Dvorak And American Musical Life

Dvorak was an outstanding representative of nationalism musician in the Czech history. He had a long writing career for 43 years, which could be divided into two periods, “ the Slavic period ” and “ the American period ”. Form 1882 to1895, he was invited to the United States as the president of New York national music college.Dvorak's life during this time was extremely various, not only he dealt with affairs as a dean position, but also taught the music course and created music. The works created in “ the American period ”, such as “ New Word Symphonies”, “String Quartet in F Op.96”, “Cell Concerto in B minor Op.104”, were the most excellent works in his life, especially “New Word Symphonies” was so marvelous that shocked in the Western symphony field.Dvorak has made an indelible contribution to the development of America music in "American period". Because he has found the real national music belong to the United States.For the first time Dvorak came to the United States, Americans have not realized exactly what their national music was. Therefore, the great national musician can not help wanting to explore that. After his research, Dvorak found it is "black music" and "Indian music" that belong to the United States national music. He began to spread his idea and use his creation to prove it. Hereafter, American musicians understood what is America's national music through “ New Word Symphonies”created by Dvorak, and how to develop their own national music rather than follow the European trend of music. Consequently,Dvorak and the his music life in "the America period" has high value to study.This paper will introduce Dvorak and summarize his music life in “the America period”(1892-1895). It includes the following parts: the introduction, Dvorak and his music creation, American music life of Dvorak, and Dvorak's influence and achievements on the development of American music.