Finale (Allegro con fuoco) from Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," Op. 95

Finale from Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” – Antonín Dvořák / trans. Mark Hindsley, performed by the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble on May 17, 2026, at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI. Video and audio recording by Ryan Vemmer. Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” was composed in 1893 during his three-year stay in the United States, when he was invited by arts patron Jeannette Thurber to lead the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Though often heard as a celebration of America, the symphony is equally an offering to his native Bohemia. Homesick and unsettled in New York, Dvořák found a deeper sense of connection in Spillville, Iowa, a small Czech-speaking town that reminded him of home. There, surrounded by familiar language and rural life, he refined the ideas that would shape this symphony. The powerful finale brings these threads together with urgency and sweep. While no specific spirituals or indigenous melodies are quoted directly, Dvořák absorbed their character, especially their modal inflections, rhythmic vitality, and emotional directness. At the same time, the symphony carries the structural clarity and lyricism of the European tradition in which he was trained. In doing so, Dvořák offered a model for American composers: rather than imitating European styles, they could create something original and authentic by drawing on the musical languages of their own land. In this transcription by Mark Hindsley, the drama and grandeur of the original orchestral score are vividly reimagined for wind ensemble. The result preserves the symphony’s driving energy and emotional depth, allowing the music’s dual sense of home, both remembered and newly discovered, to resonate with fresh clarity.