Title page of the autograph score of Dvořák’s ninth symphony
Title page of the autograph score of Dvořák’s ninth symphony
The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, Op. 95, B. 178 (Czech: Symfonie č. 9 e moll „Z nového světa“), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular of all symphonies. In older literature and recordings, this symphony was often numbered as Symphony No. 5. Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969.[1]
The piece has four movements:
- Adagio, 4/8 – Allegro molto, 2/4, E minor
- Largo, common time, D-flat major, then later C-sharp minor
- Scherzo: Molto vivace – Poco sostenuto, 3/4, E minor
- Allegro con fuoco, common time, E minor, ends in E major
Influences
Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African-American spirituals he heard in America. As director of the National Conservatory he had an African-American student, Harry T. Burleigh, later a composer himself, who sang traditional spirituals to him and said that Dvořák had absorbed their ‘spirit’ before writing his own melodies.[4] Dvořák 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.[5]”
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