The inspiration for this song is the scripture: “Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life”. This famous Dvorak melody is woven throughout the arrangement.  The lyrics were an answer to prayer with the arrangement dedicated to the composers mother and first performed at her funeral.  It has since been performed regularly at family funerals.

The original “Goin’ Home” was actually written by one of Dvorak’s pupils, William Arms Fisher (1861 – 1948), who adapted and arranged the Largo theme and added his own words, as indicated on the sheet music cover published by Oliver Ditson Company in Boston.

This is part of what Fisher wrote in the published sheet music of his song “Goin’ Home”:

“The Largo, with its haunting English horn solo, is the outpouring of Dvorak’s own home-longing, with something of the loneliness of far-off prairie horizons, the faint memory of the red-man’s bygone days, and a sense of the tragedy of the black-man as it sings in his “spirituals.” Deeper still it is a moving expression of that nostalgia of the soul all human beings feel. That the lyric opening theme of the Largo should spontaneously suggest the words ‘Goin’ home, goin’ home’ is natural enough, and that the lines that follow the melody should take the form of a negro spiritual accords with the genesis of the symphony.”

— William Arms Fisher, Boston, July 21, 1922.

This arrangement is dedicated to Beverlee Christensen – my mother.