String Quartet
SKU:
HL.14036341
Composed
by Hugh Wood. Music Sales
America. Classical. Set.
Composed 2001. Chester
Music #CH60931. Published
by Chester Music
(HL.14036341).
ISBN
9780711955080.
Comm
issioned by the BBC and
premiered by the
Chilingirian String
Quartet. Quoting Wood: In
my Second and Third
Quartets I attempted
sectional, agglutinative
forms: in my Fourth I
return to the
conventional four
movement form of my First
Quartet of 1962. Both
works build up (as in the
19th century symphony) to
the Finale, thus making
it the most substantial
movement, which provides
a climax to the work. The
First Movement has, in
both works, only the
status of an
Introduction. But there
the consciously willed
resemblances end. This
Introduction follows the
Second Quartet to a
certain extent, in that
it provides a sort of
'cauldron', from which
elements to be used later
can all be plucked. Its
opening will reappear at
various points throughout
the work, most completely
at a climatic point of
the Finale (bar 110).
Subsequent material will
be more fully worked out
in the second movement, a
large Scherzo. The
Introduction concludes
with an unusually placed
violin cadenza (itself a
rare feature in a string
quartet, the idea lifted
from Elliott Carter's
First Quartet) of which
the opening is to
reappear halfway through
the Finale. The Scherzo
(which follows attacca)
does not have at its
centre a discretely
characterized Trio: a
figure in double-stops
like a distant fanfare
supplies the necessary
contrast of a second
idea. The Slow Movement
has a secondary idea
first heard on the cello
and marked appassionato:
an agitato middle section
recalls the opening of
the work, but in a
formulation which will be
found closely to
anticipate its
reappearance in the
Finale. The Finale is
planned on a broad scale.
Only after a fully worked
exposition of both
primary and secondary
material does the opening
of the whole work return,
now in a greatly extended
form. Then, at bar 140,
the tune of the violin
cadenza is first
harmonized in fanfare
style on the upper
instruments, then
presented as a chorale on
the lower ones, with a
rushing semiquaver
accompaniment above. This
climatic activity mounts
to the very end. The work
is dedicated to the
Chilingirian Quartet, old
friends over many years.
Score available
separately: SOS04044.