Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”) 1. Adagio—Allegro molto

The Medical College of Wisconsin Orchestra
Spring 2024 Concert

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”)
1. Adagio—Allegro molto
By Antonín Dvořák

Conducted by: Alexander Mandl, DMA

Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out what's great about a culture. That's exactly what Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was when he came to the U.S. at the end of the 19th century. He was an immigrant thrown into a new world and new sounds. Out of that experience, he wrote a symphony for America.

When Dvořák came to the U.S. in 1892, the Pledge of Allegiance was new. So was Carnegie Hall, the game of basketball and Edison's wax cylinders. Classical music in America wasn't new, but it needed a reboot, and Dvořák was the man to do it. Already a celebrated composer in Europe, Dvořák was hired to run a national conservatory in New York to help American composers find their own voice and shake off the European sound. At the time, American concert music sounded very much like Brahms, Schumann and Beethoven. Dvořák heard something different in an unexpected place (New York City and Spillville, Iowa), as he told the New York Herald just before he debuted his "New World Symphony: “I therefore carefully studied a certain number of Negro (African American) and Indian (Native American) melodies which a friend gave me and became thoroughly imbued with their characteristics— with their spirit, in fact. It is this spirit which I have tried to reproduce in my Symphony. I have not truly used any of the Negro or Indian melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of American Negro and Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestral color.” He added, “The future of this music must be founded upon what are called the Negro and native melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be developed in the United States.”

Dvořák's real connection to African American spirituals likely was a young Black man named Harry Burleigh (who also toured the US with Coleridge-Taylor). He had applied to be a student at Dvořák's National Conservatory. Dvořák chose a Black person to be his assistant in 1890! Burleigh sang spirituals to Dvořák, like "Go Down Moses," which the composer said had a melody to rival Beethoven. Among others, Burleigh also sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" which Dvořák paraphrases in his symphony. Dvořák, the outsider immigrant, could see something American composers were blind to. There was a rich tradition to draw on right in front of their noses, and Dvořák showed them how to do it. He wove American roots music into his vast symphonic canvas.