Antonín Dvořák in the New World | Class Notes

It often surprises music lovers in this country that the great Czech composer Dvořák spent three years in the United States. The stay vividly shaped his music from then on and had a liberating impact on American composers’ acceptance of their own neglected musical forbears. “I did not come to America to interpret Beethoven or Wagner,” he said. “I came to…discover what young Americans had in them and help them express it.” 

Notably, Dvořák asked Americans to find inspiration in Native American and African American tunes and songs. This video traces Dvořák’s trek from Europe to New York to the Midwest, arriving at last at Minnesota’s Minnehaha Falls. There he composed a haunting sonatina, hurriedly jotting down its melody on his shirt cuff since he had no paper at hand.