Dvorak: Largo (extract) from Symphony No.9 (New World) Op.95 (horn feature) - brass quintet

The Largo (Mvt.2) from the New World Symphony is probably Dvorak's best known melody.

It was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It premiered in New York City on 16 December 1893. 



Dvorak's theme of the Largo from his "New World Symphony" is one of the most recognizable melodies in the entire classical literature. He wrote the melody because he was inspired by the music he heard in America: Dvorak made use of the pentatonic scale which he found evident in both the Native-American and African-American peoples' music.

The theme from the Largo was adapted into the spiritual-like song "Goin' Home" (also k/a "Going Home") (often mistakenly considered a folk song or traditional spiritual) by Dvořák's pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922.

This arrangement, for brass quintet is of the main theme, but NOT the middle section)

It is in Db major, the same as the original.

This arrangement features the horn, playing the original cor anglais solo, in the correct key.