The String Quartet No. 14 in A major,
Op. 105,
B. 193, was the last
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
completed by
Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...
, even though it was published before his
String Quartet No. 13 (which appeared with the higher opus number Op. 106).
[Dent, Huntley (2018). Dvořák String Quintet No. 3 in E♭, op. 97, “American”1. String Quartet No. 14 in A♭, op. 105. '' Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors'' 41 (3): 234–35] Dvořák finished his Fourteenth Quartet in
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
, when he had returned to
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
after his visit to America.
The gestation of the Quartet had actually begun in America and lasted six months, which was rather protracted for the composer. This Quartet marked an important point in Dvořák's development because he would devote himself almost exclusively to writing explicit
program music, namely
symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
s and
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
s, afterwards.
The Quartet premiered on October 20, 1896.
Structure
Lasting about 30–35 minutes, the four
movements contain the following notable features:
References
External links
*
* Performance of String Quartet No. 14 by the
Borromeo String Quartet from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in
MP3 format
1. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro appassionato2. Molto vivace3. Lento e molto cantabile4. Allegro non tanto
Dvorak 14
1895 compositions
Compositions in A-flat major
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