Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)

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New World Symphony redirects here; for the Miami-based orchestra, see New World Symphony Orchestra.

The Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" (Op. 95) (German "Aus der Neuen Welt"), 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 symphonies in the modern repertory. It is in four movements:

Adagio - Allegro molto
Largo
Scherzo: Molto Vivace - Poco sostenuto
Allegro con fuoco

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's premiere was on December 16, 1893 by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall (which was the home of the Philharmonic until 1962), 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 color."

In the same article, Dvořák stated that he regarded the symphony's second movement as a "sketch or study for a later work, either a cantata or opera ... which will be based upon Longfellow's [The Song of] Hiawatha" (he never actually wrote such a piece). He also wrote that the third movement scherzo was "suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance".

Curiously enough, passages which modern ears perceive as the musical idiom of African-American spirituals may have been intended by Dvořák to evoke a Native American atmosphere. In 1893, a newspaper interview quoted Dvořák as saying "I found that the music of the negroes and of the Indians was practically identical", and that "the music of the two races bore a remarkable similarity to the music of Scotland". Most historians agree that Dvořák is referring to the pentatonic scale, which is typical of each of these musical traditions.

Despite all this, it is generally considered that, like other Dvořák pieces, the work has more in common with folk music of his native Bohemia than with that of the United States. Leonard Bernstein averred that the work was truly multinational in its foundations. Nonetheless, many have proclaimed that the spirit of this symphony is quintessentially American, and the multiculturalism of the work has been cited as supporting this, in harmony with the nature of America as a melting pot.

[edit] In popular culture

The theme from the largo was adapted into a spiritual-like song "Going Home," by black composer Harry Burleigh and lyricist William Arms Fisher^[1]
The symphony is used in the Studio Ghibli short film The Night of Taneyamagahara.^[2]
The fourth movement is featured in the trailer for the Left Behind: Eternal Forces computer game.^[3]
The tune to the largo is played by bagpipes during the funeral scene of Martin Scorsese's The Departed.^[4]
“Goin’ Home” composed by Antonin Dvorak, arranged by Michael Brown was played at the Interment Service for President Gerald R. Ford and used during an emotional scene in the Olivia de Havilland drama The Snake Pit.^[5]
In 1989, Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps won 2nd place in a national drum corps competition for a performance of the New World Symphony)^[6]
The fourth movement of the symphony is used in Emir Kusturica's Underground.
The symphony is used in the album by Daniel Kobialka, Going Home Again, which provides the opening track, "Going Home Medley"^[7]
Croatian pianist Maksim Mrvica's third album, "New World", features a version of the fourth movement of New World Symphony with a piano solist part and therefore called "New World Concerto". Maksim said about it that "it sounds exactly like a true piano concerto". ^[8]
Was used by Hovis in the "bike round" advertisement directed by Ridley Scott in the United Kingdom.
Appear on the soundtrack of the racing game Test Drive Unlimited.

[edit] References

^ Smith, Jane Stuart; Betty Carlson (1995). The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence. Crossway Books. ISBN 089107869X. , p. 157: "The largo of the second movement has a hauntingly beautiful melody played by the English horn. There is a sense of longing about it, and a spiritual has been adapted from it, 'Going Home.'"
^ (Japanese) See Club BVHE. Accessed September 11, 2006.
^ See Trailer at GameTrailers. Accessed September 29, 2006.
^ See www.soundtrackinfo.com.[1]
^ See http://www.mdw.army.mil/content/anmviewer.asp?a=1875&z=104
^ See http://www.regiment.org/sounds.cfm
^ See The Daniel Kobialka Homepage.
^ See Maksim Mrvica Homepage.