Antonín Dvořák, composed the String Quartet in F major op. 96 early in the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa, where he went to spend his vacation while he was in the US. It was, as he specifically recorded on the autograph of the score, his second composition to originate in the United States, for it was directly preceded by the famous 9th symphony with its much-discussed leanings on the traditional music of native Americans (Indians) and Afro-Americans.
While Dvořák personally gave the symphony its famous tag “From the new world”, the title “American quartet” for the opus 96 did not come from the composer himself. Still, we can broadly agree that the strikingly frequent rhythmic patterns in the compositions from Dvořák’s stay in the United States (1892–95) probably go back to his experience with Indian chanting to drums that the composer could demonstrably also have heard in Spillville.
Here is an excellent interpretation by the Takacs Quartet of this enjoyable work by Dvorak:
