Dvorak: String Quartet No.12 in F Op.96 "American" Mvt.I Allegro - wind quintet
Digital Sheet Music
By Antonin Dvorak

Item Number: A0.1134018

Arranged standard wind quintet

The String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, nicknamed the American Quartet, is the 12th string quartet composed by Antonín Dvořák. It was written in 1893, during Dvořák's time in the United States. The quartet is one of the most popular in the chamber music repertoire.

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)) 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 colour as in character,.

A characteristic, unifying element throughout the quartet is the use of the pentatonic scale. This scale gives the whole quartet its open, simple character, a character that is frequently identified with American folk music. However, the pentatonic scale is common in many ethnic musics worldwide, and Dvořák had composed pentatonic music, being familiar with such Slavonic folk music examples, before coming to America

Specific American influences have been doubted: "In fact the only American thing about the work is that it was written there", writes Paul Griffiths. "The specific American qualities of the so-called "American" Quartet are not easily identifiable, writes Lucy Miller, "...Better to look upon the subtitle as simply one assigned because of its composition during Dvořák's American tour.

This is my arrangement of the 1st movement: Allegro ma non troppo

i have arranged this as though Dvorak had written it for wind quintet, so have removed ALL of the tremolo semiquavers, and replaced them with either long notes or repeated quavers on the horn.

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