String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105

Quick Facts

• Composed in 1895; premiered in 1896 in Prague by the Rose Quartet (Karel Hoffmann, Josef Suk, Oskar Nedbal, and Hanuš Wihan)
• Four movements:
  1. Adagio ma non troppo — Allegro appassionato
  2. Molto vivace
  3. Lento e molto cantabile
  4. Allegro non tanto¹

About the Piece

• Dvořák began String Quartet No. 14 while still living in the U.S. However, after completing initial sketches for the piece, he set it aside for several months and picked it up once more back home in Prague.
• Fun fact: this piece is the last string quartet Dvořák completed. He actually began No. 13 after he started No. 14 (which is why No. 13 has a higher opus number), but he finished 13 before coming back to this work.
• String Quartet No. 14 marks an important turning point in Dvořák’s compositional career. Together with String Quartet No. 13, these works represent the composer’s last pieces of absolute music (music that has no extra-musical idea to go along with it). After this point, Dvořák would devote himself entirely to writing program music (music that has an extra-musical idea to go along with it, such as a story, an idea, a picture, or a text).²

1. “String Quartet No.14, Op.105 (Dvořák, Antonín),” IMSLP, accessed May 15, 2204, https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.14%2C_Op.105_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k%2C_Anton%C3%ADn).
2. “String Quartet No. 14 in A flat major, Op. 105, B193,” Antonín-Dvořák.cz, accessed May 15, 2024, https://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/work/string-quartet-no-14-a-flat-major/.