Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Quiet Beginning: Sorrow, Syncopation, and Sequence

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Instrumental Colour As a Prime Element: Clarinets and Bassoons, an Outburst By the French Horn

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Opening Tune Again, With Different Instrumental Colouring: Now Flutes and Oboes

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The First Big Surprise: Strings, Shattering Drumbeats, Shrieks from Flutes, Oboes, and Clarinets

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Cellos and Basses Take Us Into a New Key While Flutes and Oboes Dance In Syncopation.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Horns, Violas, and Cellos Introduce a New Idea, Soon to Evolve Into the Main Theme.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Tiny Detail from the Opening Culminates In a Wild Drumming That Heralds a Major Event

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Introduction (Complete)

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Solo Horn Introduces the Main Theme, Perkily Answered By Bassoons and Horns.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Theme Moves to G Major; Answering Phrase from Flutes, Oboes, Bassoons.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Long Crescendo, Tremolo Strings, Back to Tonic and Biggest Statement Yet of the Main Theme.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Transition to the Secondary Theme Through the Use of Sequence. Sonata Form; Satability and Flux

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Three-bar Groupings and Again the Use of Sequence, Spelling Out a Chord

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Sequence Continues to Rise, and the Four-bar Phrase Returns As the Standard Unit.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The First Violins Start Off the Next Phrase, But the Melodic Shape Is More Compact.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Violins Fall Silent; the Violas and Cellos Answer With a New Figure

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

So Now We Have a Two-bar Group, Made Up of Statement and Answer.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Same Thing Again (Though Not Quite the Same)

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Transition Complete. the Secondary Theme Arrives, With French Horns As 'bagpipes'.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The 'bagpipe Drone' Is Taken Over By Cellos, With Their Insistently Repeated G and D.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Tune Is Taken Up By Cellos and Double-basses, 'shadowed' By the Second Violins.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Violins Continue a Pattern of Steady Pairs, and the Cellos and Basses Introduce a New Idea.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Unexpectedly, We Find Ourselves Back With the Secondary Theme. a New Idea Emerges.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Again We Hear the Shortened Version of the Secondary Theme

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Suspense Is Heightened As Everything Slows Down

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

This Beautiful Flute Tune Is Said to Resemble 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Big Crescendo Leads to a Final Statement of the Closing Theme

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Development Section Begins With a Conversation Between Cellos, Double-bases, and Violins.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Beginning of the Closing Theme Is Taken Up In Turn By the Horn, Piccolo, and Trumpet.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Sequential Chirping from the Oboes Based On the 'answering' Part of the Main Theme, Now In the Major

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Much of the Development Comes from a Diminution of the Closing Theme from the Exposition.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Tiny Detail Becomes a Major Ingredient, Giving an Agitated Quality to an Originally Sunny Tune.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Through a Sequence of Keys So Quickly That It Is Hard to Keep Track of Them

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Main Theme from Massed Cellos and Double-basses, Topped By Two Trumpets Over Tremolo Violas

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

After That Major Climax, We Arrive At the Threshold of the Recapitulation

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Dvorak Flouts Tradition By Setting the Secondary Theme and the Closing Theme In Unexpected Keys.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Tumultuous Convulsion of the Coda Brings the First Movement to Its Epic Close.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Humpty Dumpty: Putting the Bits Back Together Again

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

First Movement (Complete)

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Very Opening Chords Unmistakably Herald the Arrival of Something Special.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Role of Instrumentation In Setting the Scene...

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

...and In Enhancing the Quality of One of the Most Famous Tunes In Symphonic History.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Cor Anglais Is Joined By the Clarinet, Creating a Fascinating Change In the Timbre.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

For the Closing Part of the Tune, There Is Another New Sonority: Cor Anglais Plus Bassoon.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Closing Bar Is Repeated By Clarinets and Bassoons, the Horn Adding a New Touch

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

Back to the Start to Hear the Whole of the Story So Far, This Time Without Commentary

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Change of Scoring: The Slow Opening Chords Return, This Time Played By the Winds Alone.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Changes In Scoring Are Just Beginning.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

The Flutes and Oboes Introduce a New Tune, Over Hushed Tremolo Strings.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'

A Memorable Combination of Continuous, Asymmetrical Melody With Steady, March-like Counterpoint.

Jeremy Siepmann · Classics Explained: DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, 'From the New World'