Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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), 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 more 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 symphony is used in the Studio Ghibli short film The Night of Taneyamagahara.<ref>(Japanese) See Club BVHE. Accessed September 11, 2006.</ref>
The fourth movement is featured in the trailer for the Left Behind: Eternal Forces computer game.<ref>See Trailer at GameTrailers. Accessed September 29, 2006.</ref>
- The Symphony's second movement is well known in Britain for being featured in a 1974 commercial for Hovis bread, directed by Ridley Scott.
Rick Wakeman's soundtrack for the Ken Russell film Crimes of Passion is almost totally derived from this symphony.
In 1989, Phantom Regiment performed an arrangement of New World Symphony, taking 2nd place.
The fourth movement is used in episode 126 of the popular Japanese anime One Piece.
The fourth movement is also used in episode 50 of the Japanese anime Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo as an attack by the villan Giga.
The main theme to the second movement was adapted by Harry Burleigh and set to lyrics by William Arms Fisher as a popular song, Goin' Home.