at the conservatory were two who would
become the teachers of Ellington, Copland and Gershwin. Correspondingly, the impact
of the New World on Dvořák was enormous. He produced a flurry of "American"
works, among them four that remain his best known and loved: the Symphony in E
minor ("From the New World"), the most famous of the "Humoresque"s, the String
Quartet in F, and the Cello Concerto. Be it money, wanderlust, or politics — whatever
the combination of causes that drew Dvořák to American shores — one of the most
significant cultural exchanges in American history was about to begin when Dvořák, his
wife, Anna, and their two oldest children (the others would join in the spring), boarded
the SS Saale in Bremen on September 17, 1892, and, after nine stormy days, debarked
onto a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey.

September 27, 1892 – Dvořák, wife and children arrive in Hoboken. In first public
appearance he conducts world premiere of his Columbian Te Deum in Carnegie Hall.
Assumes directorship of National Conservatory of Music of America on 17th Street and
Irving Place. Family moves into five-room flat at 327 East 17th Street, near Stuyvesant
Square Park.

Mid-December, 1892 - May, 1893 – Begins work on "American themes"; completes

score of "New World" Symphony. New York Herald quotes Dvořák's famous statement,
"In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble
school of music." Dvořák's "curious" theory also sets European musical world abuzz.

June 1893 – Dvořák and family, including six children, plus entourage, leave by train
for Spillville, Iowa, a Czech-speaking farm village, to spend summer.

December 16, 1893 – World premiere of "New World" Symphony at Carnegie Hall, to
instant acclaim
Harry T. Burleigh, Dvořák's assistant from New York conservatory who introduced him
to "Negro spirituals," Dvořák meets violinist Will Marion Cook, who becomes Dvořák's
student and celebrated Broadway composer and conductor, future mentor of Duke
Ellington.