Dvořák in America

Synopsis

On today's date in 1892, the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák arrived in New York City to take up a position at the National Conservatory. "The Americans expect great things of me," he wrote to a friend back in Prague. "The main thing, so they say, is to show them to the promised land of a new and independent art: In short, to create a national music. It certainly is both a great and splendid task, and I hope that with God's help I shall accomplish it. There is more than enough material here—and plenty of talent."

Dvořák himself grew up poor, and in a country politically and culturally dominated by the Austro-Hungarian Empire—a country in which serfdom was only recently abolished. As such, he had a natural sympathy with the underdogs of society. "It is to the poor that I turn for musical greatness," he wrote.

Dvořák suggested that American composers should look to the indigenous music of Native American tribes and the plantation songs and spirituals of the former African-American slaves as source material for a uniquely American music. This was a radical message, says Dvořák scholar Joseph Horowitz, who writes, "It bears stressing that even Americans of learning and sophistication were prone to subscribe to theories of racial hierarchy, and, in their preoccupation with 'progress' and 'civilization,' to assume the innate inferiority of red- and black-skinned human beings."

Dvořák's message was accepted eagerly by some and rejected outright by others. But Dvořák himself practiced what he preached, as evidenced in the works he composed during his years in America.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonin Dvořák (1841 – 1904) American Suite Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Libor Pešek, cond. Virgin 90723

On This Day

Births

• 1879 - English composer Cyril Scott, in Oxton, Cheshire;

• 1898 - American composer Vincent Youmans, in New York City;

• 1903 - Russian-born American composer and songwriter Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky), in Parfianovka (Pskov) (Gregorian date: Oct. 10);

Deaths

• 1921 - German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, age 67, in Neustrelitz;

• 1956 - British composer Gerald Finzi, age 55, in Oxford;

Premieres

• 1960 - Stravinsky: "Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa ad CD annum" (three madrigals by Gesualdo transcribed for orchestra), in Venice, with the composer conducting;

Others

• 1827 - At a private party in Vienna, Franz Schubert performs selections from his last piano sonatas;

• 1892 - Czech composer Antonin Dvorák arrives in New York City to take up a position at the National Conservatory.