# Help! Please compare Dvorak's string quartet # 12 to Williams' Lark Ascending



## Initianovitas (Jan 3, 2021)

I am by no means an expert. I am a simple man who appreciates musical genius in any genre. I have not yet intentionally set out to compare these two pieces, but while listening today I was struck by obvious similarities. Am I a fool? Or has someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar?


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

Welcome to the forum! The similarity you are hearing stems from the heavy use of pentatonic scales, which sound "exotic" and "folksy" to most people due to their common use in folk music from many cultures from Asia to America. In fact both these composers were very into folk music and drew heavily from it. Here's Wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic_scale


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## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

^
What Allegro Con Brio said, even though the first movement of Dvorak is Allegro ma non troppo  
But I agree with Allegro.

I love The Lark Ascending, great piece. 

Welcome to TC!


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Agree with the other posts. Also, Pentatonic pitch collections tend to make use of modal cadences instead of cadences based on the chromatic pitch collections of the Common Practice Period. Both the Dvorak and Vaughn-Williams pieces use a combination of both.

BTW, you picked two great pieces to study.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Olias said:


> Agree with the other posts. Also, Pentatonic pitch collections tend to make use of modal cadences instead of cadences based on the chromatic pitch collections of the Common Practice Period. Both the Dvorak and Vaughn-Williams pieces use a combination of both.
> 
> BTW, you picked two great pieces to study.


Great post, I understood 34% of it :lol:


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Initianovitas said:


> I am by no means an expert. I am a simple man who appreciates musical genius in any genre. I have not yet intentionally set out to compare these two pieces, but while listening today I was struck by obvious similarities. Am I a fool? Or has someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar?


If you're not an expert why reach so high, if I may ask?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Initianovitas said:


> I am by no means an expert. I am a simple man who appreciates musical genius in any genre. I have not yet intentionally set out to compare these two pieces, but while listening today I was struck by obvious similarities. Am I a fool? Or has someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar?


Since I also am a simple man, I will put the comparison into as simple terms as I can (because those are the only kinds of terms I am capable of). As you know, the Dvorak String Quartet No. 12 is "The American" Quartet. We're talking here about the eagle, and when it flies high, as in Dvorak's music, it ascends greatly. So we're talking about ascending birds. Eagles, Larks. Not much difference. Things with feathers. As Emily Dickinson suggests, hope.

Welcome to the Forum.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

HenryPenfold said:


> Great post, I understood 34% of it :lol:


Stop showing off


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I seem to recall Classic FM or Radio 3 doing some sort of mashup of these two on social media some time, if I'm not mistaken. Well I think it was these two pieces. I may just be dreaming.


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