Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”)
Antonín Dvorák 
Born: Sept. 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, Bohemia
Died: May 1, 1904, Prague
Year Composed: 1893
Length: c. 41 minutes
World Premiere: Dec. 1893, New York City
Last ISO Performance: May 2022 with conductor Jaime Martín
Instrumentation: 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings

Antonín Dvorák arrived in New York City in 1892 after garnering international success as a composer throughout Europe, and his newest work created quite the buzz among American musical socialites. The premiere was so anticipated that—although the performance was December 16, 1893—Carnegie Hall was packed with eager concertgoers at the dress rehearsal the night before.  Now in New York, the composer would serve as the Director of the National Conservatory of Music in America where he dedicated his time in the U.S. not only to his students, but to the folk idioms of American music. Much like his use of Czech folk styles, Dvořák aimed to understand the “American Sound” and weave it into the Ninth.

Oversimplified, Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony employs a long-short-short rhythmic pattern throughout the symphony. This feature is not particularly Czech, but the treatment of such a pattern emulates rhythmic tendencies of the furiant, a traditional Czech dance. The hallmark of the furiant is oscillation between 2 and 3-beat gestures, creating an overall rhythmic asymmetry. The opening of the Symphony is an Adagio in 4/8, not at all dancy, but the use of syncopation in the cello line does much to blur the listener’s experience of the rhythm as “square.” Shortly after, the aggressive and syncopated interjection in the strings (long-short-short) evolves to a dotted accompaniment in the woodwinds and yet another dotted figure in the low horns, this time with accents placed in a much more traditionally furiant manner. 

Symphony No. 9 opens slowly, pensively, and resigned as the celli display our long-short-short rhythmic motif. No violins nor winds support the somber opening, adding an unexpected eeriness to the first two measures. Due to his string scoring, this opening does not sound weepy; the close ranges provide a beautiful quality of sound and exhibit the warm timbre of violas and celli expertly. Much of Dvořák’s string writing is dark and rich without being overbearingly lush, and this hallmark is pervasive in the Ninth. The low strings wind down, dejectedly, colored by the chromatic descent in the violas. This dirge is interrupted by unison horns signaling something precarious afoot. Flutes echo the opening music and in an instant any optimism brought by these higher voices is annihilated by an orchestral thunderstorm. A furious syncopated rhythm enters in the strings’ middle and low registers and will become the main theme, rhythmically and melodically, throughout the entire symphony. 

The second movement is home to one of the most notable English horn solos in the orchestral canon as well as some of Dvořák’s most beautifully delicate string writing. After a majestic chorale, strings make way for the English horn melody listeners may recognize as “Going Home.” Nostalgic and placid, this melody is based on the harmonies and expressive qualities of African-American folk and plantation songs. Another major folk-inspiration in the middle movements of the symphony is The Song of Hiawatha, an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which retells the Ojibwe tribe’s story of the same name.

Dvořák had encountered plenty of American folk material through his conservatory students, most notably Harry T. Burleigh. Burleigh’s grandfather purchased freedom from enslavement in 1832 and later sang the plantation songs to Burleigh as a child. Years later, Harry T. Burleigh shared these songs with Dvořák at the conservatory. While there are no exact folksong quotations, Dvořák was certainly influenced. Utilizing melodic elements of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Go Down, Moses,” Dvořák underscores that music of the New World is deeply rooted in African-American history. The woodwind scoring in this section provides color and texture in a way that contrasts the glassiness of close-harmony strings: clouds finally part, and there is beautiful sunshine for a fleeting moment. Later in the movement, Dvořák utilizes the significance of silence, prayer-like, to emphasize the importance of rhythmic pacing. Weighty and intentional, the pauses between sections force the listener to slow down for a moment, breathe, and listen.

The long-short-short rhythm is reversed in the third movement, now becoming short-short-long in triple meter. Scored with pairs of woodwinds, this section offers a reprieve to the Ninth’s more dramatic moments: first appearing as articulate staccato notes, the short-short-long variant again transforms, this time to a pastorale woodwind serenade. 

Returning to its original state, long-short-short ultimately prevails in the Finale. One of Dvořák ’s most iconic themes is proudly announced by French horns and trumpets before being commandeered by the full string section. 

About the annotator: Cynthia Stacy is an orchestra librarian with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and also maintains the ISO archive. Ms. Stacy studied bassoon at DePaul University and the New England Conservatory of Music, where her academic writing focused on Russian orchestral music.