The String Quartet No. 14 in A major, Op. 105, B. 193, was the last

string quartet The term string quartet refers 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 Violin, violini ...

completed by

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...

, 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 * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

, when he had returned to

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

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 Program music or programmatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program not ...

, 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 ( ...

s and

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s, afterwards. The Quartet premiered on October 20, 1896.

Structure

Lasting about 30–35 minutes, the four

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

contain the following notable features:

References

External links

* * Performance of String Quartet No. 14 by the

Borromeo String Quartet The Borromeo String Quartet is an American string quartet, in residence at the New England Conservatory since 1992. They have performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, at numerous festivals and in many distinguished chamber m ...

from the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

format
1. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro appassionato

2. Molto vivace

3. Lento e molto cantabile

4. Allegro non tanto
Dvorak 14 1895 compositions Compositions in A-flat major {{chamber-composition-stub