Product Description
This arrangement is not in the original key to make it easier to play. A version in the original key is available here: S0.373007.
The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák became the director of the
National Conservatory of Music in New York City in 1892 (a post he held
until 1895). Whilst in North America, he became fascinated by Native American
music and the African-American spirituals that he heard. After a commission in
1893 from the New York Philharmonic, he wrote the Symphony No. 9 in E minor,
"From the New World", also known as the "New World" Symphony not only
his most famous symphony but one of the most popular symphonies of all time.
The second movement (Largo) features the famous cor anglais
solo, arranged here for solo piano. It was famously used in a British advert for the bread-brand
Hovis and was adapted into the spiritual-like song "Goin Home" by one of
Dvořák's pupils in 1922.
Dvořák explained the Native-American influences in the symphony
in an article published by the New York Herald: "I have not actually used any
of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes
embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as
subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms,
counterpoint, and orchestral colour."
A recording of the "New World" Symphony was taken along on the
Apollo 11 mission by Neil Armstrong in 1969.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.