Was it a spiritual? A gospel hymn? A Czech folk tune? Or most likely, something new-informed by all of these?ĭvorak had come to New York City to be the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, a conservatory founded in 1885 with a goal of cultivating American music. The theme played by a solo English horn, which begins the second (largo) movement, at one time spawned debate as to its origin. A yearning melody from the second movement took on a new life as a popular American song that continues to be reinvented. 9, 'From the New World,' soon after arriving in America in 1893.
