Composed: 1893
Premiered: 1893, New York
Duration: 40 minutes

By the 1890s, Dvořák was internationally famous, and his compositions were played all over Europe. The directors of the National Conservatory of Music in New York (privately funded, despite its name) were looking for a prestigious musician to become its principal, and to found an American school of composition. The names of Dvořák and Sibelius came up, and Dvořák accepted their offer at the princely salary of $15,000 per year. The financial position of the institution was not very secure, however, and he had trouble getting paid at times.

Dvořák made two trips to the United States, and altogether spent about three years there. He made a serious effort to understand and appreciate American life. The grandest result of his American experience was the Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, “From the New World”.

Dvořák was under some pressure to produce an opera on a text derived from Longfellow’s poem, The Song of Hiawatha. This project never got very far, but some commentators have linked this symphony to the Hiawatha story. The composer’s statements about the origins of the themes in the symphony are rather ambiguous; on some occasions he implied that they were derived from American sources, but on others he denied it. In fact, many of the tunes are pentatonic, and could well be thought of as folk tunes from a variety of cultures. The famous English horn solo in the slow movement (after a striking series of chords to modulate into the remote key of D-flat) has been turned into a spiritual, Goin’ Home, but the tune is Dvořák’s own.

This work had its premiere in New York in 1893; it was repeated in Boston a couple of weeks later, and the first European performance took place in London the following year. It was an enormous success, the greatest triumph of Dvořák’s career. It was soon taken up by orchestras all over Europe. To this day it remains the most frequently performed symphony in the entire repertoire.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.