Canticle. Par JALBERT PIERRE. Canticle (String Quartet No. 6) was commissioned by the Chiara String Quartet. It consists of seven movements, highly contrasting in character, with movements I and VII serving as similar bookends to the overall arch of the work. The piece opens with the quartet members striking various crotales, producing bell sounds that eventually blend with the string quartet – evoking the title, Canticle. The faster, pulse-oriented music requires the players to use glass rods on their instruments and at one point quickly moves back and forth between alternating rhythmic subdivisions, producing extremely rapid metric modulations. The last movement blends the string quartet with the bowing of the crotales to produce an ethereal, other-worldly finale to the canticle. Pierre Jalbert / Niveau : Avancé / Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BACEWICZ GRAZYNA. Studying the sketches for works which a composer considers to be finished, perfected, is a fascinating activity. It enables one to penetrate the secrets of creative work, to compare the initial outline of a composition with its final version. A sketch is generally left untitled, but it does occur that a composer enhances the status of such a draft by giving it a title, before creating an improved version of that title on the basis of the finished work. The list of compositions by Grazyna Bacewicz, the full catalogue of which is held in the National Library in Warsaw, includes a work for string quartet entitled Quatuor. The manuscript was left undated, but analysis of the music allows us to date this work to the mid-1960s. In the composer?s output from that period, the instrumental tone colouring, often an element that helps to forge a work, takes on particular significance. The first movement of the Quatuor [à cordes] opens with three fifth-tritone chords ?cast forth?, in succession, in saltando-gettato technique by the cello, second violin and first violin. When we look at the beginning of the Seventh String Quartet, from 1965, such a chord appears in the second bar of the cello part. Further comparisons lead to interesting conclusions. The two opening movements are almost identical, built from the same elements, only spatially arranged in a different way. In the structure of the first movement of the Seventh Quartet, one distinguishes two thematic planes, which shape the narrative after the fashion of a sonata allegro. The first theme is a series of episodes of changing texture ? from passagework to chords and short glissandos repeated with varying intensity. The second theme (Meno mosso) displays an imitative form. Both works feature an inverted reprise. For the first 25 bars of the second movement, a nostalgic Grave, the two works sound identical. The continuation of this movement in the Quatuor [à cordes] is more modest than in the analogous segments of the Seventh Quartet, in terms of both changing textures and the use of differentiated means of articulation. Towards the end, a motif from the beginning of this movement returns in modified form. Both the third movements (Capriccioso in the Quatuor [à cordes], Con vivezza in the Seventh Quartet) take the form of a rondo, and appearing in each of them is the same ?warbling? theme, based on scattered notes with grace notes. The Seventh String Quartet is in three movements. The presumed prototype consists of four movements. The last movement of the Quatuor [à cordes] is a Maestoso resembling a mine of textural ideas for other works of a sonoristic provenance from this period. The introduction, constituting a closed narrative whole and a reference point for the rest of the movement, is followed by segments that are dominated by ostinatos of various kinds, including with the use of harmonics, passages built on the progressive shifting of short motifs, and unevenly spread chords. Grazyna Bacewicz used material from earlier works more than once in her compositions. Her oeuvre also includes ?twin? pieces merely scored for a different set of instruments. Yet the self-quotation that occurs in the case of the Quatuor [à cordes] and the Seventh String Quartet ? lengthy passages from another of her works reused with minor modifications ? is an unusual situation. It undermines the former?s status as an independent work. Malgorzata Gasiorowska/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Arrangeur: Jonathan Leshnoff. Par LESHNOFF JONATHAN. Having written four String Quartets in less than a decade, Leshnoff struck a lighter note with his fifth, titled Four Dances. The four dance movements are I Waltz, II Pavane, III Chas Tanz, IV Furlana. Written in 2014, Four Dances was premiered by Carpe Diem String Quartet the following year, and has just been recorded by the same on an album featuring Leshnoff's 3rd and 4th String Quartets, as well. Four Dances is also arranged for saxophone quartet (494-03141) and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra recently premiered a chamber orchestra arrangement, available on a rental basis. An arrangement for full orchestra is also available on rental.Having written four String Quartets in less than a decade, Leshnoff struck a lighter note with his fifth, titled Four Dances. The four dance movements are I Waltz, II Pavane, III Chas Tanz, IV Furlana. Written in 2014, Four Dances was premiered by Carpe Diem String Quartet the following year, and has just been recorded by the same on an album featuring Leshnoff's 3rd and 4th String Quartets, as well. Four Dances is also arranged for saxophone quartet (494-03141) and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra recently premiered a chamber orchestra arrangement, available on a rental basis. An arrangement for full orchestra is also available on rental./ Répertoire / 2 Violons, Alto et Violoncelle

Italie for String Quartet Score and Parts. Par BAKER CLAUDE. Annees de pelerinage: Italie (Years of Pilgrimage: Italy) derives its title from the set of three suites for piano by Franz Liszt in which he musically portrays the strongest sensations and most lively impressions created by his travels to Italy and Switzerland during the period 1835-39. In this composition, each of the four movements explores a particular Italian city or region through, in part, the eyes of other composers who (like Liszt) were inspired to write works based on their own sojourns in the country. There are references, both literal and oblique, to music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Liszt (with a sly wink from Paganini). Serious and playful elements combine in thepiece, with the two inner movements (II. Venezia e Napoli and III. Firenze) providing light-hearted foils to the more somber outer movements (I. Roma and IV. Abruzzo). Annees de pelerinage: Italie (Years of Pilgrimage: Italy) derives its title from the set of three suites for piano by Franz Liszt in which he musically portrays the strongest sensations and most lively impressions created by his travels to Italy and Switzerland during the period 1835-39. In this composition, each of the four movements explores a particular Italian city or region through, in part, the eyes of other composers who (like Liszt) were inspired to write works based on their own sojourns in the country. There are references, both literal and oblique, to music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Liszt (with a sly wink from Paganini). Serious and playful elements combine in thepiece, with the two inner movements (II. Venezia e Napoli and III. Firenze) providing light-hearted foils to the more somber outer movements (I. Roma and IV. Abruzzo). / Date parution : 2019-05-27/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Aus meinem Leben. Par SMETANA BEDRICH. The composition of the first string quartet „Aus meinem Leben“ follows a time of fateful transformations in the life of Smetana. 1874 he lost his hearing. Two years later he moved to the countryside with his family where he was bani/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes