Antonin Dvořák

Symphony No 9 Op.95 “From The New World”

2nd Movement

Introduction

The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World" (Op. 95), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the modern repertory.

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁKB. September 8, 1841 in Nelahozeves, Czech RepublicD. May 1, 1904 in Prague, Czech Republic

First performed on 16 December 1893 in Carnegie Hall by Anton Seidl and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings. (approx. 40 minutes)

“The Americans expect great things of me and the main thing is, so they say, to show them to the promised land and kingdom of a new and independent art, in short, to create a national music.” - Antonín Dvořák

Dvořák arrived in New York in 1892 to assume his new post as director of the National Conservatory. He had agreed to leave his home in Vysoká (near Prague) only after considerable coaxing from Jeannette Thurber, a Paris Conservatory alumna who had distinguished herself as a patroness and fierce advocate for classical music in America.

Banking on Dvořák’s achievements in the formation of Czech musical identity, Thurber hoped that composer’s presence and example in New York would spark similar nationalistic fervour in American composers. Although financial problems for Thurber and Dvořák’s intense homesickness resulted in a relatively short tenure, the composer produced several important compositions that reflect his experiences and emotional investment in the music and life of the New World. The most famous of these, of course, is his ninth and final symphony.

Taken as a whole, the symphony represents Dvořák’s ingenious effort to

internalise what he perceived as “America’s music” and render it in broad, symphonic gestures. In particular, Dvořák was fascinated by the culture and music of Native Americans and African Americans. From Harry Burleigh, an African American student at the National Conservatory, Dvořák learned spirituals and plantation songs. (Burleigh, a vocalist and composer, would later pen some 265 vocal compositions based mostly on spirituals.) The majority of Dvořák’s interactions with Native Americans followed the composition of the symphony, but he studied notated realizations of indigenous music provided by Henry Krehbiel, an Ann Arbor native and who had become a prominent music critic in New York.

The results of this exposure are evident in the music. The clearest cases arise in the second movement’s melancholy English horn solo, which emulates the melodic phrasing and direction of an African American spiritual, and in the finale’s primary theme, in which modal inflections and terse rhythmic energy suggest Native American song. Neither of these passages offer authentic representations of ethnic music, but rather reflect Dvořák’s attempt to incorporate different American musical styles within a symphonic idiom.

Instrumentation

This symphony is scored for an orchestra of the following:

2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets in A(B flat in movt II), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in E and C, 2 trumpets in E, C and E flat, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba (second movement only), timpani, triangle (third movement only), cymbals (fourth movement only), and strings.

Movements

The piece has four movements:

* I. Adagio — Allegro molto * II. Largo * III. Scherzo: Molto vivace — Poco sostenuto * IV. Allegro con fuoco

Influences

Dvořák was interested in the native American music and African-American spirituals he heard in America. Upon his arrival in America, he stated: "I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them."

The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on December 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall conducted by Anton Seidl. A day earlier, in an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, Dvořák further explained how Native American music had been an influence on this symphony:

"I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colou r."

At the Ninth Symphony's premiere at Carnegie Hall the reception was one of perpetual cheering. The end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping and Dvořák felt obliged to stand up and bow.

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Listening Guide

2. Largo (slow, dignified). Dvorák ’s tender tune shows how well he’d picked up American popular styles. It sounds like, but isn’t, a Negro spiritual. Much later, his tune was actually adopted as a spiritual (and given the title Goin’ Home). In the middle of the movement, some lively Czech sounds bring on a wave of “homesickness”. This makes the lovely tune, when it returns, seem even more lonely.

A chorale-like sequence of mellifluous brass chords introduces a set of variations on a tender cor-anglais melody, aching in the gulf between

two worlds. This stream of nostalgic serenity is interrupted, at its heart, by a much livelier variation which draws in the motto. The recurrence of the chorale motif and the balancing of episodes around this central emotion together make an elegant arch-structure.

Tempo: LargoMetre: Common TimeKey: changes from D flat Major to C sharp minorForm: Ternary (Outer sections are in D flat major and the central section is in C sharp minor)

Dvorak based this movement on a poem from the Song of Hiawatha about the death and funeral of a loved one.

– the introduction of the Largo is a series of mysterious chords in the brass and lower winds, that make the unusual transition from the key of the previous movement – E minor to the unrelated key of D flat major

– The melodic focus of the A sections is a calm, thoughtful melody in two four bar phrases presented initially by cor anglais and is characterised by a smooth melodic contour containing small leaps and frequently returns to the home note

– The slightly faster B section is more complex in texture and in melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content. It includes an orchestral climax and a quotation from the symphony’s first movement

– Chromatic harmonies, muted instrumental sonorities and intense, dramatic dynamics contribute to the movement’s overall mood in a typically Romantic style.

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The beauty of this melody accounts for its popularity to this day and its homesick cry reminds us how Dvorak was feeling at the time.

In this movement, while the cor anglais plays the solo melody, it is worth noting what the other instruments are doing:

– strings provide a quiet accompaniment– woodwind return to the introductory sequence of chords– violins play a variation of the second phrase of the melody

Over to you!

You will hear an extract from this movement. You will hear the extract four times, with pauses between hearings. Look at the outline score printed on the opposite page and the accompanying questions before the music begins.

(a) Identify the instrument playing the melody in Bars 1 to 4.

_________________________________________________ [1]

(b) Identify the cadence at Bar 4.

_________________________________________________ [1]

(c) Identify a passage which includes a pedal note.

Bar ____________ to Bar ____________ [2]

(d) What is the overall form of this movement?

_________________________________________________ [1]

(e) Comment on the use of instruments in this extract.

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________ [6]

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The answers!

(a) Cor anglais(b) Perfect(c) Bar 1; Bar 2(d) Ternary(e) • Muted strings

• Bassoon doubles cor anglais; an octave lower• Echoed by two clarinets; two bassoons• Cellos play rising arpeggio• Flutes continue rising arpeggio• Chordal passage played by woodwind section• Prominent horn• Brass section added on final chord• Timpani roll