This week, let’s take a look at Antonín
Dvořák. You may wonder why I selected a Czech composer to include in our
discussion of American music. Dvořák is actually known for creating some of the
earliest “American” sounds in music. As a composer who sought to compose
nationalist idioms in his music using folk and regional styles, Dvořák was
called upon in 1892 to make the journey across the Atlantic to New York where
he would become the director of the National Conservatory of Music. After his
arrival, he realized that, on top of his directorship, he was expected to
create an “American” idiom as he had done with the Bohemian sounds in his
homeland.
After becoming immersed in the folk
songs of this new land, Dvořák encouraged the young American composers at the
National Conservatory to seek their vision through the music enjoyed by the
people groups that surrounded them: African
Americans and Native Americans.
Do you find it interesting that Dvořák
chose these people groups as his basis for the “American” sound when the
Caucasian population was the dominant ethnicity in their society?
Join me Wednesday as I continue to
talk about what elements Dvořák
pulled from these African American and Native American influences.
