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String Quartet No. 13 (Dvorák)
Encyclopedia
Antonín Dvořák
composed his String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op.
106, (B.
192), between November and December 9, 1895. 1895 was an eventful year for him: he returned to Europe from America and his sister-in-law and first love both died. Upon finishing the String Quartet No. 13 in G major, he took back up his fourteenth
in A-flat major, which he had begun before this quartet and finished it on December 30th of that year. The fourteenth quartet was published with the opus number 105.
The string quartet
contains four movements
and lasts around 35 minutes. The movements are as follows:
(Dvorak's works have a confusing history of conflicting opus numbers, and so Jarmil Burghauser catalogued them more consistently in his book Antonín Dvořák; thematický katalog, bibliografie, přehled života a díla. (or, Antonín Dvořák: Thematic Catalog, Bibliography, Life and Work, first published in 1960. It is because of this that Antonín Dvořák's compositions have Burghauser numbers used sometimes to identify them, with 192 used for this quartet.
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
composed his String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op.
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
106, (B.
Jarmil Burghauser
Jarmil Michael Burghauser was a Czech composer, conductor, and musicologist....
192), between November and December 9, 1895. 1895 was an eventful year for him: he returned to Europe from America and his sister-in-law and first love both died. Upon finishing the String Quartet No. 13 in G major, he took back up his fourteenth
String Quartet No. 14 (Dvorák)
The String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major, op. 105, B. 193, was the last string quartet completed by Antonín Dvořák, even though it was published before his Thirteenth Quartet . Dvořák finished his Fourteenth Quartet in 1895, when he had returned to Bohemia after his visit to America...
in A-flat major, which he had begun before this quartet and finished it on December 30th of that year. The fourteenth quartet was published with the opus number 105.
The string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
contains four movements
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
and lasts around 35 minutes. The movements are as follows:
- Allegro moderato in G majorG majorG major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
and 2/4 timeTime signatureThe time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat.... - Adagio ma non troppo in E-flat major and 3/8 time
- Molto vivace in B minorB minorB minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The harmonic minor raises the A to A. Its key signature has two sharps .Its relative major is D major, and its parallel major is B major....
and 3/4 time, more like a rondoRondoRondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
with episodes in A flat major and D majorD majorD major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
for trioTrio (music)Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
s than a typical scherzoScherzoA scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
, as is more often found in this place in a string quartet in the Romantic musicRomantic musicRomantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
era. - Finale. Andante sostenuto – Allegro con fuoco The brief Andante sostenuto is in 4/4 "common" time, introduces a finale in 2/4 time, and interrupts it toward the end of the work. The finale is in the work's main key of G major.
(Dvorak's works have a confusing history of conflicting opus numbers, and so Jarmil Burghauser catalogued them more consistently in his book Antonín Dvořák; thematický katalog, bibliografie, přehled života a díla. (or, Antonín Dvořák: Thematic Catalog, Bibliography, Life and Work, first published in 1960. It is because of this that Antonín Dvořák's compositions have Burghauser numbers used sometimes to identify them, with 192 used for this quartet.