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The
String Quartet no.12 in F major, op.96, ‘American’
came into being in the
Iowan countryside, far from the noise and agitation of the great cities. Dvo ák
completed it in a very short time; on the last page of the manuscript he wrote:
‘Thank goodness, I have finished, I am pleased, it did not take long.’
If, as we have seen, the influence of certain local folk elements is obvious, the four-
movement structure of the work, on the other hand, is perfectly ‘classical’. As in
many of Dvo ák ‘s works, the viola plays the first theme of the
Allegro ma non troppo
.
The viola is central to Czech music and particularly to the works of Dvo ák: it acts
as the composer’s voice, conveying his innermost thoughts.
14 DVOŘÁK