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:'''New World Symphony' redirects here; for the Miami-based orchestra, see New World Symphony Orchestra.''
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 symphonies in the modern repertory. It is in four movements:
#Adagio – Allegro molto
#Largo
#Scherzo: Molto Vivace – Poco sostenuto
#Allegro con fuoco

Contents

Influences

Instrumentation

In popular culture

Notes and References

External links

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'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.

Instrumentation

This symphony is scored for an orchestra of the following:
2 flutes (one doubling piccolo)^[1], 2 oboes (one doubling on cor anglais), 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in E and C, 2 trumpets in E, C and E flat, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings.

In popular culture

★ The theme from the largo was adapted into a spiritual-like song "Goin’ Home," by black composer Harry Burleigh, whom Dvorak met during his American sojourn, and lyricist William Arms Fisher^[2]

★ “Goin’ Home” was used during an emotional scene in the Olivia de Havilland drama The Snake Pit.^[3]

★ The symphony is used in the Studio Ghibli short film ''The Night of Taneyamagahara''.^[4]

★ The fourth movement is featured in the trailer for the '' computer game.^[5]

★ The Symphony's second movement is well known in Britain for being featured in a 1974 commercial for Hovis bread, directed by Ridley Scott. It was voted the greatest advert of all time in a poll ran in 2006.^[6]

★ Rick Wakeman's soundtrack to the 1984 film Crimes of Passion is based entirely on the symphony. The was done partly as an in-joke, as the studio releasing the film was New World Pictures.^[7]

★ Neil Armstrong took this symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing mission, in 1969. He believed it would fit well with the theme of exploration.^[8]

Notes and References

1. The scoring of piccolo in this symphony is extremely unusual; although the English horn is brought in for the famous solo in the second movement, the piccolo plays only a short phrase in the first, and nothing else.
2. The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence, , Jane Stuart, Smith, Crossway Books, 1995, 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.'"
3. See http://www.mdw.army.mil/content/anmviewer.asp?a=1875&z=104
4. See Club BVHE. Accessed September 11, 2006.
5. See Trailer at GameTrailers. Accessed September 29, 2006.
6. Hovis advert voted greatest of all time
7. Crimes of
8. [http://www.cork2005.ie/events/default.asp?id=816

External links

★ Free recording by the Columbia University Orchestra.

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