SKU: PR.114405050
UPC: 680160008377. 11 x 14 inches.
Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique efffect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water , disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorlines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluch the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against the sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in spae. Here, the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement , two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue among the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of 'psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.
SKU: PR.11440505S
UPC: 680160008391. 11 x 14 inches.
Although structurally it subdivides into five movements, the entire quartet emerges as one vast continuum. There are no formal breaks between movements. However, certain musical signposts can be discerned, associated with each of the movements' terminations and new beginnings. The opening movement, The Nostalgia of Clanging Bell Sonorities, begins floating on recurrent Bbs whose soft rhythmic flow slowly puts into motion strong undercurrents suggestive of the latent power of water... After several suggestions of tolling bells, the movement gradually fades into hushed tones of veiled and very distant sonorities. It uses a unique effect, for the first time in a musical context, conveyed through the use of extra heavy practice mutes. The second movement, The Spill of Water, disengages itself from the first through its distinct contrast in tempo. Water moves fast, and when it splashes, it tends to run wildly. In this case, it happens to be bubbly water that gushes forth bodly... smashing across rocky shorelines. So, too, the music attempts to conjure such moods. At the end of this movement, a cello cadenza emerges, introducing an introspective type of melodicism. The third movement, The Poignancy of Memory, contains many silences as it tries to convey memory through fragmented remembrances much like often occur in our dream state. Progressing through several slowly building images, it gradually works itself into juxtaposition of musical images. Towards the movement's end, high harmonics are sounding in all four instruments while left hand pizzicato notes in the cello pluck the last remembrances of this central core. Almost imperceptibly, the viola assumes leadership as it dissolves into: The fourth movement, The Fluidity of Motion, which has mostly the viola, but also the cello, articulating lyrical statements against sheets of sound conjured up by the two violins playing a flood of swirling figures, evokes a kind of static motion in space. Here , the virtually imperceptible manner in which this hushed whisper continues incessantly, can suggest the potential fluidity with which movement may inch forward... Later into the fourth movement, two fairly extended solos by the second and then the first violins, lead to a kind of spontaneous dialogue amont the four instrumentalists. Eventually, this musical conversation gets caught up in: The fifth movement's The Rush of Time, which opens with a hushed flurry of speed, precipitates the Finale. It generates, at first slowly, but then very swiftly, whole shifts of rhythmic fields that initially seem to conflict with one another. Ultimately, this use of psycho-rhythmics contributes to an on-rush seem of motion and time. Rhythmic changes are, at times, abruptly precipitated with but little or no preparation creating a kind of inevitability in forward thrust, while the movement rushes forward with a feeling of gradual and continuous acceleration. It gathers density as more and more notes are piled progressively upon successive beats. The attempt is to spark tension and ignite excitement by means of frenetic confrontations of dissimilitudes. Ultimately - with the help of time - these polarities centrifically spin out their own destinies with their accompanying fall-out and own inevitable resolutions.
SKU: BR.KM-2261
ISBN 9790004501658. 16.5 x 11.5 inches.
Gran Torso, for string quartet, was composed in 1971 and revised in 1978. It belongs to a series of works, including Air, Kontrakadenz, Pression and Klangschatten, whose concept of material attempts to free itself from convention. That is, instead of using the sound itself as a point of departure, structural and formal hierarchies are derived from the mechanical and physical conditions present during the process of sound production. It is clear that such a radical break with tradition is not easily achieved: the instrument, the given means, the resonating body itself (as the embodiment of convention) all work against such attempts (with the extended performance techniques representing only the tip of the iceberg of deep-seated contradictions where the bourgeois artist is concerned). Implicit in such a challenge, however, is a claim to aesthetic pregnance: an offer, if one would have it, of uncomprosing beauty.(Helmut Lachenmann, 1978)CDs/LPs:Berner StreichquartettCD col legno 0647 277Berner StreichquartettLP col legno 5504Societa Cameristica ItalianaLP ABT ERZ 1003Arditti String QuartetCD KAIROS, 0012662KAIstadler quartettCD NEOS 10806The JACK QuartetCD mode 267Stadler Quartett, Rg. Caroline SiegersDVD NEOS 51001Bibliography:Alberman, David: Abnormal Playing Techniques in the String Quartets of Helmut Lachenmann, in: Helmut Lachenmann Music with matches, hrsg. von Dan Albertson, Contemporary Music Review 24 (2005), Vol. 1, pp. 39-51.Dulaney, Maxwell: Continuing the Tradition Untraditionally: Helmut Lachenmann's Restructuring of Musical Dialectic through an Analysis of his Three String Quartets, and an Original Composition, Harmonic Concerto, Diss. Brandeis University, MI 2013.Egger, Elisabeth: Kontinuitat, Verdichtung, Synchronizitat. Zu den grossformalen Funktionen des gepressten Bogenstrichs in Helmut Lachenmanns Streichquartetten, in: Musik als Wahrnehmungskunst. Untersuchungen zu Kompositionsmethodik und Horasthetik bei Helmut Lachenmann, hrsg. von Christian Utz und Clemens Gadenstatter (= musik.theorien der gegenwart 2), Saarbrucken: Pfau 2008, pp. 155-171.Hermann, Matthias: Helmut Lachenmann - Gran Torso, in: Analyse Musik XX. Jahrhundert (2). Postserielle Konzepte Klangflachen Aleatorik (= Materialien zur Musiktheorie 4), Saarbrucken: Pfau 2002, pp. 134-152.Hiekel, Jorn Peter: Die Streichquartett Gran Torso und Grido von Helmut Lachenmann, in: Lucerne Festival, Sommer 2005 Neuland, Konzertprogramm 6, pp. 65-69.Houben, Eva-Maria: Helmut Lachenmann: Gran Torso ..., in: dies., Musikalische Praxis als Lebensform (= Musik und Klangkultur 27), Bielefeld: Transcript 2018, S. 208-212Lehmann, Harry: Erhabenheit - Ereignis - Ambivalenz. Zur Asthetik der Neuen Musik, in: Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik 176 (2015), Heft 5, pp. 22-27.Mosch, Ulrich: Kunst als Medium der Ungeborgenheit. Streichquartette und soziale Funktion des Komponierens bei Helmut Lachenmann, in: Positionen 81 (November 2009), pp. 37-39.ders.: Was heisst Interpretation bei Helmut Lachenmanns Streichquartett ,,Gran Torso?, in: Wessen Klange? Uber Autorschaft in neue Musik, hrsg. Von Hermann Danuser und Matthias Kassel (= Veroffentlichungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung 12), Mainz u.a.: Schott 2017, S. 163-186Nonnenmann, Rainer: Werke als Schlussel zu Werken? Zur umstrittenen Kategorie ,,Schlusselwerke der neuen Musik, in: MusikTexte, Heft 147 (November 2015), pp. 35-46.Stork, Astrid: Materialbegriff und Strukturdenken. Untersuchungen zu den Streichquartetten von Helmut Lachenmann, Magisterarbeit Ruhr-Universitat Bochum 1992Tsao, Ming: Helmut Lachenmann's Sound Types, in: Perspectives of New Music 52 (2014), Heft 1, pp. 217-238.Velazquez, Rossana Lara: Composicion y escucha burguesa: Principios de continuidad y ruptura en el cuarteto Gran Torso de Helmut Lachenmann, Diss. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico 2011.Zenck, Martin: Die mehrfache Codierung der Figur: Ihr defigurativer und torsohafter Modus bei Johann Sebastian Bach, Helmut Lachenmann und Auguste Rodin, in: de figura. Rhetorik Bewegung Gestalt, Text und Bild, hrsg. von Gabriele Brandstetter und Sibylle Peters, Munchen 2003, pp. 265-288.World premiere: Bremen (pro musica nova), May 6, 1972.
SKU: PR.144407270
UPC: 680160681891. 9 x 12 inches.
My Eighth and Ninth String Quartets, begun in late 2017, are sonic cousins. Akin to real cousins, each piece exhibits differing natures. They were requested by two ensembles that have become asecond familiesa to me: The Jupiter Quartet of Urbana, Illinois and the Amernet Quartet based in Miami, Florida. Their collective dedication to, and care for, our art remains a personal and constant are-fuelinga for me. The quartets were commissioned by, and dedicated to, Margaret and Philip Verleger of Denver, Colorado. Additional financial support was provided by the School of Music at Stetson University, Timothy Peter, Dean. Quartet No.8 is laid out in a classical four-movement design. The work does break somewhat from conventional tradition by often placing quartet members into soloistic roles as the movement titles note. individual The opening piece presents at the outset a three-note motto which is turned over, tumbled, and energetically discussed, primarily by a violin duet. It is a duel. The two players part company only infrequently during the movement's progress, pausing briefly for other commentary by their alower cohortsa, the Viola and Cello do not argue, but abet their friends' aeffortsa. The piece's overall character is fairly bright and dancelike, closing in an unresolvedastandoffa. not Two principal asound-objectsa stitch the second movement scherzo together: sliding hands (glissandos) and a plucked ashufflea (pizzicato) - both instigated by the (solo) cellist. The others are influenced - or are not - by their aleadera, and follow - or interrupt - the cello throughout their four-voiced conversation. The third movement (longest of the set) is an elegy dedicated to the memory of a close personal friend, the American composer David Maslanka (1943 - 2017). Its' genesis is a simple 5-note melody derived from my own name (SaC/DaC/EaC/H). This line commences in the (solo) viola and is obsessively uttered without relief during the movement's lamentations. The closing movement revisits much of that opening three-note material, but now dressed up for the full quartet to view. It is a slowly accelerating romp which - twice - cannot avoid a nod to the Amernet and Jupiter performers by offering a humble bow to the 4th movement of Gustav Holst's PLANETS - Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity. My quartet serves as an honouring salute of thanks for the talent, respect, and friendship of these two young quartets. STRING QUARTET No. 8 is roughly 22 minutes in duration. It was written as an homage to Franz Joseph Haydn, my adesert-island-composera, and completed in Holly Hill, Florida in early April of 2019. S.H.
SKU: PR.14440727S
UPC: 680160681907. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: HL.14036341
ISBN 9780711955080.
Commissioned by the BBC and premiered by the Chilingirian String Quartet. Quoting Wood: In my Second and Third Quartets I attempted sectional, agglutinative forms: in my Fourth I return to the conventional four movement form of my First Quartet of 1962. Both works build up (as in the 19th century symphony) to the Finale, thus making it the most substantial movement, which provides a climax to the work. The First Movement has, in both works, only the status of an Introduction. But there the consciously willed resemblances end. This Introduction follows the Second Quartet to a certain extent, in that it provides a sort of 'cauldron', from which elements to be used later can all be plucked. Its opening will reappear at various points throughout the work, most completely at a climatic point of the Finale (bar 110). Subsequent material will be more fully worked out in the second movement, a large Scherzo. The Introduction concludes with an unusually placed violin cadenza (itself a rare feature in a string quartet, the idea lifted from Elliott Carter's First Quartet) of which the opening is to reappear halfway through the Finale. The Scherzo (which follows attacca) does not have at its centre a discretely characterized Trio: a figure in double-stops like a distant fanfare supplies the necessary contrast of a second idea. The Slow Movement has a secondary idea first heard on the cello and marked appassionato: an agitato middle section recalls the opening of the work, but in a formulation which will be found closely to anticipate its reappearance in the Finale. The Finale is planned on a broad scale. Only after a fully worked exposition of both primary and secondary material does the opening of the whole work return, now in a greatly extended form. Then, at bar 140, the tune of the violin cadenza is first harmonized in fanfare style on the upper instruments, then presented as a chorale on the lower ones, with a rushing semiquaver accompaniment above. This climatic activity mounts to the very end. The work is dedicated to the Chilingirian Quartet, old friends over many years. Score available separately: SOS04044.
SKU: FG.55011-510-1
ISBN 9790550115101.
Matthew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.
SKU: BT.DHP-1064034-070
ISBN 9789043124720. 9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.
Traditionally a string quartet will not readily take on pop music. But times are changing and the classic quartet line-up proves suitable for beautiful arrangements of contemporary songs as well. This book features three hits from past decades, The Rose (Bette Midler) with its simple, pure sounds and underlying harmonies, La Solitudine (Laura Pausini) - compelling and with a hidden energy and finally Wonderwall (Oasis), an unexpected choice, with its persistent rhythmic background. To allow the string quartet to play together with optional guitar or keyboard, chord symbols have been added in the score. These songs - which certainly have a passionate andromantic ring to them - are ideal for receptions, weddings and other festive occasions. (Position 1-5) Drie bekende songs in geslaagde bewerkingen voor strijkkwartet: Pop Ballads for String Quartet bewijst dat het kan. Om het strijkkwartet de mogelijkheid te bieden samen te spelen met gitaar of keyboards zijn akkoordsymbolentoegevoegd in de partituur. Deze songs vol passie en romantiek zijn ideaal voor het opluisteren van recepties, bruiloften en andere feestelijke gelegenheden. (Position 1-5)Ein Buch für alle Streicher, die anstatt der klassischen Literatur für Streichquartett auch einmal etwas ganz Modernes, Unterhaltsames spielen wollen. Hans Aerts und Gunter Van Rompaey bearbeiteten für diese Ausgabe drei bekannte Pop- Titel für zwei Violinen, Viola und Cello. Akkordsymbole für eine Begleitung von Keyboard oder Gitarre sind ebenfalls enthalten.(Position 1-5) Ce recueil contient trois succès des dernières décennies : The Rose, avec ses sonorités simples et épurées et ses harmonies demi cachées ; La Solitudine, l‘énergie dissimulée et enfin Wonderwall, un choix inattendu dont le tapis sonore est continuellement rythmé. Des symboles d’accords ont été ajoutés sur la partition afin de permettre au quatuor cordes de se faire accompagner d’une guitare ou clavier (partie optionnelle). (Position 1-5)Questa pubblicazione permetter ai giovani musicisti di cominciare a suonare in gruppo. Il quartetto d’archi è da sempre la formazione per eccellenza, equilibrata e potente nell’espressione. Anche la musica in stile pop, arrangiata per l’occasione da Hans Aerts, si adatta a questo tipo di organico. L’importante è saper ascoltare la parte degli altri per inserire il proprio ritmo nell’insieme. (Position 1-5).
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