Dvorak's American String Quartet mvt. IV

In 1893 Antonin Dvorák and his family spent his summer in a small hamlet in Iowa composing, in an attempt to escape city life. It was here that he created some of his most famous works, including the American String Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96. The pastoral imagery of an Iowa summer evoked throughout the entirety of the quartet is reminiscent of both the natural setting of rolling fields and (particularly here in the fourth movement) the crashing and pulsing of a train tearing through the Iowa landscapes. This is one of my favorite chamber music pieces because it combines Dvorák's eastern European background with elements of American music in the late 19th century and evokes the melting pot of the industrial-revolution era United States in a beautiful synthesis of style and genre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n415rCnniIA&feature=related