String Quartet (2vl,va,vc) SKU: BR.EB-9243 Full Score. Composed by...(+)
String Quartet
(2vl,va,vc)
SKU:
BR.EB-9243
Full
Score. Composed by
Christian Mason. Chamber
music; stapled. Edition
Breitkopf. World premiere
of the original version:
London, May 10, 2016World
premiere of the string
orchestra version:
Clermont-Ferrand, October
8, 2020. New music
(post-2000). Full score.
Composed 2016/2020. 40
pages. Duration 19'.
Breitkopf and Haertel #EB
9243. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
(BR.EB-9243).
ISBN
9790004185438. 9 x 12
inches.
It was the
practice of Khoomii
(throat singing) -
following several
workshops with Michael
Ormiston - that first
attracted me to Tuvan
music. Composing this
Songbook, the first in a
series commissioned by
the Ligeti Quartet, I
took the chance to
reflect on compositional
questions around
transcription and
arrangement of existing
music, and frequently
found myself asking:
where is the boundary
between the source
material and the new
substance? Of course the
relationship varies from
piece to piece, and
moment to moment:
sometimes we seem to
glimpse the pure source,
but most of the time
there are differing
degrees of distance,
working towards or away
from it. This new version
for string orchestra
corresponds closely to
the original quartet
version, with an
additional part for
double basses.The
traditional Tuvan songs
that I have transcribed
and recomposed are all
known to me from the Ay
Kherel CD The Music of
Tuva: Throat Singing and
Instruments from Central
Asia (2004, Arc Music).
According to the notes
from that CD, this is
what the songs are
about:1. Dyngylday: If
you have come on a horse
in blue, it doesn't mean
that you are the best. My
heart tells me something
else: my sweetheart
doesn't have such a
beautiful horse, but he
is my darling.An
alternative
interpretation from Alash
Ensemble
(alashensemble.com): The
word dyngylday is a
nonsense term with no
translation. The song
makes good-humored fun of
somebody for being a
good-for-nothing.2. Eki
Attar (The Best Steeds):
The horse is the basis of
our life. It is a magic
creature. Even its step
is full of music and
rhythm. You may not be a
horse rider, but when you
hear this song you will
always remember horses.3.
Kuda Yry: This wedding
song glorifies the
strength of the groom and
the beauty of his
Horse.4. Ezir-Kara
('Black Eagle'): This was
the name of a horse, who
became a legend through
his remarkable strength
and speed.It is not just
overtones that abound
here: there are galloping
rhythms aplenty, and
though I am no horse
rider I tried to keep the
horses galloping in my
imagination while
composing these
pieces.Christian Mason
(with quotes from Ay
Kherel and Alash
Ensemble)
World
premiere of the original
version: London/UK, May
10, 2016, World premiere
of the string orchestra
version:
Clermont-Ferrand/France,
October 8, 2020.
String Quartet (2vl,va,vc) SKU: BR.EB-9244 Set of Parts. Composed ...(+)
String Quartet
(2vl,va,vc)
SKU:
BR.EB-9244
Set of
Parts. Composed by
Christian Mason. Chamber
music; stapled. Edition
Breitkopf. World premiere
of the original version:
London, May 10, 2016World
premiere of the string
orchestra version:
Clermont-Ferrand, October
8, 2020. New music
(post-2000). Set of
parts. Composed
2016/2020. 92 pages.
Duration 19'. Breitkopf
and Haertel #EB 9244.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.EB-9244).
ISBN 9790004185445. 9
x 12 inches.
It was
the practice of Khoomii
(throat singing) -
following several
workshops with Michael
Ormiston - that first
attracted me to Tuvan
music. Composing this
Songbook, the first in a
series commissioned by
the Ligeti Quartet, I
took the chance to
reflect on compositional
questions around
transcription and
arrangement of existing
music, and frequently
found myself asking:
where is the boundary
between the source
material and the new
substance? Of course the
relationship varies from
piece to piece, and
moment to moment:
sometimes we seem to
glimpse the pure source,
but most of the time
there are differing
degrees of distance,
working towards or away
from it. This new version
for string orchestra
corresponds closely to
the original quartet
version, with an
additional part for
double basses.The
traditional Tuvan songs
that I have transcribed
and recomposed are all
known to me from the Ay
Kherel CD The Music of
Tuva: Throat Singing and
Instruments from Central
Asia (2004, Arc Music).
According to the notes
from that CD, this is
what the songs are
about:1. Dyngylday: If
you have come on a horse
in blue, it doesn't mean
that you are the best. My
heart tells me something
else: my sweetheart
doesn't have such a
beautiful horse, but he
is my darling.An
alternative
interpretation from Alash
Ensemble
(alashensemble.com): The
word dyngylday is a
nonsense term with no
translation. The song
makes good-humored fun of
somebody for being a
good-for-nothing.2. Eki
Attar (The Best Steeds):
The horse is the basis of
our life. It is a magic
creature. Even its step
is full of music and
rhythm. You may not be a
horse rider, but when you
hear this song you will
always remember horses.3.
Kuda Yry: This wedding
song glorifies the
strength of the groom and
the beauty of his
Horse.4. Ezir-Kara
('Black Eagle'): This was
the name of a horse, who
became a legend through
his remarkable strength
and speed.It is not just
overtones that abound
here: there are galloping
rhythms aplenty, and
though I am no horse
rider I tried to keep the
horses galloping in my
imagination while
composing these
pieces.Christian Mason
(with quotes from Ay
Kherel and Alash
Ensemble)
World
premiere of the original
version: London/UK, May
10, 2016, World premiere
of the string orchestra
version:
Clermont-Ferrand/France,
October 8, 2020.
Composed by Christian Mason. World premiere: Paris, Cite de la musique, Januar...(+)
Composed by Christian
Mason.
World premiere: Paris,
Cite
de la musique, January
14,
2020. Breitkopf and
Haertel
#EB 9377. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
Cassatt. Composed
by Dan Welcher. Premiere:
Cassatt Quartet,
Northeastern Illinois
University, Chicago, IL.
Contemporary. Full score.
With Standard notation.
Composed 2007. WRT11142.
52 pages. Duration 24
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #164-00272S.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(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.
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.164002720 Cassatt. Composed b...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.164002720
Cassatt. Composed
by Dan Welcher. Spiral
and Saddle. Premiere:
Cassatt Quartet,
Northeastern Illinois
University, Chicago, IL.
Contemporary. Set of
Score and Parts. With
Standard notation.
Composed 2007. WRT11142.
52+16+16+16+16 pages.
Duration 24 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#164-00272. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.164002720).
UPC:
680160573042. 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.
Quatour a Cordes No. 4 Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Intermédiaire Durand
String Quartet - intermediate SKU: HL.50565830 For String Quartet (Par...(+)
String Quartet -
intermediate
SKU:
HL.50565830
For
String Quartet (Parts
Only). Composed by
Philippe Hersant.
Editions Durand.
Classical. Softcover.
Composed 2015. Editions
Durand #DF01620401.
Published by Editions
Durand (HL.50565830).
French.
Born in
1948 in Rome, Philippe
Hersant studied music at
the Paris Conservatory,
notably in the
composition class of
Andre Jolivet, before
residing at the Casa
Velasquez from 1970 to
1972 and then at the
Villa Medici from 1978 to
1980. Since 1973 he has
been a producer for radio
broadcasts with France
Musiques. Refusing to
play tricks with history,
Philippe Hersant has
forged a language that
extends the course of
Western music as a whole,
and, without ever seeking
to establish a school, he
was one of the first of
his generation to place
himself, once more, in
the domain of tonality
and modality. He does
not, for all that, banish
all neo-classical
tendencies. On the
contrary, he champions
the mannerism and the
deep subjectivity of his
memory as sources and
guides to creation.
String quartet SKU: FG.55011-510-1 Composed by Matthew Whittall. Score an...(+)
String quartet
SKU:
FG.55011-510-1
Composed by Matthew
Whittall. Score and
parts. Fennica Gehrman
#55011-510-1. Published
by Fennica Gehrman
(FG.55011-510-1).
ISBN
9790550115101.
Matt
hew 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.
String Quartet No. 2 Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle Merion Music
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.144402180 After Zurbarán. ...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.144402180
After
Zurbarán. Composed
by James Primosch. Set of
Score and Parts. With
Standard notation.
20+8+8+8+8 pages.
Duration 18 minutes.
Merion Music #144-40218.
Published by Merion Music
(PR.144402180).
UPC:
680160027156. 9.5 x 13
inches.
The
concerts and exhibits of
the Cleveland Museum of
Art were an important
formative influence for
me during my student
days. So when the
invitation came to create
a new work celebrating
this institution on its
seventy-fifth
anniversary, I was not
only happy to accept, but
knew immediately that I
wanted to write a piece
that would somehow relate
specifically to the
museum. I decided to make
the work a reflection on
a painting in the
museum's collection:
Zurbaran's The Holy House
of Nazareth. My quartet
is not program music in a
narrative sense, but
rather a kind of
meditation that takes its
tone from this painting's
remarkable integration of
intense affect,
mysterious repose and
secret geometry. Besides
Zurbaran's painting, the
piece is occupied with a
purely musical object of
contemplation: the hymn
tune Picardy, best known
with the text Let All
Mortal Flesh Keep
Silence. This tune
permeates the harmonic
and melodic life of the
quartet, sometimes
appearing in a very
simple, straightforward
fashion, but often hidden
amidst more complex
structures. I was
attracted to the melody
for its musical
qualities, but later
realized that the hymn's
text also resonates with
the mood of the painting;
the words speak of a
reverent awe, of cherubim
with sleepless eye, and
of the mystery of the
Incarnate Word who must
suffer: King of kings,
yet born of Mary...
String Quartet No. 2 Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle Merion Music
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.14440218S After Zurbarán. ...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.14440218S
After
Zurbarán. Composed
by James Primosch. Full
score. With Standard
notation. Duration 18
minutes. Merion Music
#144-40218S. Published by
Merion Music
(PR.14440218S).
UPC:
680160027170. 9.5 x 13
inches.
The
concerts and exhibits of
the Cleveland Museum of
Art were an important
formative influence for
me during my student
days. So when the
invitation came to create
a new work celebrating
this institution on its
seventy-fifth
anniversary, I was not
only happy to accept, but
knew immediately that I
wanted to write a piece
that would somehow relate
specifically to the
museum. I decided to make
the work a reflection on
a painting in the
museum's collection:
Zurbaran's The Holy House
of Nazareth. My quartet
is not program music in a
narrative sense, but
rather a kind of
meditation that takes its
tone from this painting's
remarkable integration of
intense affect,
mysterious repose and
secret geometry. Besides
Zurbaran's painting, the
piece is occupied with a
purely musical object of
contemplation: the hymn
tune Picardy, best known
with the text Let All
Mortal Flesh Keep
Silence. This tune
permeates the harmonic
and melodic life of the
quartet, sometimes
appearing in a very
simple, straightforward
fashion, but often hidden
amidst more complex
structures. I was
attracted to the melody
for its musical
qualities, but later
realized that the hymn's
text also resonates with
the mood of the painting;
the words speak of a
reverent awe, of cherubim
with sleepless eye, and
of the mystery of the
Incarnate Word who must
suffer: King of kings,
yet born of Mary...
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.114410380 Composed by Lowell Lieberm...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.114410380
Composed
by Lowell Liebermann.
Saddle, Tape Junction.
Set of Score and Parts.
With Standard notation.
Composed 1998. Opus 60.
48 + 92 pages. Duration
30 minutes. Theodore
Presser Company
#114-41038. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.114410380).
UPC:
680160015160. 9.5 x 13
inches.
My second
String Quartet was
written twenty years
after the first, Opus 4
from 1978. The First
Quartet is an obsessively
contrapuntal work in one
movement, which was no
doubt influenced by my
studies with David
Diamond. I had always
intended to return to the
medium once I left the
astringency of my earlier
style, but it was only
when the National
Federation of Music Clubs
commissioned a major
chamber work, with
unspecified
instrumentation, to
celebrate their 100th
Anniversary that I was
enabled to do so. The
Second Quartet is in four
movements: Moderato,
Allegro isterico, an
Andante theme with 11
variations, and the
closing Allegro, which
then returns to the tempo
of the first movement. An
audience member at the
premiere told me that she
heard echoes of recent
tragic events such as the
Oklahoma bombing in this
work. While I had no such
programmatic intent while
writing the quartet, it
was not an entirely
incorrect assessment of
the work's intended
emotional impact. The
quartet is pervaded by a
sense of seriousness,
even mournfulness. The
second movement's scherzo
is an aggressively
animated piece of musical
machinery. The third
movement's Variations
unfold into a greater
variety of moods than the
others - but the moments
of lyricism are countered
by aggressive or ironic
outbursts. The final
movement's attempt at
triumph quickly subsides
into a return of the
first movement, before
being transformed onto a
sense of resignation and
acceptance as the
chromaticism of the
opening theme is
transformed into a pure
and diatonic C-Major. The
work received its world
premiere by the Shanghai
Quartet at the 100th
Anniversary Congress of
the National Federation
of Music Clubs at the
Congress Hotel in Chicago
on August 19th
1998. My second String
Quartet was written
twenty years after the
first, Opus 4 from
1978. The First
Quartet is an obsessively
contrapuntal work in one
movement, which was no
doubt influenced by my
studies with David
Diamond. I had always
intended to return to the
medium once I left the
astringency of my earlier
style, but it was only
when the National
Federation of Music Clubs
commissioned a major
chamber work, with
unspecified
instrumentation, to
celebrate their 100th
Anniversary that I was
enabled to do so.The
Second Quartet is in four
movements:Â Moderato,
Allegro isterico, an
Andante theme with 11
variations, and the
closing Allegro, which
then returns to the tempo
of the first movement.An
audience member at the
premiere told me that she
heard echoes of recent
tragic events such as the
Oklahoma bombing in this
work. While I had no
such programmatic intent
while writing the
quartet, it was not an
entirely incorrect
assessment of the
work’s intended
emotional impact. The
quartet is pervaded by a
sense of seriousness,
even mournfulness.Â
The second
movement’s scherzo
is an aggressively
animated piece of musical
machinery. The third
movement’s
Variations unfold into a
greater variety of moods
than the others –
but the moments of
lyricism are countered by
aggressive or ironic
outbursts. The final
movement’s attempt
at triumph quickly
subsides into a return of
the first movement,
before being transformed
onto a sense of
resignation and
acceptance as the
chromaticism of the
opening theme is
transformed into a pure
and diatonic C-Major.The
work received its world
premiere by the Shanghai
Quartet at the 100th
Anniversary Congress of
the National Federation
of Music Clubs at the
Congress Hotel in Chicago
on August 19th 1998.