SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN E MINOR, OP. 95, B. 178, “FROM THE NEW WORLD”  

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK

Duration: 40 Minutes

Antonín Dvořák was born in Bohemia (now part of Czech Republic) in 1841 and died there in 1904. The eldest of nine children, he grew up hearing and then later playing fiddle tunes popular in his father’s inn. Though his musical aptitude was obvious and he was able to get violin lessons, it was assumed that he would eventually take over his father’s work. Fortunately, that career path changed when, as a teenager, Dvořák moved to a relative’s home nearby and was able to take up serious study of the violin and of composition. His life in Prague in the 1860s was penurious: Dvořák augmented his small income playing violin in local bands, taking music lessons, and all the while composing. His big break came in 1874, when he won the Austrian State Prize for Composition, a significant international award. Johannes Brahms was a member of the jury and took a special interest in Dvořák; the two remained life-long friends.

The next decades brought great public attention to the Bohemian, who always strove to incorporate folk elements in his music. The 1878 “Slavonic Dances,” which became wildly popular world-wide, represent his life-long effort to instill a nationalistic spirit in his music. At the time, Dvořák’s works were much admired in England, and he made at least 10 trips there. In 1891 Cambridge University awarded him an honorary doctor of music. By 1890 he had made two successful trips to Moscow and became friends with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

His next stop was the United States, where he accepted a post as director of the newly-minted National Conservatory of Music in America (located in New York City) in 1892. The Conservatory was founded by Jeannette Thurber, a highly-trained musician, who wished that a vetted European composer could lift the United States out of its musical infancy. Dvořák accepted the offer. Though well-paid and much-fêted in the United States, the composer grew increasingly homesick. Discovering a community of transplanted Czechs in Iowa, Dvořák moved to Spillville, Iowa for a time. He was happy to learn that the town butcher shared his surname; the composer himself was son of a butcher. His sojourn in the United States allowed the composer to write some of his most famous music—the Symphony from the “New World,” the American Quartet, and the Cello Concerto. He returned to Bohemia in 1895, where he continued to compose—particularly opera—until his death in 1904.

Much has been made of the composer’s purported musical influences in America from Black spirituals and native American music. It is true that one of the students at the National Conservatory, Harry T. Burleigh, performed a number of spirituals for the composer, who was much impressed. And Dvořák prided himself on the inclusion of “folk” elements in his compositions. Yet even Dvořák claimed that it was the spirit of such music that inspired him, not any particular melodies. What you hear in the ninth symphony is entirely of the composer’s invention.

The symphony is composed of four movements in a late-romantic tradition. The first movement begins slowly, but then moves to Allegro molto with a pervasive dotted figure that speeds the movement to its conclusion. The second movement opens with its striking progression of slow chords (whose musical function is to move from the E-minor key of the first movement to the D-flat major of the second, largo, movement—not an easy harmonic accomplishment). The famous and fabulous English horn solo enunciates the main theme, which is followed by a despairing second section before reiterating the soulful, reassuring sounds of the beginning. Following is an exciting scherzo, marked Molto vivace. The final movement, Allegro con fuoco (“with fire”), is just that: a fiery excursion in sonata form. The movement recalls main themes of the first and second movements, a practice championed by Beethoven, in an effort to provide an organic unity to the entire symphony.

The premiere in 1893 was an absolute triumph. The conductor (who was also the composer) was interrupted after each movement in order for him to acknowledge the tremendous audience applause. To this day, this symphony ranks as one of the most frequently performed works in the modern symphony’s repertoire.