Went to the Symphony the other night and heard Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.” Loved the second movement, but I had a query - was the symphony the inspiration for the spiritual “Going Home”, or did Dvorak rely on the “Going Home” theme and develop it for his symphony?
The symphony came first. Dvorak was consciously imitating American spiritual songs, but not directly quoting an existing one.
Words were added to Dvorak’s music to produce “Going Home”.
However,
When the symphony first came out it was noted that the second movement theme had a great similarity to the older spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”.
Actually, a melody in G major early in the first movement is clearly a speeded-up version of “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”.
Whoops, thanks for the correction.
Let’s not forget the 4th movement, which draws heavily on the early American folk melody from “Jaws”.