New World Symphony No.9 "Finale"

About the Composer
New World Symphony could be one of Antonin Dvorak’s most prestigious works in his life, and also the most familiar name for in our knowledge for classic music. Antonin Dvorak was born in Czech in 1841, a son of the storekeeper. He had started a great interest in music since he was a little boy; nevertheless, his father opposed to his dream of being a musician. Therefore, Dvorak was sent to his uncle to learn some skill to make living. When he was 16, he insisted on going to music school despite his parents’ disapproval. Since then, he begin to take the formal courses and education in music, and was tutored by Franz Liszt(李斯特) and Johannes Brahms(布拉姆斯)after he graduated from school.

How it started?
In 1892, Antonin Dvorak was invited to America to teach in National Conservatory of Music in New York City. At this time, he started New World Symphony in this new continent. In the U.S., he saw many immigrants form all over the world coming to this new world to start their new life here; that is to say, he was exposed to different kinds of cultures. Additionally, Dvorak noticed that American music was based on black people’s culture. Afterwards, he made his work consist different cultures, and become of a multi-culture style to depict this new world. By the way, he also put Czech culture in this piece of work to tell us about his homeland.



About the Music
In New World Symphony no. 9 “Finale,” Dvorak use Trumpets and French Horns to stand for the people from eastern Europe who boldly go to the west of the continent. No matter how difficult it is, they still stick to their American Dream. The strings represents the danger these immigrants met on their way to the west. Finally, the familiar rhythm comes out which means that the people settled down and started a brand new life. This is so peaceful and quite like everyone is happily home, enjoying the sweetness with their family.