Score and Parts

SKU: HL.367874

Score and Parts. Composed by Donald Crockett. LKM Music. Softcover. Lauren Keiser Music Publishing #X504092. Published by Lauren Keiser Music Publishing (HL.367874).

ISBN 9781705140307. UPC: 840126966664. 9.0x12.0x0.523 inches.

Commissioned by Caramoor Music Festival in New York and premiered July 14, 2017 by the Argus Quartet, this work is in no small part a response to this quartet's sense of adventure and expressive emotional range. Inspired by two end-of-civilization novels the composer was reading prior to composing the work, the quartet unfolds in a single movement, loosely based on plot lines in both novels. One of the novels includes a Traveling Symphony, an assortment of musicians and actors who travel the countryside for decades playing symphonies, jazz and orchestral arrangements of popular music alongside performances of Shakespeare plays, reminiscent of medieval troupes traveling the countryside in plague-ridden times. The work is written so that the quartet embodies the Traveling Symphony, not only playing music but also singing and 'stage whispering' fragments of King Lear and other text across the collection of nine scenes.

String quartet

SKU: BO.B.3664

Composed by Jordi Cervello. Published by Editorial de Musica Boileau (BO.B.3664).

Cuarteto San Petersburgo (The Saint Petersburg Quartet) was written between January and March 2011. It owes its name to the fact that Saint Petersburg has been a very significant city for me. I was invited there in 1988 to take part in a big contemporary music festival, but my uninterrupted bond with the city started on 2002, thanks to the negotiations of my friend and pupil Albert Barbeta. Since then, I have constantly travelled there in order to record a considerable part of my repertoire: seventeen pieces. In addition to the concerts we went to, I took the opportunity during my trips to visit the well-known conservatoire where so many great personalities from the world of music composition once taught, and the place that launched the most important violin school in the whole of Russia: the school of Leopoldo Auer. Spending a long time in Auer's classroom writing my concert for violin and orchestra was an unforgettable experience for me. His large portrait motivated me even further.

Cuarteto San Petersburgo evokes many of the most cherished and moving moments that I have had in this city. It is structured in four movements. The first one, Allegretto-Allegro, opens with an introduction that sets forth the two main themes, amid a soft and elastic atmosphere. The Allegro starts vigorously and in it we find changes in the tempo and moments of mystery, as well as certain seclusion, returning then to the emphatic theme where the counterpoint finds its place. The movement ends placidly.

The Scherzo-marcato that follows is marked by a persistent rhythm of triplets that carries on from beginning to end. The tempo does not change, but brief and decided themes are introduced, as well as passages of counterpoint. Brief and dissonant chords are heard throughout the movement, which ends vigorously.

The third movement, Ut, is a very special one. For a while already I had been playing with the idea of writing a movement that was to have the tonality C as a leitmotiv. This one is made up by two slow and static parts. In the first one, the first violin plays pizzicatti-glissandi. In the second, the first violin and particularly the violoncello settle on C while the other two instruments produce descending chromatic harmonies.

Finally, the Introduccion-Presto (the Introduction-Presto). It starts with some bucolic passages which remind us of the introduction to the first movement. A fast and energetic Presto suddenly erupts. A kind of moto perpetuo which alternates with two expressive passages and, towards the end, a viola and violoncello tremolo, all of great mystery and expectation, make way for a resounding finale marcato.

String Quartet (2vl,va,vc)

SKU: BR.EB-9260

Composed by Manuela Kerer. Chamber music; Folder. Edition Breitkopf.

World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017

Music post-1945; New music (post-2000). Set of parts. Composed 2016/17. 32 pages. Duration 15' - 18'. Breitkopf and Haertel #EB 9260. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.EB-9260).

ISBN 9790004185605. 9 x 12 inches.

When Hugo Ticciati asked me to write a new piece for his quartet, I was immediately enthusiastic about this project. I love how Hugo and his O/MODERNT String Quartet unite old and new music in a completely natural way. So, I was absolutely excited about Hugo`s idea of having my piece based on two of my idols, Bach and Beethoven, deconstructing the one and constructing the other. With all my respect for these great composers I gave to the piece a very personal inner part consisting of my own music that influenced and inspired the other parts. For the whole piece I felt very close to Beethoven, who said: To make a fugue is not art, which [is something] I have made dozens of times in my study. But the imagination will assert its rights and must come today, in light of the old traditional form, to another truly poetic element. De/Con is a travel into different centuries with different sound-languages. For me, it was like having a wonderful constructive discussion with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, each of us trying to speak our own language, approaching the others step by step. The piece could be defined as a Love Letter to two of the greatest composers ever. De/Con could be preceded by (parts of) Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue) and succeeded by Ludwig van Beethoven's Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue). Ideally, then, all parts should be played attacca. It could, but it hasn't to be played with these two pieces. (Manuela Kerer)

World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017.

By Stephen Pratt. For String quartet. Full score and parts. Duration 10 minutes. Published by Edition HH (U.K. Import).