As the pilgrim to his Mecca, so the waters are wafted into the climactic motive of the Hradschin, the chant of the holy citadel.  The rest is a long jubilation

[Music:  Motiv Vyserad (Full orchestra, with rapid figures in the strings)]

on quicker beats of the chant, amid the plash of waters and the shaking of martial brass.  Strangely, as the other sounds die away, the melody of the stream emerges clear and strong, then vanishes in the distance before the jubilant Amen.

In the general view we must feel a wonderful contrast here with the sophomoric state of the contemporary art in other lands where the folk-song has lost its savor,—­where the natural soil is exhausted and elegant castles are built in the air of empty fantasy, or on the sands of a vain national pride.

DVORAK.  SYMPHONY, “FROM THE NEW WORLD."[A]

[Footnote A:  Anton Dvorak, 1841-1904.]

It is a much-discussed question how far Dvorak’s American symphony is based on characteristic folk-song.  Here are included other questions:  to what extent the themes are based on an African type, and whether negro music is fairly American folk-song.  Many, perhaps most people, will answer with a general negative.  But it seems to be true that many of us do not really know the true negro song,—­have quite a wrong idea of it.

To be sure, all argument aside, it is a mistake to think that folk-song gets its virtue purely from a distinctive national quality,—­because it is Hungarian, Scandinavian, or Slavonic.  If all the national modes and rhythms of the world were merged in one republic, there would still be a folk-song of the true type and value.  There is a subtle charm and strength in the spontaneous simplicity, all aside from racial color.  It is here that, like Antaeus, the musician touches Mother Earth and renews his strength.  So, when Dvorak suddenly shifts in the midst of his New World fantasy into a touch of Bohemian song, there is no real loss.  It is all relevant in the broad sense of folk feeling, that does not look too closely at geographical bounds.  It is here that music, of all arts, leads to a true state of equal sympathy, regardless of national prejudice.  What, therefore, distinguishes Dvorak’s symphony may not be mere negro melody, or even American song, but a genuine folk-feeling, in the widest meaning.

In one way, Dvorak’s work reminds us of Mendelssohn’s Scotch Symphony:  both exploit foreign national melody in great poetic forms.  One could write a Scotch symphony in two ways:  one, in Mendelssohn’s, the other would be to tell of the outer impression in the terms of your own folk-song.  That is clearly the way Mendelssohn wrote most of the Italian Symphony,—­which stands on a higher plane than the Scotch.  For folk-song is the natural language of its own people.  It is interesting to see the exact type that each theme represents; but it is not so important as to catch the distinction, the virtue of folk-song per