Music from the West: Dvorak, 'American' String Quartet

Fifth Quadrant will be performing the 'American' string quartet by Dvorak (Op.96) during the concert tour.

Dvořák: String Quartet in F Major Op.96 'American'

Dvořák's three years in New York 1892-5 were a time of great professional success, marred only by acute homesickness. His solution was to leave the city each summer for an extended break with a Bohemian community in Spillville, Iowa. The relaxed atmosphere was conducive to composition, and it was here that he wrote the 'American' Quartet, its four movements completed in just fifteen days. The première took place in Boston in January 1894, two weeks after the first performance of the New World Symphony. Both works have since been subject to intense speculation as to the possible American sources of the music.

So how American is the 'American' Quartet? The composer himself said it had been "composed in the spirit of American national melodies" but denied any literal borrowings. Nevertheless, a range of specific New World sources have been suggested: the theme of the Lento second movement has been likened to a Negro spiritual, and the rhythmic accompaniment in the finale to Native American drumming. Only one example of local colour is beyond question: the birdsong that appears high in the first violin in the scherzo third movement. This is the song of the scarlet tanager, indigenous to Iowa and a familiar sound on the plains around Spillville.

(c) Gavin Dixon 2011