{"id":4352,"date":"2019-10-16T19:56:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4352"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:56:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:56:35","slug":"goin-home-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/16\/goin-home-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Goin’ Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antonin Dvorak<\/a> (1841-1904) was a Czech composer who simultaneously exerted substantial influence over the development of American music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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After extensive persuasion from the National Conservatory of Music, Dvorak travelled to the U.S. in 1892 to direct the school. The president of the conservatory, Jeanette Thurber, wanted Dvorak to found a nationalist, uniquely American style of music (which is ironic because he wasn\u2019t American and hadn\u2019t spent time in America prior to this visit). He remarked, \u201c<\/span>The Americans expect great things of me. I am to show them the way into the Promised Land, the realm of a new, independent art, in short a national style of music!\u201d (1)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dvorak turned to black spirituals and folk music as inspiration for American musical sounds:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I am of the opinion that African American songs can provide a secure foundation for a new national school of music and I have arrived at the conviction that the young musicians here merely require prudent direction, earnest application, encouragement and the support of the public in order to co-create a new music school\u201d <\/span><\/i>(2)<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Dvorak therefore turned to black student H.T. Burleigh, requesting that he educate him regarding African-American spirituals and plantation songs (1)<\/a>. The New York Philharmonic premiered Dvorak\u2019s \u201cNew World Symphony\u201d soon after in 1893, and while Dvorak stated that he did not directly quote any Negro spirituals, he extensively studied the songs and attempted to reflect their characteristics in his work (2)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n


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Years later in 1922, William Fisher, a former student of Dvorak\u2019s, set to words the quintessential Largo melody from the New World Symphony\u2019s second movement. I had actually heard the song, \u201cGoin\u2019 Home\u201d (or Going Home), years ago sung by the British boy choir \u201cLibera.\u201d At the time, I had no knowledge of the song\u2019s history, or of its original inspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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