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.
The Wings Of Night, Kopi Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle [Conducteur] Music Sales
Trombone, String Quartet SKU: HL.14033404 Composed by Bent Sorensen. Musi...(+)
Trombone, String Quartet
SKU: HL.14033404
Composed by Bent
Sorensen. Music Sales
America. Classical.
Score. Music Sales
#KP00662. Published by
Music Sales
(HL.14033404).
ISBN
9788759874769.
Danish.
The Wings
Of Night for Trombone and
String Quartet was
composed by Bent Sorensen
in 1998, as a commission
from the Warsaw Autumn
for Christian Lindberg
and the Silesian String
Quartet. Programme note:
I do not yet know what to
write about this short
piece which I have just
finished. But like my
Piano Concerto LA NOTTE,
it seems to take place at
night-time - or perhaps
it is only because I
wrote the piece by night.
In short, the title is
from Shakespeare's 'Romeo
and Juliet'.Juliet sings
to the night - the night
of love: 'Come, night,
come Romeo, come, thou
day in night, For thou
wilt lie upon the wings
of night, Whither than
new snow upon a raven's
back.THE WINGS OFNIGHT
was composed as a
commission from the
Warsaw Autumn for
Christian Lindberg and
the Silesian String
Quartet. (Bent
Sorensen).
Moon River Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle [Conducteur et Parties séparées] - Intermédiaire De Haske Publications
String Quartet - intermediate SKU: BT.DHP-1175850-070 Composed by Henry M...(+)
String Quartet -
intermediate
SKU:
BT.DHP-1175850-070
Composed by Henry
Mancini. Arranged by Nico
Dezaire. De Haske Pops
for String Quartet. Set
(Score & Parts). Composed
2017. 8 pages. De Haske
Publications #DHP
1175850-070. Published by
De Haske Publications
(BT.DHP-1175850-070).
ISBN 9789043153904.
English-German-French-Dut
ch.
Moon
River was written
especially for Audrey
Hepburn to sing and
originally featured on
the soundtrack for the
movie Breakfast at
Tiffany’s. The
song has been covered by
many other artists and
has remained well-known
for many years. This love
song to a river also
makes a wonderful
instrumental work,
especially so on stringed
instruments. Nico
Dezaire’s
sensitive arrangement for
string quartet gives each
member of the ensemble
the opportunity to play
the wistful
melody.
Het
speciaal voor Audrey
Hepburn geschreven nummer
Moon River maakte
oorspronkelijk deel uit
van de soundtrack voor de
film Breakfast at
Tiffany’s. Al
snel werd het echter door
vele zangers en
zangeressen gecoverd en
ontpopte het zich
blijvend tot een
wereldwijde hit. Dit
liefdesliedje voor een
rivier is ook een
heerlijk instrumentaal
werkje, vooral voor
strijkinstrumenten. Nico
Dezaires gevoelige
arrangement voor
strijkkwartet geeft elk
lid van het ensemble de
gelegenheid om de
weemoedige melodie te
spelen.
Moon
River war
ursprünglich Teil des
Soundtracks zum
Hollywood-Klassiker
Breakfast at
Tiffany's und der
jungen Audrey Hepburn auf
den Leib geschrieben.
Schon bald wurde der Song
von zahlreichen
Sängern gecovert und
trat so seinen Siegeszug
um die Welt an, der bis
heute anhält. Diese
musikalische
Liebeserklärung an
einen Fluss lässt sich
natürlich auch bestens
instrumental darstellen,
besonders schön auf
Streichinstrumenten. Nico
Dezaire lässt in
seinem einfühlsamen
Arrangement für
Streichquartett jeden der
vier Musiker an der
sehnsuchtsvollen Melodie
teilhaben.
String Quartet (String Quartet) SKU: HL.14042752 Composed by Various. Mus...(+)
String Quartet (String
Quartet)
SKU:
HL.14042752
Composed
by Various. Music Sales
America.
TV-Film-Musical-Show.
Softcover. Composed 1993.
Chester Music #CH61369.
Published by Chester
Music (HL.14042752).
ISBN 9780711965454.
9.0x12.0x0.403
inches.
A series of
popular music for working
string quartets. Light
enjoyable repertoire
pieces and entertaining
encores. Each folio
contains five pieces.
Contents: 'Empty Chairs
at Empty Tables', 'I
Don't Know To Love Him',
'If I Were ARich Man',
'Somewhere',
'Tonight'.
Nocturnal - Partitur Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle [Conducteur] Music Sales
Trombone, String Quartet SKU: HL.14023162 Composed by Bent Sorensen. Musi...(+)
Trombone, String Quartet
SKU: HL.14023162
Composed by Bent
Sorensen. Music Sales
America. Classical.
Score. 28 pages. Music
Sales #KP01123. Published
by Music Sales
(HL.14023162).
ISBN
9788759860960.
Danish.
Nocturnal
(1998-2001) for Trombone
and String Quartet was
composed by Bent Sorensen
. Progamme note: The two
movements of Nocturnal
were written with a gab
of three years. The last
movement, which bears the
title The Wings of Night,
was commisioned by Warsaw
Autumn in 1998, while the
first movement -
Mondnacht - was
commisioned for Ultima
Festival in Oslo in 2001.
Despite the three years
gab, these are not two
separate pieces which
have been linked
together. The sketches
for the first movement
were begun immediately
after the first
performance of the second
movement in Warsaw 1998.
As the title suggests,
there is a nocturnal
atmosphere in the work.
In the first movement
weare perhaps in a park
and notice the shadows of
the clouds passing the
bright moon. In the short
second movement we are
perhaps with
Shakespeare's Juliet,
calling for love, calling
for the night: Come
night, come Romeo, come,
thou day in night, For
thou wilt lie upon the
wings of night Whither
than snow upon a raven's
back. ...perhaps we are
elsewhere - at night!
Nocturnal was written for
Christian Lindberg and
the Arditti Quartet and
premiered in Oslo in
2001.
String Quartet SKU: BR.EB-9271 Composed by Christian Mason. Chamber music...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
BR.EB-9271
Composed
by Christian Mason.
Chamber music. Edition
Breitkopf. New music
(post-2000); Music
post-1945. Sheet Music.
Composed 2018. Duration
21'. Breitkopf and
Haertel #EB 9271.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.EB-9271).
ISBN 9790004185711. 0
x 0 inches.
I fell
in love with the
remarkable singing of the
Tenores di Bitti on
hearing their recordings
as a student. Their
uniquely intense vocal
timbre, their harmony,
which seemed pure and
rough at once, and the
sense that this music
was, at root, not so much
about performance as
simply being together in
the world, in a community
of spirit. At the time, I
had no intention of using
this music to my own
creative ends, but now,
here we are: Sardinian
Songbook is the second in
a cycle of works for the
Ligeti Quartet, all based
on transcriptions of
music from different
throat-singing
traditions. Like string
quartets, the tenores
usually sing in groups of
four voices, but being
free from instruments
they stand very close
together enabling the
resonances of their
voices to blend and
interact in a special
way. The quartet, of
course, can only sit so
close before their bows
clash, so I have chosen
instead to reflect this
physical closeness
inversely, by getting the
players to stand
increasingly far from one
another as the piece
progresses. In so doing,
the initial state of
sonic blend gives way to
hocketing lines, opening
up the sense of
space.Christian Mason,
2018 The four movements
may be played separately
or as a collection. If
played together the
following order should be
observed (see table of
contents).
World
premiere: Sheffield/UK,
Firth Hall, April 14,
2018, Commissioned by
Ligeti Quartet.
String Quartet SKU: BR.EB-9270 Composed by Christian Mason. Chamber music...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
BR.EB-9270
Composed
by Christian Mason.
Chamber music. Edition
Breitkopf. New music
(post-2000); Music
post-1945. Sheet Music.
Composed 2018. 28 pages.
Duration 21'. Breitkopf
and Haertel #EB 9270.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.EB-9270).
ISBN 9790004185704. 9
x 12 inches.
I fell
in love with the
remarkable singing of the
Tenores di Bitti on
hearing their recordings
as a student. Their
uniquely intense vocal
timbre, their harmony,
which seemed pure and
rough at once, and the
sense that this music
was, at root, not so much
about performance as
simply being together in
the world, in a community
of spirit. At the time, I
had no intention of using
this music to my own
creative ends, but now,
here we are: Sardinian
Songbook is the second in
a cycle of works for the
Ligeti Quartet, all based
on transcriptions of
music from different
throat-singing
traditions. Like string
quartets, the tenores
usually sing in groups of
four voices, but being
free from instruments
they stand very close
together enabling the
resonances of their
voices to blend and
interact in a special
way. The quartet, of
course, can only sit so
close before their bows
clash, so I have chosen
instead to reflect this
physical closeness
inversely, by getting the
players to stand
increasingly far from one
another as the piece
progresses. In so doing,
the initial state of
sonic blend gives way to
hocketing lines, opening
up the sense of
space.Christian Mason,
2018 The four movements
may be played separately
or as a collection. If
played together the
following order should be
observed (see table of
contents).
World
premiere: Sheffield/UK,
Firth Hall, April 14,
2018, Commissioned by
Ligeti Quartet.