Summary: "Dvořák: Symphony no. 9" Dvorak scholars suggest that some of the themes found in the Ninth Symphony are based on native or African American music, as was for example Delius’ American Rhapsody. In fact, the haunting theme of the symphony’s famous “largo” movement was later adapted into the spiritual-like song "Goin' Home" by Dvořák's pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922, 30 some years after the symphony had been premiered. What is factual, however, is that an African-American National Conservatory student, Harry T. Burleigh, sang traditional spirituals to Dvořák and said that he had absorbed their `spirit' before writing his own melodies. Details at our archive page https://archive.org/details/pcast164
