Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a famous Czech composer of the 19th century known for incorporating folk songs into his classical compositions and popularizing Czech music. He studied music from a young age and went on to compose numerous symphonies, operas, and other orchestral works. While teaching at the National Conservatory of Music in America from 1892 to 1895, Dvořák was influenced by African American spirituals and incorporated them into his famous Symphony No. 9 "From the New World." The symphony and his other compositions during this time helped establish his reputation as one of the most influential composers of his era.

1. Antonín Leopold Dvořák: His Life and His Impact
"When I first came here last year I was impressed with this idea and it has developed into a
settled conviction. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American. In
the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music. They
are pathetic, tender, passionate, melancholy, solemn, religious, bold, merry, gay or what you will. It is
music that suits itself to any mood or any purpose. There is nothing in the whole age of composition that
cannot be supplied with themes from this source. The American musician understands these tunes and
they move sentiment in him." - Antonín Leopold Dvořák
Benjamin DeLong
Composer Biography
MU-3222-01
7 November 2013

2. Antonín Leopold Dvořák (8 September 1841 - 1 May 1904) was born in Nelahozeves,
Bohemia. He was one of the great nationalist Czech composers of the nineteenth century who,
according to many musicologists, influenced Bedřich Smetana, who was the founding father of
Czech music. Although Smetana was the founding father, Dvořák was the one who made Czech
music popular. He wrote music that honored his homeland and nationality; he found ways to be
creative with many folk songs. His most popular work is his ninth symphony titled “From the New
World,” a work in which he incorporated many Negro melodies after moving to America.
Throughout his lifetime, Dvořák wrote numerous symphonies, overtures, operas, symphonic
poems, chamber works, song cycles, concertos, and choral music. He primarily wrote orchestral
works. He wrote five symphonic poems between 1896 and 1897, and he organized them by opus
number. They included The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel, The Wild
Dove, and A Hero’s Song. They were assigned Opus numbers 107-111, respectively. He wrote over
forty works for ensembles with strings. His most famous choral work is Stabat Mater, composed for
soli, chorus, and orchestra. He also composed the widely known Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
in G Minor, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A Minor, and Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in
B Minor compositions. During the last years of his life, he focused on writing operas. Among his
most well-known operas are The Devil and Kate, Rusalka, and Armida.
Dvořák studied scores mainly by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, and Wagner (Döge).
Many of his beginning works resembled that of Mozart and Beethoven. However, they soon began to
meander towards that of Liszt and Wagner. It was during this phase that he began to write his first
symphony. Later, when students asked about his misplacing his first symphony, Dvořák reevaluated
his artistic vision as a composer; he began to combine Czech folksongs with his future compositions,
and he, much more than Smetana, utilized parallels between Czech speech and melodic structure
(Beckerman 44). His ninth symphony is a great example of this applied technique.

3. The eldest of eight children, Dvořák learned how to play the violin at a very young age. He
received his musical education in 1847 when he entered the village school. He spent six years at the
school learning music theory and practicing the violin, piano, and organ. In 1857, he went to Prague
Organ School, as his parents strongly suggested. After leaving the school two years later, he began to
work hard as a musician, usually playing in dance bands and giving private lessons to piano students
(Döge). The first Czech theater named the Provisional Theatre opened in November 1862. At the
theater, Dvořák played as principal violinist in many stage works. He began to compose around this
time. He had already written a string quintet, four string quartets, the Concertino in A for cello, and
the opera Alfred (Döge). Another significant work he wrote was the song cycle Cypřiše. He had the
written song cycle based on an expression of his personal disappointment in love, and he began, in
later works, to incorporate many of the cycle’s motives thematically (Thompson 482). Because of his
sudden transition from small-scale to large-scale forms in such a short time, he began to extend his
musical knowledge by studying compositions by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Wagner.
Dvořák continued to play with the Provisional Theatre orchestra for a while. His future was
about to change when he submitted some of his works to the editor of a journal. He received such
favorable reviews that his music was performed in song recitals that were recently organized by the
editor. Dvořák then began to compose another opera called King and Charcoal Burner. He offered to
have it produced and performed by the Provisional Theater and orchestra. The management team
agreed to do so. However, after a few rehearsals, the musicians thought that the music was too
demanding for them. As a result, the opera was taken off the program. Dvořák, upset, destroyed
many of his current works and started fresh. In the mid to late 1860s, he steered away from German
influence and into classical form while integrating Slavonic folk songs.
In 1874, Dvořák accepted an organist position at a church. He stayed in that position for three
years; his decision to stay he decided interfered with his studies and composing. He soon applied for

4. grants and stipends at the Austrian state Stipendium. He received a lot of money and became
financially stable. But it was in 1877 when Dvořák applied for more grants that Brahms discovered
his music. Brahms wrote to his own publisher Fritz Simrock about how great Dvořák’s music was.
Dvořák suddenly gained national attention and a lot of his music was starting to be performed in
concert halls. He was also commissioned works, some of which were operas. He began to focus on
opera extensively during this period.
Political issues arose in the early 1880s; this later affected many theaters and concert halls.
Dvořák also had arranged to have one of his symphonies performed in Vienna. But, it was thought
foolish in Vienna to acknowledge works by Czech composers. He had also tried to get much of
music published in German and Czech, particularly vocal works. This time period proved to be one
of Dvořák’s worst; he constantly thought of himself as one who would someday be a significant
figure. To manage his dreams, he continued to saturate his future compositions with Slavonic
textures expressed with an aggressive and dramatic nature. Things finally got better when he moved
to London in 1883, where he became very popular. He was appointed an honorary member of the
Philharmonic Society and continued to write many choral works for upcoming festivals.
Dvořák frequently came back to London to visit and give performances. At this time, he was
conducting his Stabat Mater frequently, and he conducted it in front of 12,000 listeners (Thompson
483). He received enough financial support from the performances that he bought property in a
village near Příbram. He started to compose the second set of his Slavonic Dances as well as many
other works. He continued to receive numerous awards for his compositions. Near the end of the
decade, he was appointed professor of composition and instrumentation at Prague Conservatory.
While there, he strongly recommended to his students that they studied the works of Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Wagner (Döge).

5. In 1891, Dvořák was offered a directorship at the National Conservatory of Music in
America. He accepted the offer and moved to New York City in September 1892 to commence his
three year contract while obtaining a hefty $15,000 salary. Although the conservatory was barely
known at the time, Dvořák proved to be one of the most influential teachers. Mrs. Jeanette Meyer
Thurber, who devoted most of her money to the Conservatory’s activities, reflected, “In looking back
over my thirty-five years as president of the National Conservatory of America, there is nothing of
which I am so proud as having been able to bring Dr. Dvořák to America” (Tibbetts 53).
Dvořák created some of his most important works while teaching at the Conservatory, He
composed his String Quartet No. 12 and the famous Spiritual-incorporated Symphony No. 9 in E
Minor, sometimes titled From the New World, a title which is believed to have been ascribed by Mrs.
Thurber (Tibbetts 68). He was introduced to African American spirituals and Native American music
when he met Harry Burleigh, his African American assistant at the Conservatory. Burleigh wrote,
“Dvořák saturated himself with the spirit of these old tunes and then invented his own themes… I
feel sure the composer caught this peculiarity of most of the slave songs from some that I sang to
him; for he used to stop and ask if that was the way the slaves sang… when he heard me sing ‘Go
Down Moses,’ he said, ‘Burleigh, that is as great as a Beethoven theme,’… he tried to combine
Negro and Indian themes” (Beckerman web). He also completed a String Quintet in E-flat Major,
Op. 97, which offers some musical resemblance with the ninth symphony. Following expansion of
the composition department, he became a mentor to many of his students. One of his students, Rubin
Goldmark, later taught famous composers Aaron Copland and George Gershwin.
Dvořák gave a large concert at Madison Square Garden Concert Hall in January 1894, which
in turn benefited the New York Herald’s Free Clothing Fund with a net proceed of $1,047 (Tibbetts
70). Not long before the special event, he encountered James Creelman, editor of the Herald.
Creelman had expressed an interest in Dvořák’s ninth symphony. For many months, he supported

6. Dvořák and frequently fought to support the National Conservatory. He quoted, “ ‘I would not stay in
America for a month unless I believed that I was engaged in great national work,’ said Dvořák the
last time I saw him. ‘I am not a young man, and every day of my life must bear some fruit. I have no
right to waste the influence of my name.’ ” (Beckerman 755). Also, in a later premiere by the New
York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Herald reported, “Every neck was craned so that it might be
discovered to whom he was motioning so energetically” (Horowitz 3). Dvořák made it obvious that
Negro melodies should be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition to be
developed in the United States (Horowitz 4).
Dvořák was a rather fierce and intimidating teacher. In addition to his laborious schedule, he
asserted to his students that they needed to study the big names in composition. Students had to redo
score assignments, and very few spent many hours on perfecting a thematic development. He scorned
composition pedagogy; instead, his opinions were absolute and final (Tibbetts 71). Often lost in his
compositions, Dvořák sometimes feigned illness and stayed home to compose. One of his students,
Camille Zeckwer, went to his house after hearing about his supposed illness, and he found Dvořák at
work with his compositions. He wrote, “His only illness was a fever of composition” (Tibbetts 71).
After the Conservatory started to become unstable and enter financial hardship, Dvořák left
his position as director. Mrs. Thurber tried to get him to stay for another term, but he declined due to
a salary decline. Nonetheless, the Conservatory continued its legacy when Emil Paur took over in
1898. Dvořák returned back to Prague and conducted much of his own music as usual. He completed
music that he started when he was over in America, and he began many works which were left
unfinished when died of a stroke in 1904 in Prague.
Dvořák looked up to Johannes Brahms for most of his musical career. The personal
friendship started in 1877 and ended at Brahms death in 1897 (Beckerman 56). Their friendship

7. developed from obstacles that revealed the conditions of their own culture. Although the composers
were part of different nationalities, Peter Petersen, a Hamburg musicologist, pointed out many
parallels between the two. They originated in the lower middle class and soon rose to middle-class by
composing, they were involved with dance and entertainment music, they lived quiet lives, and they
wrote a large number of symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and choral works (Beckerman 57).
They often wrote letters to each other to express appreciation and give support while they were
progressing to world fame. Tchaikovsky remembered a time when he met Dvořák in 1888. He said,
“Dvořák told with tears in his eyes how much understanding and sympathy Brahms had shown
toward him, when he got to know his, Dvořák’s, compositions, which no publisher wanted to accept
and no artist wanted to perform, and how energetically and effectively he saved him from being
forgotten” (Beckerman 77). His recollection suggests that had Brahms never entered his life, Dvořák
still would continue to grow in his career, and he would have achieved international fame on his own.
Despite the fact that many musicians in America opposed Dvořák’s opinions about the
importance of the black music tradition in an American national expression, his opinions served as a
starting point to many future American composers in their compositional endeavors. American
composers Amy Beach and Henry Gilbert are a couple examples of composers walking in Dvořák’s
footsteps. Beach stated after a publication of an article regarding Dvořák’s opinions, “I cannot feel
justified in the belief that they are not fully typical of our country. The African population of the
United States represents only one factor in the composition of our nation” (Tibbetts 156). She
composed many works with Native American influences while trying to discover ways to keep her
music in the American tradition. Henry Gilbert wrote his Dance in Place Congo in 1908 based on
black Creole themes, which was the first compositional evidence that Dvořák’s influence was based
on. In 1917 Gilbert wrote, “Our coming American music will perhaps not be built upon but will

8. contain and reflect elements derived from all the fok-songs of the various races, fused together by the
American spirit” (Tibbetts 160).
More composers that quoted or wrote in the style of black folk music include J. Harold
Brown, Ewdward Boatner, Margaret Bonds, William Dawson, Florence Price, and William Grant
Still. Dawson said that he was directly inspired by Dvořák, and he looked up to black music for a
majority of his works. Musicologist Rae Brown believes that Florence Price used Dvořák’s ninth
symphony as a source of inspiration for her Symphony in E Minor. Written in the same key as
Dvořák’s ninth, Price’s symphony includes many themes that she wrote herself, like Dvořák did
when he wrote his symphony. Overall, historians recognize Dvořák’s influence on American music.
John Howard wrote in 1941, “Dvořák wanted to create our respect for the folksongs that existed in
our own country” (Tibbetts 175). Because of Dvořák’s achievements and the development and
embellishment of today’s Negro melodies in symphonic works, there is no dispute that the quality of
American music inclined to a colossal degree.

9. WORKS CITED
Beckerman, Michael. Dvořák and His World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print. ---.
“The Real Value of Yellow Journalism: James Creelman and Antonín Dvořák.” The Musical
Quarterly, 77.4 (Winter, 1993): 749-768. Print.
Döge, Klaus. "Dvořák, Antonín." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University
Press. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/51222>.
Horowitz, Joseph. "Dvořák and Boston." American Music. 19.1 (Spring 2001): 3-17. Print.
Thompson, Oscar. The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. 4th ed. New York: Dodd,
Mead & Company, 1946. Print.
Tibbetts, John. Dvořák in America. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1993. Print.