Chaconne. Par LERDAHL FRED. Chaconne (2016), for string quartet, was commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The commission was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and Aaron Copland Fund for Music. My music has a substantial history with Daedalus. I composed the Third String Quartet (2008) for them, and subsequently they performed my three string quartets on several occasions and recorded them brilliantly on Bridge Records (Bridge 9352: Music of Fred Lerdahl, vol. 3). Chaconne is in one movement lasting 19 minutes. It is effectively my fourth string quartet. Quartets 1-3 form a unified cycle lasting 70 minutes. When I finished the cycle, I thought I would never write again for the medium; yet I could not resist the opportunity of working again with Daedalus. The issue was how to compose another string quartet unrelated to the earlier cycle. The solution came from my solo cello piece There and Back Again (2010), which was based on a four-bar variation pattern from a 17th-century chaconne. Unlike the asymmetrical phrases and expanding variations of much of my music, the chaconne form requires symmetrical phrases and strictly periodic variations. I wished to work again with these symmetries but on a larger scale. Chaconne also differs in character and expression from the three-quartet cycle. The cycle is inward and intense, a kind of psychological excavation. Chaconne is, for the most part, transparent and playful. Many of its textures emerge from little canons, not completely unlike the rounds that children sing. Any composer who writes in chaconne form (one thinks above all of the last movement of Bach’s D minor violin partita and the finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony) is confronted with the challenge of how to create a larger form out of a constantly repeating pattern. My Chaconne grows from paired antecedent-consequent phrases, each variation lasting eight bars. The 50 variations group into three large rotations, forming three arcs of tension and relaxation, with subtle parallel connections across the rotations. Notwithstanding my attraction to chaconne form, I purposefully disguised its symmetries and periodicities in order to build an overall dramatic shape. Fred Lerdahl/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

During his time in America (1892-95) Dvorák suffered with homesickness. It was whilst living in New York that he began his String Quartet In A Flat Major but he did not complete the piece until afterhis return to Bohemia in December 1895.There is no trace of the influence of Indian or African-American music in this his final chamber work; rather the piece is striking for the amount of cantabile themes and motives and their contrasting and artistic treatment. It seems that his relief at seeing his children and family again directly influenced the work. Dvorák himself wrote in a letter during its composition that 'Almighty God hasgranted us this cheerful moment and thus we all feel unutterably happy'.This Henle publication is the first Urtext edition of the Quartet since 1955.

Sheet Music Magazine says 'I'm sure that children will enjoy playing this sympathetic arrangement very much... As ever with Spartan Press the thoughtful detail in presentation encourages good rehearsal and ultimately performance. Ideal for a school concert - warmly recommended'.Scored for violin 1 violin 2 Viola (or violin 3) cello contrabass. Grade: 3 - 5

This work composed for Children's Voices and String Quartet was commissioned by the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

Hans Abrahamsen's Ud og hjem for String Quartet (1989). Dyrecollage over danske børnesange / An 'animal collage' based on Danish children songs. Manuscript copy. Parts available: WH33031A