By: Gina Cosgrove

Basic Information

• Title: String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, “American”, Op. 96

• Composer: Antonín Dvořák• 1893• One of the most popular in the string quartet

repertoire• Served as a model for American composers

Search for the American Sound

• 1892- Jeanette Thurber hires Dvořák as director of the National Conservatory of Music in NY

• Main goal: to discover “American Music”– African American and Native American music

• Winter/Spring 1893- New World Symphony• Summer 1893- “American” String Quartet

Spillville, Iowa

• Czech immigrant community• Spent summer vacation• Family and Friends

Controversies

• “I should never have written these works ‘just so’ if I hadn’t seen America”- Dvořák

• Second Movement– African American Spiritual– Speculation

• “The only American thing about the work is that it was written there”- Paul Griffiths (analyst)

• “The specific American qualities of the so-called “American” Quartet are not so easily identifiable” -Lucy Miller (analyst)

Structure

• Pentatonic Scale- open, simple character (associated with America)

• Four movements• Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, and cello• Tempo: varies from slow to fast

1st Movement-Allegro ma non troppo

• pentatonic first theme• open voiced triads (3rd of scale played octave

higher)• pentatonic second theme with melismatic

ornamentation (characteristic of gypsy and Czech music)

• sonata form (exposition theme 1 and 2, development, recapitulation)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rhWXGmj4hs&feature=plcp&context=C36e919eUDOEgsToPDskIh_Q0oZoimQ07IxtANztCZ

2nd Movement- Lento

• African American Spiritual/Native American Tune

• pulsating harmony• pentatonic scale melody• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgDMlLiwEb0

3rd Movement- Molto vivace

• spirited and dance like• off-beats and cross rhythms (ex. Eighth notes against

triplets)• ABABA structure• B melody is A melody played in triplets at half tempo

in minor (more lyrical and pulsated)• melody is said to be of the scarlet tanager• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79kWlwIiQeA• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvRUjygxsAQ&feature=related

4th Movement- Finale: vivace ma non troppo

• ABACABA (rondo)• syncopated rhythm• train-like pulse and drive• pentatonic melody A, more lyrical melody B,

chorale theme C• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mleAHu3MKas&feature=related

Music Semiotics

• Icon: first theme of third movement= scarlet tanager’s song, harmonic accompaniment of fourth movement= rhythm of a train

• Index: chord progressions (I-IV-V-I) predictable cadences (song ends phrases predictably)

• Symbol: open voiced triads= openness of America’s West

Influence

• Influence of American folk music on Quartet:– Debatable

• Influence of Quartet on American music:– Undeniable– “The extensive use of folk-songs in 20th century American

music and the ‘wide-open-spaces’ atmosphere of ‘Western’ film scores may have at least some of their origins in Dvořák’s new American style”- George Butterworth (critic)

• Influenced other American composers to enter quartet genre