Antonín Dvořák was born in Mühlhausen, Bohemia (now Nelahozeves, the Czech Republic), on September 8, 1841, and died in Prague on May 1, 1904. The first performance of the “New World” Symphony took place at Carnegie Hall in New York on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic. The Symphony No. 9 is scored for two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings. Approximate performance time is forty minutes.
From the fall of 1892 through the summer of 1895, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák served as Director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, located in New York City. Dvořák came to New York at the invitation of Jeannette Meyer Thurber, who founded the Conservatory with the goal of fostering development of important American concert music.
Dvořák had always taken a keen interest in the folk music of his native Bohemia, and indeed, acknowledged: “I myself have gone to the simple, half-forgotten tunes of Bohemian peasants for hints in my most serious works. Only in this way can a musician express the true sentiment of his people. He gets into touch with the common humanity of his country.” And when Dvořák arrived in America, he began to study the musical heritage of the “New World.” Dvořák concluded that America’s great folk tradition was based in the music of African Americans (in May of 1893, the National Conservatory opened its doors to African American students). Dvořák also acknowledged the importance of the folk music of Native Americans, which, the Czech composer felt, was “virtually identical” to “Negro melodies.”
On May 24, 1893, Dvořák completed his Symphony in E minor, begun the previous December. The work received its premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic. A month earlier, Dvořák gave the E-minor Symphony its nickname, “From the New World.”
The premiere of the “New World” Symphony was an unqualified success. Dvořák proudly informed his publisher, Simrock: “The papers say that no composer ever celebrated such a triumph. Carnegie Hall was crowded with the best people of New York, and the audience applauded so that, like visiting royalty, I had to take my bows repeatedly from the box in which I sat.”
The “New World” Symphony is in four movements. The first opens with a pensive slow-tempo introduction (Adagio), leading to the principal Allegro molto. Dvořák presents several themes, including one (introduced by the flute) that suggests “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a spiritual especially favored by the Czech composer. The second movement (Largo) features one of Dvořák’s most beloved melodies. Sung by the English horn, this tune was later adapted by Dvořák’s pupil, William Arms Fisher, for the spiritual “Goin’ Home.” The third-movement Scherzo (Molto vivace) was, according to Dvořák, inspired “by a scene at the feast in (Longfellow’s) ‘Hiawatha’ where the Indians dance, and is also an essay which I made in the direction of imparting the local color of Indian character to music.” The dramatic finale (Allegro con fuoco) is notable for the return of themes from the prior movements.