Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is the Czech nation's best known musical personality.
To Czech-Americans, Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was THE hands-down, sentimental favorite Czech composer, often referred to as “Our Antonín.” Dvořák and his music represented the essence, the very heart and soul, of the beautiful mountains, fields, and forests, Prague “the golden,” and the other features that were left behind in “The Old Country.” Dvořák is probably best known and remembered for his magnificent Symphony No. 9, one of the greatest works in the entire symphonic literature, which bears the title, “From the New World.”
The title might lead many to take this to be music by a Czech composer trying to be American. In fact, it is a vast and sweeping impression of “the New World,” the land, the people, the music, the multitude of transplanted cultures blended in “the American melting-pot,” as experienced by a great composer who was thoroughly Czech, and recorded in this marvellous musical form.
It is as if it is a very personal, and yet universal, musical “letter to the folks back home,” telling them of how it feels to be a Czech in this vibrant “New World.” It is also a musical message and testament to the American people, as if to say “look what you have here!” It is well-known that Dvořák was impressed by the wealth of musical folk-culture in North America. It was Dvořák who was largely responsible for bringing to the attention of “serious” musicians in this country the musical riches of the Native American and African-American sub-cultures. Dvořák had been invited to the United States to head the new National Conservatory of Music in New York City; he was there from 1892-1895. During that time, one of his students was Henry Burleigh, an African-American. In some ways, the student became the teacher, as when Dvořák became aware of Burleigh’s knowledge of African-American music and his ability to sing it, he called upon his student to in effect teach him by singing this literature for him. Dvořák also familiarized himself with American Indian music, which he readily recognized as a cultural treasure and an important musical resource.
Another direct source of insight into American culture came from Dvořák’s summer visits to Spillville, Iowa, which is still home to a large Czech-American community. The house in which he stayed while there is, to this day, a tourist attraction. Antonín Dvořák’s father was a butcher, and his son was very proud of the fact that he himself had passed his apprenticeship as a butcher in his mid-teens. He was essentially a working-class man, a “blue-collar” classical composer, if you will. He regularly spent time in Spillville, as he had done in Prague, hobnobbing with, and talking to, working class men over a pitcher of beer. On one occasion, according to an old family story of ours (from a cousin who had lived in Spillville at the time) Dvořák learned that the local butcher was short-staffed, so he walked down to the butcher shop, put on an apron, and cut meat all day. He also played organ in the local church on several occasions. In sum, he thoroughly immersed himself in the transplanted Czech American sub-culture, which became for him a window on the immigrant experience in the United States. It was in Spillville, during the summer of 1893, that Dvořák completed this symphony. It was premiered on December 16, 1893 by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall with Anton Seidl conducting. It has been a mainstay of the orchestral repertoire ever since.
Dvořák’s symphony, and his ideas about American folk-sources, had a profound, multi-layered influence on American music. On the one hand, tunes from this symphony actually became popular, and were fitted with texts. The best-known example is the tune known to most as “Goin’ Home,” which has often been misidentified regarding its origin: one writer described it as “a Negro folk-tune used by Dvořák.” Well, “the shoe was on the other foot,” so to speak. It was one of many melodies created by Dvořák out of his internalization of American musical sources, and it has become enormously popular and universally loved as “Goin’ Home.”
On the other hand, American composers, having been given the notion and the blessing of a major European composer, now felt both free and encouraged to turn to their own North American musical roots. One of the chief among these was the great American composer, Charles Ives (1874-1954), whose Symphony No. 1 is redolent with the sound of Dvořák, but takes a delightful “wrong turn” here and there. Ives subsequently relied heavily on the utilization of American musical sources for the creation of his original and complex works, and in the opinion of this writer this would have been unthinkable without the influence of Dvořák. Charles Ives is one of dozens of American composers strongly influenced by Dvořák. Much of the North American orchestral sound in particular is, to a large extent, a Dvořák sound. To paraphrase a famous title, when it comes to the stream of post-1893 American classical music, “A. Dvořák runs through it.”
** Article by Monte Keene Pishny-Floyd **
To purchase the music, check these suggested links:
Study Score with CD:
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Dvorak – Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (From the New World) Score & Sound Masterworks. By Antonin Dvorak. Study Score with CD. Softcover with CD. 88 pages. Published by Hal Leonard. (220053) See more info… |
Easy piano solos:
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Symphonic Themes Made Easy for Piano Solo. By Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saens, Antonin Dvorak. Arranged by John Brimhall. Solo piano. For Piano Solo. Great Music Made Easy Masterwork Series. Solo part. 48 pages. Published by Carl Fischer. (PL1114) See more info… |
