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By: Gina Cosgrove

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.

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By: Gina Cosgrove

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  1. By: Gina Cosgrove

  2. Basic Information • Title: String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, “American”, Op. 96 • Composer: AntonínDvořák • 1893 • One of the most popular in the string quartet repertoire • Served as a model for American composers

  3. 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

  4. Spillville, Iowa • Czech immigrant community • Spent summer vacation • Family and Friends

  5. 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)

  6. Structure • Pentatonic Scale- open, simple character (associated with America) • Four movements • Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, and cello • Tempo: varies from slow to fast

  7. 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

  8. 2nd Movement- Lento • African American Spiritual/Native American Tune • pulsating harmony • pentatonic scale melody • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgDMlLiwEb0

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

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