ABSTRACT
The specific long-term effect of Antonin Dvorak’s presence in America is difficult to quantify. His encouragement boosted self-esteem among musicians who had come into direct contact with him. Symphony No.3 in F was awarded a prize of $300 in a competition sponsored by the National Conservatory of Music, New York where its principal, Dvorak was one of the judges. The symphony is conceived on a grand scale, imitating European Romanticism for the principal themes with quasi-Irish folk tunes as secondary material. In the Gaelic Symphony, Mrs Beach wished to express the trials and tribulations of the Irish people, although her own family traced its roots back to England. Symphony No.3 in F minor, composed in 1907, received its première in Berlin in 1908 and was performed in Boston on 11 April that year. In using a rumba as the scherzo in his Symphony No.2 and a cakewalk in Symphony No.4, he was adept at creating works of instant appeal.
