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.
What's Going On Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Intermédiaire Hal Leonard
Score and Parts String Quartet (Score & Parts) - Grade 3-4 SKU: HL.4492674(+)
Score and Parts String
Quartet (Score & Parts) -
Grade 3-4
SKU:
HL.4492674
By Marvin
Gaye. Arranged by Robert
Longfield. Pops For
String Quartet. Pop.
Softcover. Duration 190
seconds. Published by Hal
Leonard (HL.4492674).
UPC: 196288015901.
9.0x12.0x0.077
inches.
Though
initially written over 50
years ago, Marvin Gaye's
plea for peace and
understanding is a
message that still
resonates strongly and
needs to be heard. This
arrangement for string
quartet by Robert
Longfield maintains the
original's easy cool and
R&B rhythms in a
format that allows
modern-day students to
“find a way to
bring some loving here
today.â€.
Score
and Parts. Composed
by Lucio Franco Amanti.
String Ensemble.
Classical. Softcover. 56
pages. Duration 840
seconds. Schott Music
#ED22674. Published by
Schott Music
(HL.49046188).
ISBN
9781540051684. UPC:
888680938703. 9.0x12.0
inches.
When
Cuarteto Casals
approached me with the
idea of illuminating
Beethovens quartets anew,
you can imagine the many
thoughts and feelings
that where going through
my mind: what a joy, what
a great honor What an
intriguing
head-scratcher! How can
you possibly shine a new
light on something that
is already perfect?
Weeks, months went by in
search of a common ground
between the Master and
myself until I finally
found it in the
realization that a word
lays hidden in the St.
Johns hymn that gave
musical notes their
original name: Re, Sol,
Ut, Io (D, G, C, B in
English music notation)
Perfect!
“Resolutioâ€
in Latin means both the
resolution of aproblem
and the re-solution: a
re-blend of many elements
that will eventually
coagulate to make
something new. There was
finally themelodic and a
rhythmical canvas for my
piece. On this canvas I
wrote the story of a
funny little contest,
played on a sunny
Mediterranean square,
between street musicians
and Cuarteto Casals just
minutes before they are
about to go on stage to
perform Beethovens Harp
Quartet. After all the
characters, each in his
own way, had the chance
to tell their story, a
gentle rain starts to
fall, dissolving
(Re-solving) again the
music sheet to eventually
leave us with just a
white piece of paper for
somebody else to continue
the Work. (Lucio Franco
Amanti).
Tenor & String Quartet SKU: PE.EP72822 Composed by Jonathan Dove. Voice(s...(+)
Tenor & String Quartet
SKU: PE.EP72822
Composed by Jonathan
Dove. Voice(s) & Various
Instruments. Edition
Peters. Living Composer.
Score and Part(s). 164
pages. Duration 00:30:00.
Edition Peters
#98-EP72822. Published by
Edition Peters
(PE.EP72822).
ISBN
9790577011769. 232 x
303mm inches.
English.
I have
only visited Damascus
once, twenty years ago,
on the way to
Palmyra. I had a
purpose (I was writing
music for a play about
Palmyra’s Queen
Zenobia) but essentially
I was a tourist.
Like any visitor, I was
thrilled to step out of
the noisy modern city
into the magical ancient
world of the walled Old
City, its vibrant souk
leading to the
magnificent mosque, and a
labyrinth of winding,
narrow streets filled
with the smell of
unleavened
bread.
In Palmyra,
I was met with
extraordinary kindness
everywhere. On one
occasion, a little
Bedouin boy noticed that
I was risking sunstroke
wandering bare-headed
among the spectacular
ruins: he showed me how
to tie a turban, then
took me to have tea with
his family in their
tent.
Since then, I
have watched helplessly
as these places of wonder
have been devastated and
their inhabitants
scattered and
killed. When the
Sacconi Quartet suggested
that I might choose a
Syrian poet for our
collaboration, I welcomed
the idea.
I
searched for a long time
to find a contemporary
poet whose work might
gain from any music I
could imagine. I
felt it was important to
find first-hand accounts
of the Syrian experience
– but, of course, I
was always reading them
in translation. In
an anthology
called Syria
Speaks, I was
astonished to read
something that looked
like prose, but was full
of poetry. It was
Anne-Marie
McManus’s fine
translation of Ali
Safar’s A
Black Cloud in a Leaden
White Sky
– an
eloquent, thoughtful,
contained yet vivid
account of life in a
war-torn country, all the
more moving for its
restraint.
In
setting these words, I
have not attempted to
imitate Syrian
music. However,
there is what might be
called a linguistic
accommodation in my
choice of scale, or
mode. Several
movements are in a mode
that I first discovered
while writing a cantata
commemorating the First
World War: it has a
tuning that I associate
with war, its violence
and desolation.
This eight-note
mode is similar to scales
found in Syrian
music. I did not
choose it in the
abstract: it emerged from
the harmonies I was
exploring in the earlier
work, and emerged again
as I was looking for the
right musical colours to
set Ali Safar’s
words. In this
work, its Arabic aspect
is more prominent. -
Jonathan
Dove
This
product is Printed on
Demand and may take
several weeks to fulfill.
Please order from your
favorite retailer.
String Quartet SKU: HL.14030980 Parts. Composed by Bent Sorensen. ...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
HL.14030980
Parts. Composed by
Bent Sorensen. Music
Sales America. Classical.
Set of Parts. Edition
Wilhelm Hansen #KP00249.
Published by Edition
Wilhelm Hansen
(HL.14030980).
ISBN
9788759871973.
12.0x16.0x0.285
inches.
Score
available: KP00250 The
composer writes: 'Even
when I was writing Adieu,
I knew that I wished to
write Angel's 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
Angel's 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 of the
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
Angel's 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 general
pattern almost
fractionally into the
smallest cells of the
music, or more correctly;
crawl from the small
cells into the general
pattern.'.
Beatles for 4 Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Intermédiaire De Haske Publications
String Quartet - intermediate SKU: BT.DHP-1175785-070 Composed by John Le...(+)
String Quartet -
intermediate
SKU:
BT.DHP-1175785-070
Composed by John Lennon
and Paul McCartney.
Arranged by Anthony
Gröger. De Haske Pops
for String Quartet. Set
(Score and Parts).
Composed 2017. 12 pages.
De Haske Publications
#DHP 1175785-070.
Published by De Haske
Publications
(BT.DHP-1175785-070).
ISBN 9789043152877.
International.
In
the entire history of pop
and rock, no band has so
dominated the music scene
as original brit-poppers
the Beatles did in the
1960s. For this medley
for string quartet, four
songs were selected that
show the musical range of
the Fab Four: from the
powerful Help!
through the romantic
evergreen
Yesterday and the
rock classic A Hard
Dayâ??s Night to the
passionate anthem All
You Need Is Love.
In de Pop and
Rock geschiedenis heeft
geen enkele ander band de
muziekscene zo
gedomineerd als The
Beatles tijdens de jaren
zestig. In deze medley
voor strijkkwartet zijn
vier songs geselecteerd
die de muzikale
verscheidenheid van de
Fab Four goed
weerspiegelen: van het
krachtige Help!
via de romantische
evergreen
Yesterday en de
rockklassieker A Hard
Dayâ??s Night tot
het hartstochtelijke
All You Need Is
Love.
In der
gesamten Geschichte der
Pop- und Rockmusik gab es
keine andere Band, die
die Musikszene so
beherrscht hat, wie es
bei der britischen
Popband The Beatlesâ??
in den 1960er Jahren der
Fall war. Für dieses
Medley für
Streichquartett wurden
vier Stücke
ausgewählt, welche die
musikalische Bandbreite
der Fab Fourâ??
(berühmten Vierâ??)
zeigen: vom
mitreiÃ?enden
Help! über den
klassischen Evergreen
Yesterday und den
Rock-Klassiker A Hard
Dayâ??s Night bis
hin zu der
leidenschaftlichen Hymne
All You Need Is
Love.
String Quartet No. 2 Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle Merion Music
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: PR.14440265S Composed by Sydney F. Hodk...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
PR.14440265S
Composed
by Sydney F. Hodkinson.
Large Score. With
Standard notation.
Duration 25 minutes.
Merion Music #144-40265S.
Published by Merion Music
(PR.14440265S).
UPC:
680160027910.
The
Second and Third Quartets
were conceived at the
same time; indeed, their
composition intermingled,
over half of No. 3 being
sketched before No. 2 was
completed. Accordingly,
they share similar
material but, like the
intertwining blood of
cousins, their natures
differ: No. 2 being
somewhat acerbic and
declamatory, No. 3 more
lyric and gentler. An
annunicatory 'leaping
motive' (derived from a
motto generated by my
name) opens Quartet No. 2
and inhabits the course
of the piece as a
cyclical binding-force. A
five-note motive, usually
very deliberate, also
keeps recurring like an
insistent caller. All
three movements are based
on tonal centers (I on B
and E, II on D, III on C)
and the harmonic
'grammar' spoken tends to
recall the jazz world of
my youth. To hopefully
achieve a certain
classical ambience was
one of the goals of this
piece, and all three
movements have
traditional forms. The
first movement is a
modified Sonata-Allegro
design, with a
severely-truncated
recapitulation balanced
by a lengthy, and
decaying Coda. The second
movement is a set of
strophic variants and an
epilogue interspersed
with both solo ritornelli
and first-movement
material (the motto and
the five-note motive) in
the nature of a
fantasia-like
'call-and-response.' It
is dedicated to the
memory of the American
mezzo-soprano Jan
DeGaetani. The third
movement is a modified
Rondo (ABACBA) which
evolves out of the
opening motto. All three
movements make much use
of canonic stretti,
similar gestures, and
repetition. For example,
the climax of movement
III's Rondo throws the
first movement back at us
again, as if the players
were reluctant to let it
go, so that the entire
piece could perhaps be
viewed as a single large,
extended, Sonata
movement, with
introduction and
Coda. The Second and
Third Quartets were
conceived at the same
time; indeed, their
composition intermingled,
over half of No. 3 being
sketched before No. 2 was
completed.Â
Accordingly, they share
similar material but,
like the intertwining
blood of cousins, their
natures differ: No. 2
being somewhat acerbic
and declamatory, No. 3
more lyric and gentler.An
annunicatory
‘leaping
motive’ (derived
from a motto generated by
my name) opens Quartet
No. 2 and inhabits the
course of the piece as a
cyclical
binding-force. A
five-note motive, usually
very deliberate, also
keeps recurring like an
insistent caller. All
three movements are based
on tonal centers (I on B
and E, II on D, III on C)
and the harmonic
‘grammar’
spoken tends to recall
the jazz world of my
youth.To hopefully
achieve a certain
classical ambience was
one of the goals of this
piece, and all three
movements have
traditional forms.Â
The first movement is a
modified Sonata-Allegro
design, with a
severely-truncated
recapitulation balanced
by a lengthy, and
decaying Coda. The
second movement is a set
of strophic variants and
an epilogue interspersed
with both solo ritornelli
and first-movement
material (the motto and
the five-note motive) in
the nature of a
fantasia-like
‘call-and-response.
’ It is
dedicated to the memory
of the American
mezzo-soprano Jan
DeGaetani. The third
movement is a modified
Rondo (ABACBA) which
evolves out of the
opening motto.All three
movements make much use
of canonic stretti,
similar gestures, and
repetition. For
example, the climax of
movement III’s
Rondo throws the first
movement back at us
again, as if the players
were reluctant to let it
go, so that the entire
piece could perhaps be
viewed as a single large,
extended, Sonata
movement, with
introduction and
Coda.