Composed by Christian Mason. World premiere: Paris, Cite de la musique, January 14, 2020. Breitkopf and Haertel #EB 9377. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel

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.'.

By Stephen Pratt. For String quartet. Full score and parts. Duration 10 minutes. Published by Edition HH (U.K. Import).

String quartet

SKU: FG.55011-510-1

Composed by Matthew Whittall. Score and parts. Fennica Gehrman #55011-510-1. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-510-1).

ISBN 9790550115101.

Matt hew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.

(Streichquartett nr. 14 / Quatuor A Cordes No. 14). By Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). For 2 violins, viola, cello. In a folder. The Complete Works of Antonin Dvorak IV/7 - B 193. Czech title: Smy covy kvartet 14 As dur op. 105. Set of parts. Opus 105, No. 14. 16/16/16/16 pages. Published by Editio Baerenreiter Praha

By Dvorak Antonin. Czech title: Smy covy kvartet 8 E dur op. 80. Published by Praha (Czech import).

String Quartet - early intermediate

SKU: BT.DHP-1196191-070

Composed by Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell. Arranged by Nico Dezaire. De Haske Pops for String Quartet. Set (Score & Parts). Composed 2019. De Haske Publications #DHP 1196191-070. Published by De Haske Publications (BT.DHP-1196191-070).

ISBN 9789043157988. English-German-French-Dut ch.

With its simple, memorable melody and folk-song style, You Are My Sunshine is undoubtedly one of America’s most successful old-time music love songs. Its success in the 1940s massively boosted the popularity of the song’s singer and guitarist, Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell, so much so that it helped to springboard Davis’ political career, culminating in his successful election as Governor of Louisiana in 1944. Dezaire’s skilful arrangement retains the quintessential country sound of the original with this new string quartet orchestration.

You Are My Sunshine is een liefdesliedje in de Amerikaanse old-time-muziektraditie met een eenvoudige, volksliedachtige en bijzonder aanstekelijke melodie. Zanger Jimmie Davis en gitarist Charles Mitchell werden er in de jaren 1940 enorm populair mee. Het succes gaf Davis zelfs een beslissende boost in zijn politieke carrière, die hij bekroonde met zijn verkiezing tot gouverneur van de Amerikaanse staat Louisiana. Nico Dezaire heeft met dit arrangement de kenmerkende countrysound van het origineel op vakkundige wijze bewerkt voor strijkkwartet.

You Are My Sunshine ist ein Lovesong in der Tradition der US-amerikanischen Old-Time Music, dessen einfache, volksliedartige Melodie sich sofort einprägt. Sänger Jimmie Davis und Gitarrist Charles Mitchell erlangten mit diesem Titel in den 1940er-Jahren eine enorme Popularität. Bei Davis beflügelte dieser Erfolg sogar maßgeblich seine politische Karriere, die er mit seiner Wahl zum Gouverneur des US-Bundesstaats Louisiana krönen konnte. Nico Dezaire setzt in seiner Bearbeitung den typischen Country-Sound des Originals gekonnt auf eine Streichquartett-Besetzung um.

You Are My Sunshine est une chanson d’amour dans la tradition de la Old-time music américaine, dont la mélodie simple aux résonnances folkloriques reste dans la tête. Gr ce ce titre, le chanteur Jimmie Davis et le guitariste Charles Mitchell connurent une immense popularité dans les années 1940. Pour Davis, ce succès donna même un tournant déterminant sa carrière politique puisqu’il fut élu gouverneur de l’État de Louisiane. Dans son arrangement pour quatuor cordes, Nico Dezaire transpose avec talent les sonorités country caractéristiques de l’original.

Chamber Music String Quartet

SKU: PR.144407270

Composed by Sydney F. Hodkinson. Sws. Set of Score and Parts. 44+16+16+16+16 pages. Duration 22 minutes. Merion Music #144-40727. Published by Merion Music (PR.144407270).

UPC: 680160681891. 9 x 12 inches.

My Eighth and Ninth String Quartets, begun in late 2017, are sonic cousins. Akin to real cousins, each piece exhibits differing natures. They were requested by two ensembles that have become asecond familiesa to me: The Jupiter Quartet of Urbana, Illinois and the Amernet Quartet based in Miami, Florida. Their collective dedication to, and care for, our art remains a personal and constant are-fuelinga for me. The quartets were commissioned by, and dedicated to, Margaret and Philip Verleger of Denver, Colorado. Additional financial support was provided by the School of Music at Stetson University, Timothy Peter, Dean. Quartet No.8 is laid out in a classical four-movement design. The work does break somewhat from conventional tradition by often placing quartet members into soloistic roles as the movement titles note. individual The opening piece presents at the outset a three-note motto which is turned over, tumbled, and energetically discussed, primarily by a violin duet. It is a duel. The two players part company only infrequently during the movement's progress, pausing briefly for other commentary by their alower cohortsa, the Viola and Cello do not argue, but abet their friends' aeffortsa. The piece's overall character is fairly bright and dancelike, closing in an unresolvedastandoffa. not Two principal asound-objectsa stitch the second movement scherzo together: sliding hands (glissandos) and a plucked ashufflea (pizzicato) - both instigated by the (solo) cellist. The others are influenced - or are not - by their aleadera, and follow - or interrupt - the cello throughout their four-voiced conversation. The third movement (longest of the set) is an elegy dedicated to the memory of a close personal friend, the American composer David Maslanka (1943 - 2017). Its' genesis is a simple 5-note melody derived from my own name (SaC/DaC/EaC/H). This line commences in the (solo) viola and is obsessively uttered without relief during the movement's lamentations. The closing movement revisits much of that opening three-note material, but now dressed up for the full quartet to view. It is a slowly accelerating romp which - twice - cannot avoid a nod to the Amernet and Jupiter performers by offering a humble bow to the 4th movement of Gustav Holst's PLANETS - Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity. My quartet serves as an honouring salute of thanks for the talent, respect, and friendship of these two young quartets. STRING QUARTET No. 8 is roughly 22 minutes in duration. It was written as an homage to Franz Joseph Haydn, my adesert-island-composera, and completed in Holly Hill, Florida in early April of 2019. S.H.