October | Welcome to the New World
Morton Gould, an extremely prolific and successful composer, was known mostly for his music for radio, film, TV and Broadway. Due to his prodigious command of orchestration and his facility with diverse musical genres, he also received frequent commissions for the concert hall. With WWII in full swing he wrote American Salute in 1942, the same year our orchestra was founded. Based on the tune “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” the piece was written overnight with copyists standing by, and quickly became a staple of American patriotic repertoire. During my childhood, my brother had a recording of American Salute that I enjoyed greatly, and I am especially delighted for the opportunity to lead it in performance.
-Gary Dahl, Associate Conductor
Written in 1893 during his tenure as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, the New World Symphony captures both Antonín Dvořák’s fascination with America and his deep-rooted Bohemian musical identity.
During his stay in America, Dvořák became particularly interested in African American spirituals and Native American musical traditions. He believed these traditions held the key to a truly American musical style. While the New World Symphony does not quote any specific spiritual or Indigenous melody, it absorbs their rhythmic vitality, modal inflections, and emotional depth. The famous Largo movement, for example, evokes the feeling of a spiritual through its plaintive English horn melody—an imagined folk tune rather than a borrowed one. This blending of influences shows how Dvořák used American musical idioms as inspiration rather than raw material, creating something
new that still felt authentic.
The New World Symphony contains two striking moments directly shaped by his
longstanding fascination with Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha. Dvořák had hoped to compose a full Hiawatha opera during his American stay, and he even drafted thematic sketches for it. Although the opera never materialized, he later explained that parts of the symphony grew out of those ideas. In an interview after the 1893 premiere, he stated that the scherzo was inspired by the feast scene in Hiawatha, especially the whirlwind dancing of PauPukKeewis. The movement’s driving rhythms, swirling motifs, and sudden bursts of energy mirror Longfellow’s vivid description of the dancer spinning “round in circles… till the dust and wind together swept in eddies round about him.”
The Largo movement also carries a Hiawatha imprint. Dvořák said it was inspired by the funeral of Minnehaha, a moment of stillness and grief in the poem. The movement’s solemn pacing and its famous English horn melody evoke the quiet forest setting and emotional weight of that scene. While the Largo is not a literal musical retelling, its atmosphere reflects Dvořák’s attempt to translate the poem’s imagery into symphonic form. Together, these movements transform literary scenes from Hiawatha into some of the most memorable music he ever wrote.
The work’s premiere in New York was a sensation, and it quickly became one of the most beloved symphonies in the world. Its success also reinforced Dvořák’s belief that American composers should look to their own folk traditions for inspiration. At the end of the 19th Century, he correctly predicted that the great American music of the future would be inspired by the culture of African Americans. Less than 30 years later, Jazz and Gershwin would dominate the American musical scene. We will make this evolutionary shift in only one month, as we will perform Gershwin’s American in Paris in November.
Marie Jaëll (1846–1925) was a French pianist, composer, and teacher who became
known for her exceptional musical abilities and innovative approach to piano playing. Born in Alsace, she studied music from a young age and went on to perform throughout Europe. Jaëll was especially interested in understanding the physical and psychological aspects of piano technique, and she developed methods that emphasized touch, movement, and expression. Her work as a composer included piano pieces, chamber music, and orchestral works, although she is remembered today particularly for her contributions to piano education.
Jaëll had important connections with two of the greatest musicians of her time, Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns. She became a student and close associate of Liszt, who admired her talent and encouraged her development as a pianist and composer. She also had a close professional and personal relationship with Saint-Saëns who played an important role in her artistic development and dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1 to her. Many of you heard us perform that piece last spring at Olympic College and at the Gig Harbor Vintage Aero Museum with Ruth Harvey as piano soloist.
Marie Jaëll’s Cello Concerto is an important example of her work as a composer beyond the piano. Written in the Romantic tradition, the piece combines expressive, lyrical melodies with dramatic and technically demanding passages for the cello. Jaëll demonstrates a strong understanding of the instrument, giving the soloist opportunities to show both warmth and virtuosity while interacting closely with the orchestra. This is the first cello concerto known to have been composed by a woman.
Our soloist, Logan Keely, is a winner of our 2026 Young Artists Competition and was a student of Mara Finkelstein.
-Maestro Alan Futterman, Music Director
