Dense movement structures dialogizing in pairs and a darkened overall sound are what Mozart, Schubert and Brahms already thought to be fascinating in the genre of string quartet. Following this tradition, the composer and violist Brett Dean created 'Epitaphs', an homage to five recently departed colleagues and friends to each of whom is dedicated one movement of the 20-minute work. It was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival 2010 by Dean and the Australian String Quartet. / Quatuor A Cordes

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

A series of popular music for working string quartets. Light enjoyable repertoire pieces and entertaining encores. Each folio contains five pieces. Contents: \'Bridge Over Troubled Water\', \'Candle In The Wind\', \'(Everything I Do) I Do It For You\', \'Killing Me Softly With His Song\', \'Without You\'. / Quatuor A Cordes

Le travail de Paul Hindemith est encyclopédique dans la nature. Dès le départ, il a travaillé dans tous les genres musicaux et a élaboré plusieurs de ses idées et de projets individuels, non pas comme des oeuvres autonomes musicales, mais aussi des cycles de travailavec différents rapports fonctionnels. Ces pièces contrastées complètent mutuellement si connu dans le cadre de la structure globale. Hindemith lui-même ne voulait pas seulement une édition complète de ses oeuvres complètes, mais avait commencé à planifier cela, à sa mort, il a laissé une liste détaillée des, morceaux inédits pour une éventuelle édition complète '.Les oeuvres complètes contiennent tous les travaux finis dans toutes les versions existantes, nouvellement gravés pour l'édition. Esquisses et fragments sont publiés dans les annexes du volume concerné, et sont évalués dans l'introduction et le commentaire critique par l'éditeur du volume respectif.Chaque volume contient une préface par les directeurs de rédaction et une introduction par l'éditeur de volume, la délimitation de la genèse et l'histoire de l'exécution des travaux, avec des instructions de performances authentiques, une évaluation des enregistrements existants par Paul Hindemith lui-même et un commentaire critique.Les oeuvres complètes de Paul Hindemith sont donc présentés dans une édition critique, scientifique qui est également appropriée pour l'étude et la performance. Hindemith chercheurs vont accueillir les nombreuses premières publications des oeuvres du compositeur et les musiciens pratiques apprécieront le matériau de performance philologique commandé récemment préparé. / Quatuor A Cordes