Did Dvořák's music rely too heavily on American music?
Some say I took too much from America. But what is an artist to do but absorb the world around him? When I was in New York, the music of the land, the spirituals, the songs of the working people, they stirred something deep within me. It was like discovering a new palette of colors. My 'New World' Symphony was not meant to be an imitation, but a reflection. It was about how that vibrant American spirit, its vastness and energy, resonated with my own musical soul, just as the music of my Bohemia always did. True art, it must be sincere!
Ask Antonín Dvořák the follow-up →