Dvo?ák Symphony No. 9 - The New World
ANTONIN DVORAK 1841-1904
Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, Opus 95 'From the New World'
Adagio – Allegro molto
Largo
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Allegro con fuoco
In September 1892, Dvorák arrived in New York to take up a three-year position as Director of the new National Conservatory of Music.
One of his duties was to generate an enthusiasm for musical nationalism in his students, to which end he began exploring America’s indigenous music—Negro spirituals, the songs of Stephen Foster, and what little he could find of the songs and dances of native Indians. In articles and press interviews he urged American composers to draw on such music, but in the process he raised some uncomfortable questions about racial and cultural identity, and stirred up considerable controversy. Moreover, he lived in an immigrant neighbourhood while in New York, and befriended Negroes and Indians—this at a time when most Americans still insisted on the inferiority of non-white races. Many people dismissed Dvorák’s ideas about nationalistic music as a ‘contamination’ of high art, while others welcomed his validation of certain marginalized strains within American culture.
Though the work has no overt Indian or Negro tunes in it, most of the tunes are clearly influenced by folk music generally, being short, simple and memorable. Dvorák said that the second and third movements were influenced by Henry Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha". This now largely forgotten poem presents a highly romanticised view of native American Indian life, a million miles removed from the brutal reality of their oppression at the time.
The title page of the symphony is interesting: written in both Czech and English it says "From the New World, Symphony (E minor), No.8, Opus 95". The '8' was later crossed out and '7' substituted, only to be crossed out in turn. Dvorák seems to have been oddly unsure as to how many symphonies he had written! The confusion was made worse when Dvorák's first four symphonies were lost, and for most of the early 20th century the New World Symphony was known as number 5.
After a slow introduction the first movement has three main tunes: the bold opening horn call, the folksy tune heard later on flutes and clarinets, and a happy melody on the solo flute. The whole opening section is repeated before a development of all three themes in increasing complexity and excitement leads to a reprise of the opening theme and a triumphant coda.
The emotional centrepiece of the symphony is without doubt the celebrated Largo, which, despite its fame, still sounds fresh and original. Its pastoral and elegiac tone, and almost heartbreaking poignancy, evoke unforgettably America’s vast, empty spaces, in which Dvorák found not only beauty but also sadness, even despair. A solemn procession of chords lowers the key from E to D-flat, introducing the famous cor anglais tune, which is both simple and memorable. The middle section is in a minor key, darker in tone and strikingly scored. Throughout this movement Dvorák’s orchestration offers one extraordinary texture and sonority after another—right up to the very last chord, which is scored, with astonishing effect, for divided double basses alone.
The scherzo which follows is a vigorous dance, whose tunes sound very Czech, rather than American, in origin - especially the village wind band sound of the trio section. This movement too is haunted by the ghost of the first movement, a reference made explicit in the coda. The finale sweeps along with great energy, built on the bold theme proclaimed by horns and trombones. A calm second theme on solo clarinet offers contrast, and then Dvorák includes references to several themes from earlier movements as he builds the symphony to its powerful and triumphant conclusion.
In fact all four movements are tied together by cyclical recurrences of themes. The two main subjects of the first movement—the upward-thrusting theme (horns) that begins the Allegro molto and the later, spiritual-like melody (solo flute)—are recalled in the movements that follow. In the second movement, both themes are placed in counterpoint with the Largo’s own theme in a striking fortissimo climax; in the third movement, the themes from the first movement appear in the transition between sections and, most notably, in the coda. In the stormy finale, which develops its own severe new theme, on horns and trumpets, melodies from all three previous movements are recalled at the end of the development section, and saturate the coda, to the point that the finale becomes a kind of synthesis or grand summation of the whole symphony.
The first performance was given at a concert of the New York Philharmonic Society in the Carnegie Hall on 16th December 1893. Dvorák wrote to his publisher "The success was enormous; the newspapers say no composer has ever before had such a triumph. I was in a box; the hall was filled with the best New York public and the people applauded so much that I had to thank them from the box like a king."
One of his duties was to generate an enthusiasm for musical nationalism in his students, to which end he began exploring America’s indigenous music—Negro spirituals, the songs of Stephen Foster, and what little he could find of the songs and dances of native Indians. In articles and press interviews he urged American composers to draw on such music, but in the process he raised some uncomfortable questions about racial and cultural identity, and stirred up considerable controversy. Moreover, he lived in an immigrant neighbourhood while in New York, and befriended Negroes and Indians—this at a time when most Americans still insisted on the inferiority of non-white races. Many people dismissed Dvorák’s ideas about nationalistic music as a ‘contamination’ of high art, while others welcomed his validation of certain marginalized strains within American culture.
Though the work has no overt Indian or Negro tunes in it, most of the tunes are clearly influenced by folk music generally, being short, simple and memorable. Dvorák said that the second and third movements were influenced by Henry Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha". This now largely forgotten poem presents a highly romanticised view of native American Indian life, a million miles removed from the brutal reality of their oppression at the time.
The title page of the symphony is interesting: written in both Czech and English it says "From the New World, Symphony (E minor), No.8, Opus 95". The '8' was later crossed out and '7' substituted, only to be crossed out in turn. Dvorák seems to have been oddly unsure as to how many symphonies he had written! The confusion was made worse when Dvorák's first four symphonies were lost, and for most of the early 20th century the New World Symphony was known as number 5.
After a slow introduction the first movement has three main tunes: the bold opening horn call, the folksy tune heard later on flutes and clarinets, and a happy melody on the solo flute. The whole opening section is repeated before a development of all three themes in increasing complexity and excitement leads to a reprise of the opening theme and a triumphant coda.
The emotional centrepiece of the symphony is without doubt the celebrated Largo, which, despite its fame, still sounds fresh and original. Its pastoral and elegiac tone, and almost heartbreaking poignancy, evoke unforgettably America’s vast, empty spaces, in which Dvorák found not only beauty but also sadness, even despair. A solemn procession of chords lowers the key from E to D-flat, introducing the famous cor anglais tune, which is both simple and memorable. The middle section is in a minor key, darker in tone and strikingly scored. Throughout this movement Dvorák’s orchestration offers one extraordinary texture and sonority after another—right up to the very last chord, which is scored, with astonishing effect, for divided double basses alone.
The scherzo which follows is a vigorous dance, whose tunes sound very Czech, rather than American, in origin - especially the village wind band sound of the trio section. This movement too is haunted by the ghost of the first movement, a reference made explicit in the coda. The finale sweeps along with great energy, built on the bold theme proclaimed by horns and trombones. A calm second theme on solo clarinet offers contrast, and then Dvorák includes references to several themes from earlier movements as he builds the symphony to its powerful and triumphant conclusion.
In fact all four movements are tied together by cyclical recurrences of themes. The two main subjects of the first movement—the upward-thrusting theme (horns) that begins the Allegro molto and the later, spiritual-like melody (solo flute)—are recalled in the movements that follow. In the second movement, both themes are placed in counterpoint with the Largo’s own theme in a striking fortissimo climax; in the third movement, the themes from the first movement appear in the transition between sections and, most notably, in the coda. In the stormy finale, which develops its own severe new theme, on horns and trumpets, melodies from all three previous movements are recalled at the end of the development section, and saturate the coda, to the point that the finale becomes a kind of synthesis or grand summation of the whole symphony.
The first performance was given at a concert of the New York Philharmonic Society in the Carnegie Hall on 16th December 1893. Dvorák wrote to his publisher "The success was enormous; the newspapers say no composer has ever before had such a triumph. I was in a box; the hall was filled with the best New York public and the people applauded so much that I had to thank them from the box like a king."
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