Taking a Walk with Dvořák's Symphony No 9
The Best Moments
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World")
I'm Dvořák, and these are the best moments of my Symphony No 9. You'll catch the places where the finale brings back tunes from the earlier movements, and that's worth your time because the whole symphony suddenly feels like one story. On this site my fellow composers and I also teach you to recognize our pieces the moment they begin, so give the Trainer a go .
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A Polite Cough Before the Speech
I open the symphony very quietly, with a slow chorale in the strings and then the woodwinds, a bit like an audience clearing its throat before anyone has said a word. Then the horns burst out and the timpani tap a three-note motif, and the fast part begins with its main theme in the horns, as though the whole orchestra had been waiting for a signal.
The Tune That Fooled Everybody
I begin the Largo slowly in D-flat major, and I give the famous melody to the English horn, whose warm voice makes the tune sound so natural that many people take it for an old folk song. I also let the tuba play in this movement and nowhere else, so it sits patiently through the rest of the evening waiting for its one big chance.
Hurry Up, the Feast Is Starting
I wrote the scherzo with the dancing feast scene in Hiawatha in mind, and it sets off at such a lively pace that the guests seem afraid of missing the food. The triangle plays only in this movement, so after two movements of silence it finally gets its turn, and it clearly enjoys it.
Old Friends Drop By
I marked the finale Allegro con fuoco, which means with fire, and it builds up to a six-note theme that rises and falls, while a clarinet brings in the second melody. Then themes from the earlier movements come back one by one, like old friends dropping in unannounced, and the cymbals, which have been silent until now, finally get to crash before the symphony ends in E major.
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When I look back at this symphony, I remember that I wrote it in New York, a long way from the country I grew up in. I finished it in 1893, and I spent that summer in Spillville, Iowa. In the finale I bring back themes from the earlier movements, so the whole journey seems to circle back to where it began. Then the ending turns from E minor to E major, and it feels like a door opening onto daylight after a long evening indoors. It still pleases me that Neil Armstrong carried a recording of the symphony to the Moon on Apollo 11 in 1969. I never imagined that this music would travel so far from the concert hall where it was first played. Did you enjoy learning about the best moments of Symphony No 9? I hope you did, because there is much more in this symphony to explore. You could follow how the themes return and change from one movement to the next, or listen again to see which instruments you can pick out. Each time you listen, I think you'll notice something you missed before. If you'd like to keep going, please click on the links provided and explore Symphony No 9 a little further.