Par ZIMMERMANN BERND ALOIS. With this edition, Schott publishes the early two-movement string quartet by Bernd Alois Zimmermann for the first time. In a letter the composer wrote: 'I am still messing around with my quartet. This probably is the most concentrated work of composition - and the most abstract.' The string quartet belongs within the context of his early works which focussed on chamber music, unlike those of later years. Until 1945, he created a number of piano pieces and songs, a Suite for Violin and Piano as well as a String Trio (ED 7563)./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Richard Reed Parry's Quartet For Heart And Breath is an innovative and original piece based on the performers' own bodily rhythms. This sheet music is for String Quartet (Violin/Violin/Viola/Cello).Richard Reed Parry is familiar to millions as the lead singer of rock band Arcade Fire, yet his foray into classical music is equally worthy of attention. Quartet For Heart And Breath is an experiment into using the performers' heartbeats and breathing to dictate the tempo. The performers are instructed to wear stethoscopes in order to listen to their heartbeats closely, while one complete breath corresponds to one bar and two heartbeats equal two crotchets.The result is a quiet and subtle piece, as each instrument has to play softly so as to be able to keep in time. The piece also has a naturally occurring dynamism in that the players' heart rates constantly change as the performance goes on, with each instrument falling in and out of sync sometimes culminating in a beautiful moment of all heartbeats matching each other. Interestingly, this unique aspect means that no performance will ever be the same, meaning to hear or play this composition will be a truly once in a lifetime experience.Quartet For Heart And Breath is a superbly one-of-a-kind composition by Richard Reed Parry. Commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, this piece makes for a wonderfully distinctive performance, with fascinating implications for the connection between the music and the body. / Quatuor A Cordes

Par HOSOKAWA TOSHIO. In my sixth work for a string quartet, there is a very simple melody concealed in the background. That melody (distant voices) is played within an extremely slow tempo, and the notes which form the melody gain different textures by becoming disassembled, and played by different techniques. In our daily lives, our inner voices become concealed by our daily customs. The act of composing, to me, is to find out that concealed distant voices, make those voices spatialized and construct them within the musical time. This work is dedicated to Alois Lageder. Toshio Hosokawa / Date parution : 2023-06-01/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes