{"id":982,"date":"2011-02-04T03:31:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T08:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=982"},"modified":"2018-08-11T15:08:27","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T19:08:27","slug":"dvorak%e2%80%99s%c2%a0-%e2%80%9camerican%e2%80%9d-quartet-no-12-in-f-op-96-b-179","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=982","title":{"rendered":"Dvo\u0159ak\u2019s \u201cAmerican\u201d Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96, B. 179"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

A Scar\u00adlet Tanager<\/p><\/div>\n

I love string quar\u00adtets. Com\u00adposers seem to put their hearts and minds into them in a way that they don\u2019t reli\u00adably do for oth\u00ader forms. Since they have lit\u00adtle com\u00admer\u00adcial val\u00adue, they are usu\u00adal\u00adly com\u00adposed with nobody look\u00ading over the composer\u2019s shoul\u00adder, and no box-office con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtions. The stark sim\u00adplic\u00adi\u00adty of the com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion of two vio\u00adlins, vio\u00adla, and cel\u00adlo, which nev\u00ader\u00adthe\u00adless allows for a full tonal range and the inter\u00adplay of indi\u00advid\u00adual and com\u00adbined voic\u00ades, attracts the com\u00adpos\u00ader who wants to put across seri\u00adous thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159ak wrote four\u00adteen string quar\u00adtets, but the twelfth, nick\u00adnamed \u201cAmer\u00adi\u00adcan\u201d, is by far the most pop\u00adu\u00adlar and mov\u00ading. It has a sweet\u00adness of melody and an inven\u00adtive\u00adness, from moment to moment, that links it with his won\u00adder\u00adful \u201cNew World\u201d sym\u00adpho\u00adny. It was, in fact, writ\u00adten at the same time, while Dvo\u0159ak was vis\u00adit\u00ading a small town in Iowa (set\u00adtled by Bohemi\u00adan and Mora\u00advian immi\u00adgrants). It\u2019s easy to find the influ\u00adence of African-Amer\u00adi\u00adcan spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adals in it, while its Czech ele\u00adments are just as sol\u00adid. The first vio\u00adlin motif in the third move\u00adment echoes the song of the scar\u00adlet tan\u00adag\u00ader, a bird he heard often in Iowa. Like the pop\u00adu\u00adlar ninth sym\u00adpho\u00adny, it\u2019s a pro\u00adfound\u00adly human\u00adis\u00adtic and opti\u00admistic work. This was the hap\u00adpi\u00adest time in Dvo\u0159ak\u2019s life, and he was by nature a gen\u00adtle and com\u00adpas\u00adsion\u00adate man. Those ele\u00adments infuse the work, which was writ\u00adten, as I under\u00adstand, most\u00adly out\u00addoors, on the banks of a stream near an Iowa farm. This spot must have been, for him, simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adous\u00adly the pio\u00adneer-bro\u00adken prairies of a \u201cnew world\u201d, and the left bank of the Vlta\u00adva at Nela\u00adhozeves. Com\u00adfort\u00ading tra\u00addi\u00adtion and wild free\u00addom, age and youth, wis\u00addom and inno\u00adcence all com\u00adbined, with\u00adout con\u00adflict, with\u00adout con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtion. When I feel that things are basi\u00adcal\u00adly all right in the uni\u00adverse, that the forces of dark\u00adness must in the long run be over\u00adtak\u00aden by the light, then this is the music for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love string quar\u00adtets. Com\u00adposers seem to put their hearts and minds into them in a way that they don\u2019t reli\u00adably do for oth\u00ader forms. Since they have lit\u00adtle com\u00admer\u00adcial val\u00adue, they are usu\u00adal\u00adly com\u00adposed with nobody look\u00ading over the \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[947,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-listening","category-cs-listening-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8258,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/8258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}