SKU: PR.14440265S

UPC: 680160027910.

The Second and Third Quartets were conceived at the same time; indeed, their composition intermingled, over half of No. 3 being sketched before No. 2 was completed. Accordingly, they share similar material but, like the intertwining blood of cousins, their natures differ: No. 2 being somewhat acerbic and declamatory, No. 3 more lyric and gentler. An annunicatory 'leaping motive' (derived from a motto generated by my name) opens Quartet No. 2 and inhabits the course of the piece as a cyclical binding-force. A five-note motive, usually very deliberate, also keeps recurring like an insistent caller. All three movements are based on tonal centers (I on B and E, II on D, III on C) and the harmonic 'grammar' spoken tends to recall the jazz world of my youth. To hopefully achieve a certain classical ambience was one of the goals of this piece, and all three movements have traditional forms. The first movement is a modified Sonata-Allegro design, with a severely-truncated recapitulation balanced by a lengthy, and decaying Coda. The second movement is a set of strophic variants and an epilogue interspersed with both solo ritornelli and first-movement material (the motto and the five-note motive) in the nature of a fantasia-like 'call-and-response.' It is dedicated to the memory of the American mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani. The third movement is a modified Rondo (ABACBA) which evolves out of the opening motto. All three movements make much use of canonic stretti, similar gestures, and repetition. For example, the climax of movement III's Rondo throws the first movement back at us again, as if the players were reluctant to let it go, so that the entire piece could perhaps be viewed as a single large, extended, Sonata movement, with introduction and Coda.
The Second and Third Quartets were conceived at the same time; indeed, their composition intermingled, over half of No. 3 being sketched before No. 2 was completed.  Accordingly, they share similar material but, like the intertwining blood of cousins, their natures differ: No. 2 being somewhat acerbic and declamatory, No. 3 more lyric and gentler.An annunicatory ‘leaping motive’ (derived from a motto generated by my name) opens Quartet No. 2 and inhabits the course of the piece as a cyclical binding-force.  A five-note motive, usually very deliberate, also keeps recurring like an insistent caller.  All three movements are based on tonal centers (I on B and E, II on D, III on C) and the harmonic ‘grammar’ spoken tends to recall the jazz world of my youth.To hopefully achieve a certain classical ambience was one of the goals of this piece, and all three movements have traditional forms.  The first movement is a modified Sonata-Allegro design, with a severely-truncated recapitulation balanced by a lengthy, and decaying Coda.  The second movement is a set of strophic variants and an epilogue interspersed with both solo ritornelli and first-movement material (the motto and the five-note motive) in the nature of a fantasia-like ‘call-and-response.’  It is dedicated to the memory of the American mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani.  The third movement is a modified Rondo (ABACBA) which evolves out of the opening motto.All three movements make much use of canonic stretti, similar gestures, and repetition.  For example, the climax of movement III’s Rondo throws the first movement back at us again, as if the players were reluctant to let it go, so that the entire piece could perhaps be viewed as a single large, extended, Sonata movement, with introduction and Coda.

SKU: HL.50603813

ISBN 9781705145913. UPC: 840126992892.

The String Quartet no. 4, subtitled Dedication, was commissioned by the CNDM of Madrid to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven and was written for, and dedicated to, the Cuarteto Casals (2017). This one-movement work, lasting some 11 minutes, is based on a small motif from the op quartet. 130 as a tribute to the German master. The work, that explores the full range of the technical, musical, and emotional scope of the quartet medium, has a ternary arrangement, with a slow introduction and a conclusive stretta on the B-flat note (like the one that opens Op. 130). Its course includes marked contrasts between the contemplative, lyrical, static and suspensive sections - in the manner of stagnations - and those with a more lively tempo, playful and occasionally festive.

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SKU: PR.14440505S

UPC: 680160594603.

The most straightforward and shortest of any of my string quartets to date, the sixth employs only two thematic gestures which are used, perhaps obsessively, throughout: (a) brief melodic lines formed principally of sevenths, and (b) an ascending scale. The formal design is born out of the continual combining, interweaving and juxtaposition of these two elements, which collect themselves into two movements played without pause: the first predominantly slow and pensive, the second rhythmic and driving. Quartet No. 6 is approximately 16 minutes in duration. The score was commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Calder Quartet, four extremely talented young musicians with whom I performed at the Aspen, Colorado, Music Festival, and is dedicated to my wife, Elizabeth on the occasion of our fifty years together. The first movement is written in memory of my father-in-law Howard Deischer (1907 - 2005), who died during the course of composing. The work was completed in April of 2005 in Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida. -- Sydney Hodkinson.
The most straightforward and shortest of any of my string quartets to date, the sixth employs only two thematic gestures which are used, perhaps obsessively, throughout: (a) brief melodic lines formed principally of sevenths, and (b) an ascending scale.  The formal design is born out of the continual combining, interweaving and juxtaposition of these two elements, which collect themselves into two movements played without pause: the first predominantly slow and pensive, the second rhythmic and driving.Quartet No. 6 is approximately 16 minutes in duration.  The score was commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Calder Quartet, four extremely talented young musicians with whom I performed at the Aspen, Colorado, Music Festival, and is dedicated to my wife, Elizabeth on the occasion of our fifty years together.  The first movement is written in memory of my father-in-law Howard Deischer (1907 – 2005), who died during the course of composing.  The work was completed in April of 2005 in Ormond-by-the-Sea, Florida.— Sydney Hodkinson.

SKU: FG.55011-875-1

Lotta Wennäkoski's Pige (2021-2022) for string quartet was commissioned to be paired with the Death and the Maiden quartet by Franz Schubert (pige is Danish for girl). The composer tells:

The first movement Vorüber, ach, vorüber! is based on the first half of Schubert’s lied lying behind his The Death and the Maiden quartet. The maiden’s song in the beginning of the lied has not found its way to his string quartet, so I wanted to use this material in mine. The second move-ment Daktylus borrows its idea from the haunting pulse of Schubert’s chant of Death. Something fierce and something soundless can be heard here - along with other variants on the dactyl rhythm. For example, I’ve written a lyrically flowing melody based on the same rhythmic pattern (long-short-short).

Schubert’s quartet is wonderful music and of course a cornerstone of the repertoire, and the death and the maiden is a strong, tempting and gloomy motif in art history. On the other hand, I just couldn’t help seeing the motif also as a - somewhat passé - image of an old male desiring the ulti-mately young female body. The third movement thus turns its gaze to the girl herself. Pigen og scrapbogen, The Girl and the Scrapbook, is joyful textural music - compiled of fragments and freely handled quotations that might spring to mind when thinking of a vital girl’s life.


This product includes the full score and the set of parts.

Movements:
1. Vorüber, ach, vorüber!
2. Daktylus
3. Pigen og scrapbogen (das Mädchen und das Scrapbuch)

The first movement can also be performed separately as a prologue to The Death and the Maiden string quartet by Franz Schubert.