SKU: HL.14031801

7.0x10.0x0.28 inches.

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) was a British composer and conductor. He studied under Wood and Stanford at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, where he met and drew inspiration from Vaughan Williams, Holst, Howells, and Goossens. He was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 1953 and wrote music for many state occasions, including the Coronation and the Funeral of Winston Churchill.

The String Quartet No.1 in Bb Major was first published in 1941. It was actually the third String Quartet Bliss composed, but the first two were early works which he withdrew or lost. It was written in America in 1940 and first performed inBerkeley, California; it became the last work he wrote before he returned to Britain to help the war effort.

SKU: HL.14023669

ISBN 9780711977570. 9.0x12.0x0.155 inches.

There are two primary ideas behind this composition, the first being to create and almost orchestral chamber music, the idea for this coming from a performance of the Grosse Fuge performed by the Arditti Quartet. The second idea was to excercise the impressive and oppresive history of the string quartet by making the work a compendium of quotations from quartet repertoire. Influence from Schoenberg can be heard in chromatic, harmonic sequences and modal/diatonic varioations are also actively displayed within the piece. The quartet is written with amplification in mind and it is the composer's preference that it is performed in this way. String Quartet No.1 is dedicated to the memory of Thurston Dart. It was commissioned by the Arditti Quartet and first performed by them on 23 September 1985, Warsaw. Duration 26 minutes. Instrumental parts are available on sale.

SKU: HL.50600644

ISBN 9781495071041. UPC: 888680633219. 9x12 inches.

String Quartet No. 2, (Musée Mécanique), was commissioned by the Ciompi Quartet for their series at Duke University, with funds from Meet the Composer. The first performances were given on April 25 and 26, 2002. The Ciompi also helped in the preparation of this edition and have recorded both String Quartet No. 1 and String Quartet No. 2 for Albany Records (Troy 717). The second string quartet is dedicated, with enormous admiration and gratitude, to my friends Eric Pritchard, Hsiao-Mei Ku, Jonathan Bagg, and Fred Raimi of the Ciompi Quartet.