String Quartet No. 12 in F Major

A perennial chamber-music staple, Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 (“American”) was composed in 1893 during the period when he was directing the National Conservatory in New York City. It was actually while on a summer vacation in the Czech community of Spillville, Iowa, that Dvořák wrote the Quartet, right after completing his legendary New World Symphony. The composer relished being in the U.S., owing to his fascination with American music and his desire to immerse himself in it. Dvořák had a particular love of African American spirituals, and many have heard the results of that interest echoed in the piece, which would come to be known as his American Quartet. While the American influences are subtly incorporated, they are most strongly indicated in the overall simplicity of the quartet’s structure and its reliance on the pentatonic scales central to both American folk music and the traditional melodies of his much-missed homeland. The most overtly American-sounding moments occur in the “Lento”, in which African American spirituals’ soulful combination of sadness and uplift are evoked. Besides earning a place of prominence in the chamber-music canon, the American Quartet ended up laying the groundwork for American composers to embrace their musical heritage, setting out a breadcrumb trail for Copland and others to pick up on.