Voice & String Quartet

SKU: ST.Y296

Composed by Rhian Samuel. Chamber music. For High Voice, String Quartet and Piano. Score (2 copies supplied) and parts. Score and parts. Stainer & Bell Ltd. #Y296. Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (ST.Y296).

ISBN 9790220223525.

Natu re and landscape have been the dominant themes of much of Rhian Samuel's vocal music of the last ten years, projected chiefly through the poetry of Anne Stevenson, and in her most recent song-settings, the writings of the Pakistan-born Texas-based poet Zulfikar Ghose. His poem 'Conspiracy of the Clouds' describes how, the clouds having chosen to become invisible, 'Even the astronauts on the space shuttle / looked down on a cloudless America' as hurricanes ravage Louisiana and storms engulf Nebraska. An intriguing conceit in the tradition of magic realism, the text is presented as a scena lasting around 16 minutes, with interpolations from 'Haze' by the nineteenth-century New England transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Thus modern fable and romantic nature-description are juxtaposed, and their interaction becomes the source of musical contrasts too. Thoreau's words are assigned predominantly to the vocalist's highest register, those of Ghose to her lower tessitura; and the suggestive and dramatic accompaniment builds tension steadily to the final ironic response of an incredulous American public: not one of awe and wonder, but the question 'Why weren't we told about it?

String quartet (P/ST) - difficult

SKU: HL.49033305

Composed by Peteris Vasks. This edition: Saddle stitching. Sheet music. Edition Schott. Score and Parts. Composed 2004. 56 pages. Duration 25'. Schott Music #ED9809. Published by Schott Music (HL.49033305).

ISBN 9790001137911. UPC: 884088408053. 9.0x12.0x0.202 inches.

String Quartet No. 5 consists of two contrasting movements. The first movement, being present, immediately leads to an atmosphere of high emotional tension. The prevailing atmospheric elements of the music are dramatic and passionate, alternating with each other like a kaleidoscope. In contrast to that, a second theme is intoned three times - an invitation, a memory of the existence of another world, a light-house which illuminates the twilight in which we live so often. But this invitation remains unheard. The first movement concludes with dissonances in the upper register - a cry of utter desperation.The second movement, so distant ... yet so near, is the calm, unhurried vocal section of the quartet. A forgiving, loving look at a world tortured by grief and contradictions. Gradually, the singing becomes more personal, more emotional and more dramatic. The rhythmic figure of a funeral march in the recapitulation of the second movement is a gesture of loss. Eventually, the quartet loses itself in an atmosphere of light-filled grief. Peteris Vask.

String Quartet

SKU: PR.16400222S

Composed by Dan Welcher. Full score (study). With Standard notation. Duration 11 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #164-00222S. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.16400222S).

UPC: 680160037841.

This work follows my Quartet No. 1 by five years. In terms of style and aesthetic aim, however, it seems light years away. Where the first work, a 28-minute, four-movement piece, took aim at cosmic conflicts and heroic resolutions, the present work is intended as a kind of divertissment. Harbor Music lasts a mere eleven minutes, is cast in a single movement with six sections, and should leave both performers and listeners with a feeling of good humor and affection.   The title comes from my experience as a guest in the magnificent city of Sydney, Australia. One of its most attractive features is its unique system of ferry boats: the city is laid out around a large, multi-channeled harbor, with destinations more easily approached by water than by land. Consequently, inhabitants of Sydney get around on small, people-friendly boats that come and go from the central docks at Circular Quay. During a week's visit in 1991, I must have boarded these boats at least a dozen times, always bound for a new location - the resort town of Manley, or the Zoo at Taronga Park, or the shopping district at Darling Harbour.   In casting about for a form for my second string quartet, a kind of loose rondo came to mind. Each new destination would be approached from the same starting-out point (although there are subtle variations in the repeating theme; it's always in a new key, and the texture is never the same). The result, I hope, is a sense of constant new information presented with introductory frames of a more familiar nature.   The embarkation theme, which begins the piece, is a sort of bi-tonal fanfare in which the violins are in G major and the viola and cello are in B-flat major. It is bold, eager, and forward-looking. The first voyage maintains this bi-tonality, beginning as a 9/8 due for second violin and viola in a kind of rocking motion -much as a boat produces when reaching the deeper water in the harbor. A sweet, nostalgic theme emerges over this rocking accompaniment. This music is developed somewhat, then transforms quickly into a much faster and lighter episode, filled with rising and falling scales (again, in differing keys). A scherzando interlude in short notes and changing meters provides contrast, and the episode ends with a reprise of the scales.   The second embarkation follows, this time in A major/C major. It leads quickly into a very warm and slow theme, in wide-leaping intervals for the viola. This section is interrupted twice by solo cadenzas for the cello, suggesting distant boat-horns in major thirds. The end of the episode becomes a transition, with boat-horns leading into the final appearance of the embarkation music, this time in trills and tremolos instead of sharply accented chords. The nostalgic theme of the first episode makes a final appearance, serving now as a coda. The rocking motion continues, in a lullaby fashion, leaving us drowsy and satisfied on our homeward journey.   Harbor Music was written for the Cavani Quartet, and is dedicated to Richard J. Bogomolny. Commissioned by his employees at First National Supermarkets as a gift, it represents a thank you from many of the people (including this composer) who have benefitted from his vision and generosity. An ardent advocate of chamber music (and a cellist himself), Mr. Bogomolny has for many years been Chairman of the Board of Chamber Music America. -- Dan Welcher.

String quartet - Moderately Difficult to Difficult

SKU: OU.9780193412552

Composed by Anthony Powers. String Quartets. Set of parts. 60 pages. Duration 20'. Oxford University Press #9780193412552. Published by Oxford University Press (OU.9780193412552).

ISBN 9780193412552. 12 x 8 inches.

This four-movement work represents the composer's desire 'to write a piece of real chamber music, intimate and conversational in tone, drawing the listener into its worlds'. The result, he writes, 'is a rather inward-looking, reflective work, not without a capricious aspect, but only occasionally raising its voice.'.

String quartet - Moderately Difficult to Difficult

SKU: OU.9780193583122

Composed by Anthony Powers. String Quartets. Score. 44 pages. Duration 20'. Oxford University Press #9780193583122. Published by Oxford University Press (OU.9780193583122).

ISBN 9780193583122. 12 x 8 inches.

This four-movement work represents the composer's desire 'to write a piece of real chamber music, intimate and conversational in tone, drawing the listener into its worlds'. The result, he writes, 'is a rather inward-looking, reflective work, not without a capricious aspect, but only occasionally raising its voice.'.

Parts. Composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). Edited by Anselm Gerhard. Henle Music Folios. Classical. Softcover. 69 pages. G. Henle #HN1588. Published by G. Henle

String Quartet - advanced

SKU: HL.49033197

Score and Parts. Composed by Paul Dessau. This edition: Saddle stitching. Sheet music. Edition Schott. Classical. Score and Parts. Composed 1957. 28 pages. Duration 7'. Schott Music #ED9617. Published by Schott Music (HL.49033197).

ISBN 9790001134897. UPC: 884088075477. 8.25x11.75x0.071 inches.

Dessau's String Quartet movement was written while he was also working on Brecht's opera Puntila. After Brecht's death in 1956 Dessau found himself looking for a new direction. On the one hand he was still working on music begun in collaboration with the poet, while on the other hand Dessau was trying to work towards a socially oriented musical aesthetic, which led him to compose songs for political purposes. Even this Quartet movement does not owe its inspiration purely to an artistic vision. In spite of its technical demands, the piece is intended to be comprehensible and could even be played by an amateur ensemble in its cleverly reduced form. Only discovered after the composer's death, the Movement for String Quartet is published for the first time in this edition.

String quartet (P/ST) - difficult

SKU: HL.49033214

Composed by Tatjana Komarova. This edition: Saddle stitching. Sheet music. Edition Schott. Score and Parts. Composed 2002. 62 pages. Duration 20'. Schott Music #ED 9635. Published by Schott Music (HL.49033214).

ISBN 9790001135283.

When some time ago I looked at works by the painter Egon Schiele whom I admire very much, I thought which paintings would have been painted by this artist, had he not died much too early. I envisioned the works he had never painted. Isn't it impressive with what modest means he achieves maximum emotional effect? It was this thought, too, that accompanied me during my work on this piece - though painting techniques cannot be directly reflected in the music, of course. Tatjana Komarova.