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TALICH QUARTET 13
Can these scores be described as American? Most certainly not.
It would take an expert ornithologist’s ear to make out the song of the scarlet
tanager in the
Molto vivace
of the String Quintet in E flat major, for example. The
evocation of Indian drums in the finale,
Vivace ma non troppo
is easier to perceive.
The association with the spirit of Bohemian dance in these works is all the more
obvious in that Dvorak naturally knew how to handle the pentatonic scale, a scale
based on a system of five different pitches to the octave, generally anhemitonic
(without semitones): F-G-A-C-D. Pentatonism has been explored by many
European composers, often in pursuit of a Central European flavour, but also to
evoke extra-European music.
Dvo ák himselfwasmost sceptical about hisAmericanism. Onhis return toEurope,
he was often irritated by the veiled accusation of extra-European influence. Much
as the hustle of life in New York impressed Dvo ák, the ‘New World’ Symphony‘ is
much more than simply a description of that!