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Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program Annotator, The Leni and Peter May Chair

In June 1891 the American philanthropistJeannette Thurber asked Antonín Dvořák

to consider directing the National Conserva-tory of Music in New York City, which she hadbeen nurturing into existence over the pre-ceding several years. Dvořák was persuaded.He served as the conservatory’s director from1892 through 1895 (spending the summer of1893 in the Czech community of Spillville,Iowa), building the school’s curriculum andfaculty, appearing as a guest conductor, andcomposing such masterworks as his StringQuartet in F major (Op. 96, American), theString Quintet in E-flat major (Op. 97), andthe Symphony No. 9, From the New World,which occupied him during the winter andspring of 1893. Its premiere that December,with Anton Seidl conducting the New YorkPhilharmonic, was a huge success, a peak ofthe composer’s career. The New York EveningPost proclaimed it “the greatest symphonicwork ever composed in this country.”

The title came to Dvořák as an after-thought, and he added it just before deliver-ing the score to the Philharmonic, laterexplaining that it signified nothing morethan “impressions and greetings from theNew World.” But for that subtitle, a listenerencountering the piece for the first timemight not consider it less demonstrative ofthe “Czech spirit” than any of the composer’sother symphonies. Syncopated rhythms andmodal melodies are emblematic of many folkand popular musical traditions, those of Bohemia and the United States included.Still, the work’s title invites listeners to recallhow interested Dvořák really was in African

American and Native American music, andmusicologists have found in its melodiesechoes of such American tunes as “SwingLow, Sweet Chariot” and “Massa Dear.”

The African American presence in the mu-sical scene was immense during Dvořák’sAmerican years. Ragtime left him cold, buthe was fascinated by the repertoire of Negrospirituals. So far as Native American music isconcerned, it’s known that he attended oneof Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West” shows inNew York in the spring of 1893, which wouldhave included more or less authentic singingand dancing from a group of Oglala Sioux.Since Dvořák was just then completing this symphony, it is impossible that themusic he heard on that occasion could haveinspired the work’s material in any directway; the same must be said of the Iroquois

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World

Antonín Dvořák

In Short

Born: September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, nearKralupy, Bohemia

Died: May 1, 1904, in Prague

Work composed: from December 1892through spring 1893

World premiere: December 15, 1893, withAnton Seidl conducting the New York Philhar-monic in a “public rehearsal” at Carnegie Hall(then called simply The Music Hall); the offi-cial premiere took place the following evening

Most recent New York Philharmonicperformance: September 27, 2016, AlanGilbert, conductor

Estimated duration: ca. 42 minutes

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performers Dvořák encountered a fewmonths later at a performance given by theKickapoo Medicine Company during hissummer in Spillville.

The ethnic influences on the SymphonyFrom the New World become interesting inlight of the composer’s own assertions. In a New York Herald article Dvořák empha-sized its purported Native American con-nections, citing parallels to Longfellow’spoem “The Song of Hiawatha” (itself a Ro-mantic effusion rather than an authenticexpression of any Native culture). TheScherzo, he said, related to the section ofLongfellow’s poem that describes the danceof Pau-Puk-Keewis:

It was he who in his frenzyWhirled these drifting sands together,On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo,When, among the guests assembled,He so merrily and madlyDanced at Hiawatha’s wedding.

The dance is introduced by a motif bor-rowed from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.The final movement (Allegro con fuoco)evolvesout of a march theme that seems perfectly ap-propriate to a mitteleuropäische symphony.

Dvořák is generally thought of as broadlyresembling Brahms in his musical inclina-tions, although Dvořák’s finale offers re-minders of the composer’s early infatuationwith Wagner. The musical world of Dvořák’sday had become polarized between what was viewed as Brahmsian conservatism andWagnerian experimentalism. One of thegreat achievements of Dvořák’s late music —and certainly of the Symphony From theNewWorld — is the extent to which it bridges eventhat politically charged divide.

Instrumentation: two flutes (one doublingpiccolo), two oboes and English horn, twoclarinets, two bassoons, four horns, twotrumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,triangle, cymbals, and strings.

Dvořák in New York

Dvořák’s activities during his years in New York Citywere largely centered in the Stuyvesant Park neigh-borhood. The National Conservatory of Music, whichhe helmed, was located at 126-128 East 17th Street, ona site now occupied by Washington Irving Campus.The composer and his family took up residence in anearby townhouse, at 327 East 17th Street, betweenFirst and Second Avenues. That’s where he wrote theSymphony From the New World, among other works.

The house no longer stands, but the block is namedDvořák Place. In 1997 a statue of the composer, whichhad been donated to the Dvořák American Heritage As-sociation by the New York Philharmonic a few yearsearlier, was installed in Stuyvesant Square Park, acrossthe street.

Ivan Mestrovic’s sculpture of Dvořák in Stuyvesant Square Park

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