“Novosvětská”

 On Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony “From the New World”

 Artist’s Impressions

 “Novosvětská”, the Symphony No.9 – “From the New World”, by Czech composer     Antonín Dvořák, made a tremendous impact on me when hearing it in concert in 2012.   The performance featured the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Mariss Jansons in   Berlin. As an artist, I had been creating oil on canvas paintings in response to classical   music, and was immediately captured by the colourful movement of Dvořák’s symphony.   Recalling other experiences that seem to transport us to a beyond, I wondered if the   symphony’s name “From the NewWorld” had an extended meaning. A ‘New World’ can   be a place on a map, but it can also be an imaginary place; a realm which is not from this   world, a utopia or a metaphysical state of mind.

 New World

 In 1892, Dvořák left his country to take up the position of Director of the National   Conservatory of Music of America in New York. He would hold this post until 1895.   Written in 1893, the Ninth Symphony premiered in Carnegie Hall, conducted by Anton   Seidl, the same year. Regarding the symphony’s place of origin, “From the New World”   refers to the transatlantic hemisphere of the composer’s new surroundings; the Symphony   No.9 was the very first work written by Dvořák in America.

 When in the 16th century Europeans set foot on land that would later be called ‘America’   (after “Amerigo Vespucci”) they called this the New World. The Old World was the   worldview of medieval cartographers, with only Africa, Asia and Europe on the map.   Legends and myths about unknown territories inspired voyages of discovery and added   more worlds to the globe. Immigrants and adventurers crossed the oceans in hope for a   better life.

 Visions of ideal places and societies fascinated mankind throughout the ages, often   accompanying feelings of longing and nostalgia. The legends of Arcadia, Elysium, The   Garden of Eden, Atlantis, Utopia tell us something about the ability of human   imagination  to create worlds in our minds, about the human condition and our strivings.

 In Dvořák’s Symphony ‘From the New World’, it seems that both New Worlds are   combined: the new influences and impressions Dvořák encountered as a Czech composer   on American soil, as well as the utopian metaphor of a New World for all of humanity,   placing the symphony in alignment with Beethoven’s Ninth and its unifying ‘Ode to Joy’.

 (Title page of the manuscript score of Dvořák’s Ninth symphony)

 Universal source

 In this all-connecting way, Dvořák recognized in Native American songs and African   American spirituals the syncopated rhythms of Bohemian and Moravian folksongs, while   the spirituals’ melodic lines and the nostalgic mood appealed to Dvorak’s deeply rooted   Slavic soul.

 Dvořák never directly quotes existing musical motifs; rather by taking the idiom as a   point of departure, he writes in his own musical style. And sometimes his music inspired   native versions. For instance, the theme of the Largo from the second movement, the   nostalgic melody for solo cor anglais, was later transcribed as a spiritual-like song by one   of Dvořák’s pupils, who wrote the lyrics in 1922; not the reverse.

 Interpretation

 To me personally, Dvořák’s Symphony “From the New World” has more of a tragic   character than an optimistic one. You can feel the longing, the striving in every phrase;   even in parts evoking joyful dance, one can hear an element of sadness. Interpretations of   this symphony can diverge; not everyone agrees on the character of its ending. In my   opinion the conclusion of the symphony is not a triumphant statement, but rather the   music is intertwined with grief, and seems to have an ‘open’ ending.

 In that sense Dvořák’s symphony is Slavic to the core, where the experience of intense   beauty is accompanied by a nostalgic mood and a longing for transcendence.

 Maryleen Schiltkamp

 Amsterdam, 2024