From http://music.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/9909_dvorak/
1893 Dvorák spends the summer in Spillville, Iowa, a small Czech settlement in northeastern Iowa. Within five days of his arrival, he composes his "American" String Quartet.
Possibly because of this connection with Spillville Iowa,
I have always loved Dvorak's theme from the Largo of the "New World Symphony" No. 9 Mov II.
I don't pretend to be too logical about my obsessions.
This hymn "Going Home" is set to the music of Dvorak's 9th Symphony, second movement.
From http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/nemusic4.htm
Goin' home, goin' home, I'm a goin' home;
Quiet-like, some still day, I'm jes' goin' home.
It's not far, jes' close by,
Through an open door;
Work all done, care laid by,
Goin' to fear no more.
Mother's there 'spectin' me,
Father's waitin' too;
Lots o' folks gather'd there,
All the friends I knew,
All the friends I knew.
Home, I'm goin' home!
And also from the above site...
"Goin' Home"was actually written by one of Dvorak's pupils, William Arms Fisher (1861-1948), who adapted and arranged the Largo theme and added his own words. This is part of what Fisher wrote in the published sheet music of his song, "Goin' Home" (Oliver Ditson Company):
The Largo, with its haunting English horn solo, is the outpouring of Dvorak's own home-longing, with something of the loneliness of far-off prairie horizons, the faint memory of the red-man's bygone days, and a sense of the tragedy of the black-man as it sings in his "spirituals." Deeper still it is a moving expression of that nostalgia of the soul all human beings feel. That the lyric opening theme of the Largo should spontaneously suggest the words 'Goin' home, goin' home' is natural enough, and that the lines that follow the melody should take the form of a negro spiritual accords with the genesis of the symphony.
-- William Arms Fisher, Boston, July 21, 1922.
There's no break, there's no end,
Jes'a livin' on;
Wide awake, with a smile
Goin' on and on.
In a trip through my memory we are "Going Home" from a great trip to Montana.
The Oboe has the melody in this very nice YouTube Vid from Loma Linda University Church orchestra 3-22-08 from Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" - abbreviated to only the 2nd movement theme.
