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.
String Quartet SKU: HL.14008374 Composed by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Mus...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
HL.14008374
Composed
by Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies. Music Sales
America. Classical.
Score. Composed 2006. 24
pages. Chester Music
#CH68629. Published by
Chester Music
(HL.14008374).
ISBN
9781846096150. UPC:
884088435202.
8.25x11.75x0.105
inches.
The Full
Score for Peter Maxwell
Davies' fourth in a
series of ten string
quartets commissioned by
the Naxos Recording
company, first performed
by the Maggini Quartet on
20th August 2004 at the
Chapel of the Royal
Palace, Oslo, Norway, as
part of the Olso Chamber
Music Festival. Composer
Note: The fourth Naxos
quartet was written in
January and February of
2004, with the intention
of producing something
lighter and much less
fierce than its
predecessor, an
unpremeditated and
spontaneous reaction to
the illegal invasion of
Iraq. I returned to the
well-known Brueghel
picture of children's
games (1560, now in
Vienna), which had been
the inspiration for my
sixth Strathclyde
Concerto, for flute and
orchestra. These
illustrations liberated
my musical imagination,
but I feel it would limit
the listener's perception
to be too specific about
which game relates to
exactly which section of
the work. Suffice it to
say that there is
vigorous play -
leap-frog, bind the devil
with a cord, truss,
wrestling - alongside
quieter pastimes - masks,
guess whom I shall
choose, courting, odds
and evens. The single
movement juxtaposes these
activities as abruptly
and intimately as they
occur in Brueghel. Rather
as the eye is taken into
different perspectives
and proportions of scale
within the picture,
taking liberties which
would never be present
in, for instance,
Brunelleschi
architectural drawings,
so here, with a constant
sequence of
transformation processes,
I have distorted the
neat, precise
implications of modal
progression, expressed in
the unison opening phrase
(from F to B through A
sharp/B flat), so that
the ear is led, en route,
into the sound
equivalents of strange
passageways and closed
rooms: sicut exposition
ludus. As work on the
quartet progressed I
became aware that I was
reading into, and behind
the games, adult motives
and implications,
concerning aggression and
war, with their
consequences. It was
impossible to escape into
innocent childhood
fantasy. The nature of
the F to B progression
underlying the whole
construction derives from
a passage in the
development of the first
movement of Mahler's
Third Symphony, and the
opening of Schoenberg's
Second String Quartet.
However, unlike in these
models, here a real - if
temporary - sense of
resolution occurs at the
close of the quartet: as
when the curtain falls on
the reconciled Count and
Countess in 'Figaro' one
wonders how long the F/B
truce will hold, and
games break out again.
The quartet is dedicated
to Giuseppe Rebecchini,
Roman architect, and
friend since the
nineteen-fifties.
The Greatest Show Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Intermédiaire De Haske Publications
From The Greatest Showman. Composed by Ryan Lewis, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul...(+)
From The Greatest
Showman.
Composed by Ryan Lewis,
Benj
Pasek, and Justin Paul.
Arranged by Anthony
Groger.
De Haske Pops for String
Quartet. TV-Film-Musical-
Show. Set (Score and
Parts).
Composed 2020. 12 pages.
De
Haske Publications #DHP
1206258-070. Published by
De
Haske Publications
String quartet (double
bass ad libitum) -
intermediate
SKU:
HL.49018965
Double
Bass Part. Composed
by Ludwig van Beethoven
and Wolfgang Birtel. This
edition: Saddle
stitching. Sheet music.
Edition Schott.
Classical. Softcover. 8
pages. Duration 13'.
Schott Music #ED20713-15.
Published by Schott Music
(HL.49018965).
ISBN
9790001175791.
What
do Beethoven and the
children's song Fuchs Du
hast die Gans gestohlen
have in common? Nothing,
strictly speaking.
Although the song was
written as early as 1824
(and theoretically,
Beethoven could have
known it), it has not
left deep marks on his
oeuvre. But what if he
had known it? Wolfgang
Birtel pursued this
question and, in reply to
it, conceived a symphony
for string quartet:
behind each movement is
an original symphony by
Beethoven (spiced with
quotes from other works).
The children's song
appears as the main theme
in the final movement of
Symphony No. 1, in the
famous funeral march of
Eroica, fate knocks at
the door (of the goose
house) in remembrance of
Symphony No. 5, and the
work ends with Ode to the
Roast Goose (Symphony No.
9). A funny and cleverly
arranged collage, a
performing and listening
pleasure in the footsteps
of Beethoven.
String Quartet SKU: HL.14030964 Composed by Bent Sorensen. Music Sales Am...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
HL.14030964
Composed
by Bent Sorensen. Music
Sales America. Classical.
Score. 10 pages. Music
Sales #KP00510. Published
by Music Sales
(HL.14030964).
ISBN
9788759861455.
English.
The
Composer writes: 'In
February 1987 I saw in
the Tate Gallery in
London a painting by the
Victorian English painter
John William Waterhouse.
The painting kept
haunting my memory, and
as I at the same time
planned to write a piece
for solo Viola, my ideas
for the music and the
memory of the painting
fused more and more. I
decided, then, to let my
piece borrow the title of
Waterhouse's painting:
The Lady Of Shalott. The
picture of a mad-like,
pale, and perhaps singing
woman alone in a boat
without sculls, which
calmly slips out from the
rush growth of the river
is an illustration for
the ending of Alfred
Tennyson's poem by the
same title, which again
plaits into the old
English legends about
King Arthur. My piece
tries to meander - like
the river at Camelot -
among these sources.' As
suggested above the piece
was originally written
for Viola solo. This
version for String
Quartet is from 1993.
String Quartet (Score) SKU: HL.14023669 Composed by Michael Nyman. Music ...(+)
String Quartet (Score)
SKU: HL.14023669
Composed by Michael
Nyman. Music Sales
America. 20th Century.
Score. Composed 1993. 48
pages. Chester Music
#CH60850. Published by
Chester Music
(HL.14023669).
ISBN
9780711977570.
9.0x12.0x0.155
inches.
There are
two primary ideas behind
this composition, the
first being to create and
almost orchestral chamber
music, the idea for this
coming from a performance
of the Grosse Fuge
performed by the Arditti
Quartet. The second idea
was to excercise the
impressive and oppresive
history of the string
quartet by making the
work a compendium of
quotations from quartet
repertoire. Influence
from Schoenberg can be
heard in chromatic,
harmonic sequences and
modal/diatonic
varioations are also
actively displayed within
the piece. The quartet is
written with
amplification in mind and
it is the composer's
preference that it is
performed in this way.
String Quartet No.1 is
dedicated to the memory
of Thurston Dart. It was
commissioned by the
Arditti Quartet and first
performed by them on 23
September 1985, Warsaw.
Duration 26 minutes.
Instrumental parts are
available on sale.
Parts for String Quartet No.3 'Angel's Music' by Bent Sorensen (1988) Premiered ...(+)
Parts for String Quartet
No.3 'Angel's Music' by
Bent Sorensen (1988)
Premiered by the Arditti
String Quartet at the
Danish Radio Concert Hall
16 November 1988. Score
available: KP00250 The
composer writes: 'Even
when I was writing Adieu,
I knew that I wished to
write Angels Music. The
title existed in an
incomplete form in my
mind and gradually more
and more ideas and a few
outlines became clear.
The actual work on Angels
Music was started in
Rome, where I spent the
autumn of 1987 staying at
The Danish Academy.
Whether this stay has
influenced the quartet or
not is impossible to say.
however, it is true to
say that, in the Roman
churches I visited, I saw
countless angels playing
in the top of frescoes
and altars. Without these
angels, together with the
many crackled-gold
paintings in this city
and my general
fascination with the
Italian renaissance
painter Fra Angelico, (in
fact there are only a few
paintings by him in Rome,
but even his name..!) I
am not sure my quartet
would have been what it
is. Anyway I do feel that
there is a bit of Italy
in the piece. The angels
apart there are, in the
short rhythmic agitating
part of the quartet,
reminiscences of the
Italian medieval Trotto
dance, and in the most
expressive part ofthe
piece there are flashes
of Puccini-like music.
From the very beginning
of my work on the
quartet, the distant,
extremely muted sound in
the high register which
opens the piece, was on
my mind. A sound satiated
with a dense heterophonic
and polyphonic texture of
elegiac melody and
vibrating trills. I
imagined that little
songs (maybe angel songs)
could be created in this
density, these songs
constantly echoing
themselves. Gradually as
this sound got a more and
more concrete musical and
instrumental form, I
felt, that not only
should the little songs
be created, played and
die out in an echo, but
also that the general
pattern of the quartet
should give the feeling
of music which, from the
distance, is getting
closer and closer,
culminates and at last
disappears like an echo.
Related to this, the
general pattern of Angels
Music is divided into
three: a pre-echo,
culmination and echo..
The relationship between
the three part is 5: 6:
4. The reason why I can
say this precisely and
prosaically is that it
was necessary to me to
mark the overall
guidelines before I
started to compose. I had
to do this in order to
enable the relationships
to crawl from the small
cells into the general
pattern.'
String Quartet SKU: HL.14036314 Composed by Hugh Wood. Music Sales Americ...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
HL.14036314
Composed
by Hugh Wood. Music Sales
America. 20th Century.
Studyscore. Composed
2001. 40 pages. Chester
Music #CH63745. Published
by Chester Music
(HL.14036314).
ISBN
9781844491728.
Comm
issioned by the Lyndsay
Quartet in 2000 to
celebrate the opening of
an arts studio in
Sheffield, with the
premiere on 5th October
2001. Wood's 5th quartet
pays respects to the
Classical heritage of the
form, returning to the
use of discrete
movements, two of which
reveal the composer's
love and fascination of
the scherzo. Includes a
foreword and description
by the composer.