The ABRSM is running a competition during February.  It fits in beautifully with our wellbeing Wednesday and gives you musical and artistic challenges.  There is no pressure to actually submit your entry, unless you wish to.  It is perfectly fine just to enjoy the activity at home and share it with your family and friends.

Listen to this piece of music and imagine Dvorák on his first ever visit to America.

Dvorák’s music gained worldwide recognition during his lifetime and after travelling extensively across Europe, he made the journey to America in 1892 to take up a teaching post at New York’s National Conservatory of Music. It was while in New York that he composed the New World Symphony in 1893. The second movement, the Largo, is a hugely evocative work which has become enormously popular in its own right, including being used to evoke a certain type of nostalgia in a bread advert.

Does it sound more like a celebration of the New World, or more like a nostalgic look back towards a homeland by a homesick composer?

Imagine the kind of landscape Dvorák had in his mind when he wrote this piece. Now create a picture of what you think he saw when he arrived in America or a landscape that might have inspired him to write this piece.

Details of how to enter the competition can be found on the ABRSM competition website page.

If you enjoyed this activity, you may wish to choose another piece of music and create another picture inspired by what you hear or imagine while listening.  It is a lovely relaxing and engrossing activity.