Antonin Dvorak was 51 years old when he came to the United States in 1892, under the auspices of becoming the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Up until that time, there were virtually no American composers of note. George Gershwin had yet to splice jazz and African American music with classical; Aaron Copland had not yet rhapsodized upon the great expanse of the West.
Conservatory founder Jeannette Thurber wanted to establish an American classical music, which would bring together the diverse influences and themes resonating throughout the 19th century into a cohesive whole. Dvorak was the man she called in to help.
The end result of the composer’s remarkable three-year residency in the United States was his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” better known as his “New World Symphony,” which will be performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra this Sunday afternoon at the Collins Center for the Arts. It is Dvorak’s most instantly recognizable work — its second and fourth movements will sound familiar to most — and it conveys a sense of wonder, of natural beauty, and of rollicking, soul-shaking freedom.
It may strike some as ironic that a foreigner, who up until his arrival in New York knew virtually nothing of our culture, was to be the one to write the “American symphony.” Rather, it’s appropriate that a man from the Old World should arrive in the New World, as so many millions did before and after him, and invest himself so fully in our shared national experience. We’re a nation of immigrants, voluntary or not.
Why shouldn’t a man largely free of the racism and other social maladies so prevalent throughout 19th century America be the one to create such a work? At least initially, he was blissfully unaware of the racist ideas held by so many in the country at that time. Dvorak was free to research African American and Native American music. And research he did — he spent time among American Indians throughout the eastern and Midwestern U.S. and learned from his student, the early black composer Henry Burleigh.
In an 1893 edition of the New York Herald he is quoted as saying the following: “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.” It wasn’t until 30 years later that Gershwin wrote “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Porgy and Bess.” Their greatness not withstanding, few major composers dared incorporate jazz, blues and other “black” idioms into their work.
But the beginnings of a new American musical experience can be heard in the “New World Symphony,” with its overtones of Native American music and the mournful, blues-like melody of the second movement. Dvorak may have returned to Czechoslovakia just three years after arriving in American, but he left behind a legacy that took root, and grew into something far vaster and more important than anyone could have imagined at the time.
The Bangor Symphony Orchestra, led by concert master and interim conductor Trond Saeverud, will perform Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” along with Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129 and Finnish composer Harald Saeverud’s Sinfonia Dolorosa, Op. 19, at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 15, at the Collins Center for the Arts. For tickets, call 942-5555.
