Born in the quiet of Spillville and first heard in a family reading, Dvořák’s American Quartet carries memories of Bohemia into a new landscape. i Work Information Composer: Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) Title: String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, “American,” Op. 96, B. 179 Year of composition: 8–23 June 1893, Spillville, Iowa Premiere: 1 January 1894, Boston; Kneisel Quartet Genre: String quartet Style: Romanticism Structure: Four movements Duration: Approx. 25–30 minutes Instrumentation: Two violins, viola and cello The two violins shimmer softly above the cello's foundation. For a moment F major seems almost motionless, a field of light waiting to be marked. Then the viola rises through the texture and sings a melody that sounds as though it had already been present in the air. This is how the American Quartet begins: with the immediacy of a song discovering its voice, and with an intimacy that draws th...