ISBN 1581061706. 9x12 inches.
Antonin\|Dvorak composed\|the quartet in F Major, op. 96 The American; in the summer of 1893 during his\|summer vacation in Spillvale, Iowa. From 1892-1895, Dvorak served as director of the National Conservatory of Music in NYC. He had been interested in American\|Music; and felt that Native American and Afro-American music could inspire an\|American Music; distinct from European influences. He was inspired by (Henry\|Thacker) Harry Burleigh, his student in New York and one of the first\|Afro-American composers.
While it is\|impossible to know why Georges Barrere chose Dvorak's F Major Quartet to\|transcribe for Woodwind Quintet, we may easily hazard several guesses. Firstly,\|it was a work much beloved by the public and very respected by professional\|musicians. As an immigrant himself, Barrere could easily sympathize with\|Dvorak's desire to create a distinctly American work. A work in the key of F\|Major, it lent itself easily to wind transcription. While known as the Barrere\|transcription, it turns out that Samuel Baron, one of Barrere's most famous\|students and a long time member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, who has to\|his credit a long list of wonderful transcriptions for woodwind quintet, played\|a significant role in the transcription.
