New World Symphony: Antonin Dvorak

New World
Symphony
Antonin Dvorak
1893

origin version

Symphony No 9 Op 95, 'From the New World'. Symphony in four movements. Length 45 minutes (13 + 12 + 8 + 12). The nostalgic theme in the second movement is one of the most overplayed in the repertoire. It was famously used for Hovis bread TV adverts in the UK, among others, and has featured in many films. It was popularised as the jazz song 'Goin' Home', has been used in many pop singles. It was also played at the Funeral of Lady Diana Spencer.

A New Symphony for a New World. Dvorak had come to the United States in 1892 to head the National Conservatory, and loved the optimism and melting-pot culture. He was an optimist himself, a family man who loved travelling and meeting people, and the vigour and energy of his new home is evident in the symphony. He believed the way forward for American culture was not to follow the Europeans, but to draw from native American ideas. So he said he'd put "Negro themes" (as they called them then) in his symphony. In fact, the themes are much more Slavonic than anything else, despite one of Dvorak's great inspirations for the piece having come from a recording of a Spiritual by an American Black singer, Harry Burley.

However authentically "American" the symphony may or not be, Dvorak's enthusiasm for native music was proved right, of course: not only had he anticipated 'world music' by nearly a century, but his symphony was an instant hit and is reputedly the most-played classical piece in the world. The nostalgic and sepia-toned second movement has been played by everyone from the Berlin Phil to jazz piano wizard Art Tatum (Goin' Home, he called it, and the mightily homesick Dvorak did indeed go home to Prague in 1895). That second movement is firmly associated in the UK with Hovis brown bread. Dvorak - the son of an innkeeper and grocer - would have chuckled.

	New World Symphony Antonin Dvorak 1893 origin version
	Symphony No 9 Op 95, 'From the New World'. Symphony in four movements. Length 45 minutes (13 + 12 + 8 + 12). The nostalgic theme in the second movement is one of the most overplayed in the repertoire. It was famously used for Hovis bread TV adverts in the UK, among others, and has featured in many films. It was popularised as the jazz song 'Goin' Home', has been used in many pop singles. It was also played at the Funeral of Lady Diana Spencer.
	A New Symphony for a New World. Dvorak had come to the United States in 1892 to head the National Conservatory, and loved the optimism and melting-pot culture. He was an optimist himself, a family man who loved travelling and meeting people, and the vigour and energy of his new home is evident in the symphony. He believed the way forward for American culture was not to follow the Europeans, but to draw from native American ideas. So he said he'd put "Negro themes" (as they called them then) in his symphony. In fact, the themes are much more Slavonic than anything else, despite one of Dvorak's great inspirations for the piece having come from a recording of a Spiritual by an American Black singer, Harry Burley.
	However authentically "American" the symphony may or not be, Dvorak's enthusiasm for native music was proved right, of course: not only had he anticipated 'world music' by nearly a century, but his symphony was an instant hit and is reputedly the most-played classical piece in the world. The nostalgic and sepia-toned second movement has been played by everyone from the Berlin Phil to jazz piano wizard Art Tatum (Goin' Home, he called it, and the mightily homesick Dvorak did indeed go home to Prague in 1895). That second movement is firmly associated in the UK with Hovis brown bread. Dvorak - the son of an innkeeper and grocer - would have chuckled.