As we enter the ninth month of the year, this week on the Ether Game Weekly Music Quiz Podcast we're dressing to the nines to celebrate the number one less than ten. It's a show we're calling "Number 9"! Can you name this nonary tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, September 4th at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), Symphony No. 9 "From The New World": IV. Allegro con fuoco
Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell, conductor
Dvorak: Three Great Symphonies (Sony Classical)
Antonín Dvořák wrote his ninth and final symphony while living abroad in New York. The Czech composer moved to New York City in the 1890s, after he was offered the position of director of the National Conservatory of Music for a hefty sum of money (around $400,000 in today's dollars). The conservatory, which had been founded by the wealthy philanthropist Jeannette Thurber, was open to all students, including women and African Americans. Dvořák's original contract obligated him to work three hours a day, six days a week, with four months' vacation in the summer. During his stay, Dvorak avidly studied American folk music, and some have heard loose quotations of specific American melodies in his Ninth Symphony. He would only stay in New York for another two years, with the economic depression of 1893 forcing him to return to Europe in 1895.