Douglas W. Shadle, in an essay for The New York Times marking the 125th anniversary of the premiere of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony (No. 9 in E minor) – in concerts by the New York Philharmonic on Dec. 15 and 16, 1893, which also featured Brahms’ Violin Concerto and excerpts of Mendelssohn’s incidental music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – notes that Dvořák was by no means the first composer to incorporate African-American and other folk idioms into a classical work.
Shadle, a musicologist at Vanderbilt University, also points out that 19th-century European concertgoers and critics often proved more receptive to musical Americanisms than listeners in this country:
Letter V 