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

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An Introduction to... DVORAK Symphony No. 9 'From the New World' (more info)
Performed by: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Antonin Dvorak Jeremy Siepmann
Jeremy Siepmann, narrator


1.   A quiet beginning: sorrow, syncopation, and sequence - 2:38
2.   Instrumental colour as a prime element: clarinets and bassoons, an outburst by the French horn - 0:57
3.   The opening tune again, with different instrumental colouring: now flutes and oboes - 0:32
4.   The first big surprise: strings, shattering drumbeats, shrieks from flutes, oboes, and clarinets - 0:37
5.   Cellos and basses take us into a new key while flutes and oboes dance in syncopation. - 0:32
6.   Horns, violas, and cellos introduce a new idea, soon to evolve into the main theme. - 0:31
7.   A tiny detail from the opening culminates in a wild drumming that heralds a major event - 0:43
8.   Introduction complete - 2:05
9.   A solo horn introduces the main theme, perkily answered by bassoons and horns. - 0:39
10.   The theme moves to G major; answering phrase from flutes, oboes, bassoons. - 0:33
11.   Long crescendo, tremolo strings, back to tonic and biggest statement yet of the main theme. - 0:39
12.   Transition to the secondary theme through the use of sequence. Sonata form; satability and flux - 1:36
13.   Three-bar groupings and again the use of sequence, spelling out a chord - 0:34
14.   The sequence continues to rise, and the four-bar phrase returns as the standard unit. - 0:18
15.   The first violins start off the next phrase, but the melodic shape is more compact. - 0:21
16.   The violins fall silent; the violas and cellos answer with a new figure - 0:09
17.   So now we have a two-bar group, made up of statement and answer. - 0:07
18.   The same thing again (though not quite the same) - 0:05
19.   Transition complete. The secondary theme arrives, with French horns as 'bagpipes'. - 1:00
20.   The 'bagpipe drone' is taken over by cellos, with their insistently repeated G and D. - 0:19
21.   The tune is taken up by cellos and double-basses, 'shadowed' by the second violins. - 0:57
22.   The violins continue a pattern of steady pairs, and the cellos and basses introduce a new idea. - 0:33
23.   Unexpectedly, we find ourselves back with the secondary theme. A new idea emerges. - 0:26
24.   Again we hear the shortened version of the secondary theme - 0:33
25.   The suspense is heightened as everything slows down - 0:25
26.   This beautiful flute tune is said to resemble 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'. - 0:47
27.   A big crescendo leads to a final statement of the closing theme - 1:16
28.   The development section begins with a conversation between cellos, double-bases, and violins. - 1:09
29.   The beginning of the closing theme is taken up in turn by the horn, piccolo, and trumpet. - 0:18
30.   Sequential chirping from the oboes based on the 'answering' part of the main theme, now in the major - 0:18
31.   Much of the development comes from a diminution of the closing theme from the exposition. - 0:19
32.   A tiny detail becomes a major ingredient, giving an agitated quality to an originally sunny tune. - 0:31
33.   Through a sequence of keys so quickly that it is hard to keep track of them - 0:37
34.   The main theme from massed cellos and double-basses, topped by two trumpets over tremolo violas - 1:46
35.   After that major climax, we arrive at the threshold of the recapitulation - 1:04
36.   Dvorak flouts tradition by setting the secondary theme and the closing theme in unexpected keys. - 1:10
37.   The tumultuous convulsion of the coda brings the first movement to its epic close. - 3:09
38.   Humpty Dumpty: putting the bits back together again - 0:20
39.   First movement (complete) - 11:36
40.   The very opening chords unmistakably herald the arrival of something special. - 1:06
41.   The role of instrumentation in setting the scene... - 1:10
42.   ...and in enhancing the quality of one of the most famous tunes in symphonic history. - 1:29
43.   The cor anglais is joined by the clarinet, creating a fascinating change in the timbre. - 1:08
44.   For the closing part of the tune, there is another new sonority: cor anglais plus bassoon. - 0:24
45.   The closing bar is repeated by clarinets and bassoons, the horn adding a new touch - 0:28
46.   Back to the start to hear the whole of the story so far, this time without commentary - 2:24
47.   A change of scoring: the slow opening chords return, this time played by the winds alone. - 1:14
48.   The changes in scoring are just beginning. - 2:35
49.   The flutes and oboes introduce a new tune, over hushed tremolo strings. - 1:05
50.   A memorable combination of continuous, asymmetrical melody with steady, march-like counterpoint. - 1:28
51.   Back in that woodland glade, the light and shadows have changed, revealing new shapes and patterns. - 1:33
52.   The next section is new and forward-looking, yet also a kind of dream-recollection of a past scene. - 1:30
53.   An abrupt change of mood, much discussion and embellishment, and a hushed note of expectancy - 2:01
54.   Subjectivity and expertise; Sourek and Tovey disagree; onwards, into the final section - 5:14
55.   Cue to whole movement - 0:10
56.   Second movement (complete) - 12:00

An Introduction to... DVORAK Symphony No. 9 'From the New World' (more info)
Performed by: Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Antonin Dvorak Jeremy Siepmann
Jeremy Siepmann, narrator


1.   Dvorak, Beethoven, and the Scherzo. Dvorak purposely confuses the listener's expectations. - 1:54
2.   Using a little fanfare, Dvorak further builds up expectation before revealing the main theme. - 0:21
3.   When the theme is revealed, we find that it is not exactly a tune. - 0:36
4.   Two little bursts of rhythm provide the seeds from which much of the movement grows. - 0:24
5.   It is the second half of the theme that dominates. - 0:22
6.   Back to the beginning to hear the whole of this opening section - 0:48
7.   Without ever being remotely 'academic' or 'intellectual', there is much counterpoint going on here. - 0:20
8.   Dvorak's very Czech love of combining conflicting rhythms, sometimes metres - 2:31
9.   A clearly transitional passage, obsessed with the rhythmic tag that both opens and closes the theme - 0:30
10.   Sooner than we may have expected, we seem to have arrived at the Trio section. - 1:07
11.   A new kind of tone quality sheds a subtly different light on the theme. - 0:35
12.   The flutes and oboes now chime in with an answering variant of the opening... - 0:21
13.   ...and the cellos and bassoons take up the original version of the theme. - 0:43
14.   A false alarm: it was not the traditional Trio section at all, but rather part 2 of Scherzo proper - 0:52
15.   Soon, after a very rapid build, the Scherzo proper does reach its final phase. - 1:13
16.   The orchestral texture thins dramatically, and we approach what this time really is the Trio section. - 1:28
17.   The Trio section is reminiscent more of the 'Old World' than the 'New'. - 0:50
18.   In the second half of the Trio, a new tune emerges, a kind of Slavonic waltz. - 1:00
19.   The main theme of the Trio returns against a much fuller orchestral background. - 0:36
20.   Then it is all a matter of repeats, until we reach the coda, which ends with an explosive bang. - 1:15
21.   Third movement (complete) - 8:07
22.   Like the first movement, the fourth begins not with its main theme but with an introduction. - 0:47
23.   The main theme: an imposing march, introduced by trumpets and trombones, with timpani - 0:48
24.   The main theme, part two. A codetta-like passage closes off the march - 1:01
25.   The 'transitional' theme, while outwardly contrasting, is actually a hidden variant of the march. - 0:53
26.   A point of future obsession - 0:16
27.   The second half of this 'transitional' theme is given to the winds the strings have finished. - 0:16
28.   The 'obsession' takes root, with a ten-fold repetition, before the arrival of the second subject. - 0:57
29.   The hidden traps in sonata-form terminology: 'second main theme' vx. 'second subject' - 2:31
30.   The unexpected entry and subsequent ubiquity of 'Three Blind Mice' - 1:23
31.   We meet the mice again, now in the cellos and double-basses, where they persistently refuse to run. - 0:36
32.   More 'Three Blind Mice' material - 0:30
33.   The mice return to the basement, where the bassoons have joined the cellos and double-basses. - 0:19
34.   Next, they are back with the clarinets who pass them back to the cellos - 0:18
35.   Now they return to the high winds, delicately trilling. - 0:15
36.   Relief, at last: the mice back off, making way for a remainder of the main theme from the trumpets. - 0:34
37.   The mice yield to woodpeckers; the main theme is now doubled in speed - 1:07
38.   The triplets of the 'transitional' theme are now handed down through strings - 0:23
39.   Reminders of past movements begin to fly by, thick and fast, sometimes very fast. - 0:28
40.   In fact there are three bits of quotation going on here simultaneously. - 0:23
41.   The violas react every time the 'Goin' Home' theme is quoted by the winds. - 0:35
42.   The rhythm of the opening of the 'Goin' Home' theme dominates, transformed by trumpets - 0:35
43.   The march theme reappears as a Mendelssohnian fairy; the main theme from the 1st mov. now returns. - 1:55
44.   We reach an interesting point: have we heard the beginning of the recapitulation, or not? - 1:05
45.   Perhaps this is it? Back for a reminder of the theme proper, as we first heard it - 1:41
46.   Tovey places the start of the recapitulation here. - 1:27
47.   The main theme recast in pathetic rather than heroic terms - and with magical scoring - 1:51
48.   This unexpected crisis in confidence plays a major role in the overall dramatic impact of the mov. - 1:49
49.   The main theme returns - not complete, but chopped up into shorter and shorter fragments. - 1:30
50.   A glorious thematic stew; high drama, a powerful build-up... but then? - 0:56
51.   The dramatic highpoint of the mov., an astonishing transformation, but first, back to the original - 1:26
52.   The same chords again, this time blasted out by the entire wind and brass sections - 1:09
53.   Now we are into the finishing stretch, but the surprises continue to the very end of the very end. - 1:42
54.   Summary, context, and cue into the whole movement - 1:05
55.   Fourth movement (complete) - 11:05

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