SKU: PR.16400272S

UPC: 680160588442. 8.5 x 11 inches.

My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change.   I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]   The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla.   Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional.   II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts]   This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture.   This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream.   III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts]   The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this.   Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1.   String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.

SKU: BT.DHP-1196191-070

ISBN 9789043157988. English-German-French-Dutch.

With its simple, memorable melody and folk-song style, You Are My Sunshine is undoubtedly one of America’s most successful old-time music love songs. Its success in the 1940s massively boosted the popularity of the song’s singer and guitarist, Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell, so much so that it helped to springboard Davis’ political career, culminating in his successful election as Governor of Louisiana in 1944. Dezaire’s skilful arrangement retains the quintessential country sound of the original with this new string quartet orchestration.

You Are My Sunshine is een liefdesliedje in de Amerikaanse old-time-muziektraditie met een eenvoudige, volksliedachtige en bijzonder aanstekelijke melodie. Zanger Jimmie Davis en gitarist Charles Mitchell werden er in de jaren 1940 enorm populair mee. Het succes gaf Davis zelfs een beslissende boost in zijn politieke carrière, die hij bekroonde met zijn verkiezing tot gouverneur van de Amerikaanse staat Louisiana. Nico Dezaire heeft met dit arrangement de kenmerkende countrysound van het origineel op vakkundige wijze bewerkt voor strijkkwartet.

You Are My Sunshine ist ein Lovesong in der Tradition der US-amerikanischen Old-Time Music, dessen einfache, volksliedartige Melodie sich sofort einprägt. Sänger Jimmie Davis und Gitarrist Charles Mitchell erlangten mit diesem Titel in den 1940er-Jahren eine enorme Popularität. Bei Davis beflügelte dieser Erfolg sogar maßgeblich seine politische Karriere, die er mit seiner Wahl zum Gouverneur des US-Bundesstaats Louisiana krönen konnte. Nico Dezaire setzt in seiner Bearbeitung den typischen Country-Sound des Originals gekonnt auf eine Streichquartett-Besetzung um.

You Are My Sunshine est une chanson d’amour dans la tradition de la Old-time music américaine, dont la mélodie simple aux résonnances folkloriques reste dans la tête. Gr ce ce titre, le chanteur Jimmie Davis et le guitariste Charles Mitchell connurent une immense popularité dans les années 1940. Pour Davis, ce succès donna même un tournant déterminant sa carrière politique puisqu’il fut élu gouverneur de l’État de Louisiane. Dans son arrangement pour quatuor cordes, Nico Dezaire transpose avec talent les sonorités country caractéristiques de l’original.