String Quartet No. 12 (Dvořák)
Dvořák composed the quartet in 1893 during a summer vacation from his position as director (1892–1895) of the National Conservatory in New York City.
Kovařík had finished violin studies at the Prague Conservatory and was about to return to Spillville—his home in the United States—when Dvořák offered him a position as secretary.
[6] The American Quartet proved a turning point in Dvořák's chamber music output: for decades he had toiled unsuccessfully to find a balance between his overflowing melodic invention and a clear structure.
[3] Dvořák defended the apparent simplicity of the piece: "When I wrote this quartet in the Czech community of Spillville in 1893, I wanted to write something for once that was very melodious and straightforward, and dear Papa Haydn kept appearing before my eyes, and that is why it all turned out so simply.
"[8] For the London premiere of his New World symphony, Dvořák wrote: "As to my opinion I think that the influence of this country (it means the folk songs as are Negro, Indian, Irish, etc.)
is to be seen, and that this and all other works (written in America) differ very much from my other works as well as in couleur as in character,..."[9][10] Dvořák's appreciation of African-American music is documented: Harry T. Burleigh, a baritone and later a composer, who knew Dvořák while a student at the National Conservatory, said, "I sang our Negro songs for him very often, and before he wrote his own themes, he filled himself with the spirit of the old Spirituals.
Some have claimed that the theme of the second movement is based on an African-American spiritual, or perhaps on a Kickapoo tune that Dvořák heard during his sojourn at Spillville.
[26] The quartet is scored for the usual complement of two violins, viola, and cello, and comprises four movements:[27] A typical performance of the work lasts 26 to 30 minutes.
The opening theme of the quartet (see above) is purely pentatonic, played by the viola, with a rippling F major chord in the accompanying instruments.
The second theme, in A major, is also primarily pentatonic, but ornamented with melismatic elements reminiscent of Romani or Czech music.
[19] The simple melody, with the pulsing accompaniment in second violin and viola, does indeed recall spirituals or Indian ritual music.
Dvořák develops this thematic material in an extended middle section, then repeats the theme in the cello with an even thinner accompaniment that is alternately bowed and pizzicato.
An unnamed reviewer wrote the next day that to be sure, "there is none of the soaring or the yearning of the mighty Beethoven", but that there is "the spirit of eternal sunshine" that is "the soul of Mozart's music".
Following Dvořák, a number of American composers turned their hands to the string quartet genre, including John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, George Whitefield Chadwick, and Arthur Foote.
[32] The song is also used in the score for the Greta Gerwig film Little Women, for a pivotal scene in which Laurie and Jo dance for the first time.
