You may know that the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak spent the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa. But did you know that America had an important influence on Dvorak?

Dvorak was in the United States to direct the American Conservatory of Music in New York, where, it was hoped, he would help American composers find their own musical identity. He had left a successful career on the European concert scene to take the American job, going from being a star in Europe to being a teacher in America.

Now, it's interesting that virtually all of Dvorak's best known pieces were written in this country. The "New World" Symphony, composed in New York in 1893, was inspired by Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha." The "American" String Quartet and String Quintet, composed in Spillville during the summer of 1893, reflect the idyllic time he spent there. And the Cello Concerto, composed in New York in 1894, was not American in inspiration, but it was suggested by a cello concerto by Victor Herbert-a popular American theater composer of the 1890s.

What's more, Dvorak admitted that America had influenced these pieces. For example, he wrote about the "New World" Symphony, "I take great pleasure in it and it will differ very considerably from my others. Well, the influence of America must be felt -by everyone who has any "nose" at all."

And at the end of his stay in Spillville, he wrote, "as for my new Symphony, the F major String Quartet and the Quintet (composed here in Spillville)-I should never have written these works 'just so' if I hadn't seen America."

Even more interesting is the way that Dvorak's compositions changed after the trip to America. Before he came to the United States, he was writing concert music for an international audience-the symphonies, string quartets and other works that made him famous throughout Europe. They were first-rate compositions, but they had nd strong national identity. But after his American experience, Dvorak started writing pieces with a strong Czech identity. For example, he never wrote another symphony but he wrote several symphonic poems, descriptive pieces based on Czech folk legends, and he also wrote operas based on Czech history and folklore.

I think there's a very good reason for this change. Because of his role in American musical life, Dvorak became immersed in a dialogue about the American national identity in music, an identity he himself was expected to help define. He had to think about what it means to have a national identity, and how that could best be expressed in music.