String Quartet no. 12 in F major op. 96

• New Urtext Edition of the “American” Quartet
• Standard notation used in the violoncello part
• Detailed Foreword (Ger/Cz/Eng) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editor

Dvorák composed his twelfth string quartet in F major op. 96, known as the “American” Quartet, in just twelve days during his summer vacation in Spillville, Iowa in June 1893. This immensely uplifting quartet has become one of the composer’s most popular works because of its immediate musical appeal.

The work was issued by the publisher Simrock in Berlin in 1894; Johannes Brahms read the corrections, but the correction copy has unfortunately not survived. The editor therefore used the autograph as well as the score and parts of the first print.

In accordance with current practice, the violoncello part of this edition refrains from using the false treble clef which raises the music an octave higher. Instead, the tenor clef is used.