Composed by Christian Mason. World premiere: Paris, Cite de la musique, Januar...(+)
Composed by Christian
Mason.
World premiere: Paris,
Cite
de la musique, January
14,
2020. Breitkopf and
Haertel
#EB 9377. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
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.
3rd
string quartet.
Composed by Joerg
Widmann. This edition:
Saddle stitching. Sheet
music. Edition Schott.
Score and parts. Composed
2003. 112 pages. Duration
12'. Schott Music
#ED9749. Published by
Schott Music
(HL.49033270).
ISBN
9790001136860.
9.25x12.0x0.3
inches.
The
Jagdquartett (Hunt
Quartet), which Jorg
Widmann wrote as his
third string quartet in
2003, following the
Choralquartett, also
begins with a visible
gesture. After a short
signal cry from the
performers, the piece
starts by quoting Robert
Schumann's Papillons op.
2, and for its full
duration retains this
gesture, these starting
sounds. The degrees of
recognizability do change
continuously, to be sure,
in the furious, racing
organism of the score.
The contours change into
forms on another level,
yet now and then the
begining material returns
clearly to the fore,
initiated anew by a cry
from the performers, and
is then digested or
mutated as a rhythmic
study into a field of
harmonic experimentation.
On rare occasions, there
are moments of pause - as
though the musicians were
testing the atmosphere,
as though they were
sensing the weather, so
as ultimately to continue
playing the quartet
across the fields an
forests of notes. A hunt
after joyful performance,
a chase, the whip
cracking, after the thing
to be shot, the sound,
its performer, perhaps
the composer himself? - A
last shout, morendo, dal
niente... - The victim is
not the audience, at any
rate.When comparing the
output of string quartets
from the 18th century to
thetime of Schumann, it
appears to have dropped
considerably. Schumann
composed only three
complete quartets, all of
them in the so-called
'chamber music year'
1842. Jorg Widmann, who
counts Robert Schumann
among his greatest
inspirations, finished a
series of five string
quartets in 2005, at the
same age as Schumann. The
quartets in the cycle
form in themselves the
characters of the
movements of the
classical quartet.
Jagdquartett represents
the fast middle movement,
the scherzo. Widmann's
work appears rough and
wild in the style of
Schumann's alter ego
Florestan. His hunt
begins in the tempo of
'allegro vivace assai'
with the final theme of
Schumann's Papillons
which often appears or is
cited in many of
Schumann's compositions.
Widmann eventually
dismantles the thematic
material of his fierce
quartet, thus
skeletonising his
prey.
Harbor Music Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle Theodore Presser Co.
String Quartet SKU: PR.16400222S Composed by Dan Welcher. Full score (stu...(+)
String Quartet
SKU:
PR.16400222S
Composed
by Dan Welcher. Full
score (study). With
Standard notation.
Duration 11 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#164-00222S. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.16400222S).
UPC:
680160037841.
This
work follows my Quartet
No. 1 by five years. In
terms of style and
aesthetic aim, however,
it seems light years
away. Where the first
work, a 28-minute,
four-movement piece, took
aim at cosmic conflicts
and heroic resolutions,
the present work is
intended as a kind of
divertissment. Harbor
Music lasts a mere eleven
minutes, is cast in a
single movement with six
sections, and should
leave both performers and
listeners with a feeling
of good humor and
affection. The
title comes from my
experience as a guest in
the magnificent city of
Sydney, Australia. One of
its most attractive
features is its unique
system of ferry boats:
the city is laid out
around a large,
multi-channeled harbor,
with destinations more
easily approached by
water than by land.
Consequently, inhabitants
of Sydney get around on
small, people-friendly
boats that come and go
from the central docks at
Circular Quay. During a
week's visit in 1991, I
must have boarded these
boats at least a dozen
times, always bound for a
new location - the resort
town of Manley, or the
Zoo at Taronga Park, or
the shopping district at
Darling Harbour.
In casting about for a
form for my second string
quartet, a kind of loose
rondo came to mind. Each
new destination would be
approached from the same
starting-out point
(although there are
subtle variations in the
repeating theme; it's
always in a new key, and
the texture is never the
same). The result, I
hope, is a sense of
constant new information
presented with
introductory frames of a
more familiar nature.
The embarkation
theme, which begins the
piece, is a sort of
bi-tonal fanfare in which
the violins are in G
major and the viola and
cello are in B-flat
major. It is bold, eager,
and forward-looking. The
first voyage maintains
this bi-tonality,
beginning as a 9/8 due
for second violin and
viola in a kind of
rocking motion -much as a
boat produces when
reaching the deeper water
in the harbor. A sweet,
nostalgic theme emerges
over this rocking
accompaniment. This music
is developed somewhat,
then transforms quickly
into a much faster and
lighter episode, filled
with rising and falling
scales (again, in
differing keys). A
scherzando interlude in
short notes and changing
meters provides contrast,
and the episode ends with
a reprise of the scales.
The second
embarkation follows, this
time in A major/C major.
It leads quickly into a
very warm and slow theme,
in wide-leaping intervals
for the viola. This
section is interrupted
twice by solo cadenzas
for the cello, suggesting
distant boat-horns in
major thirds. The end of
the episode becomes a
transition, with
boat-horns leading into
the final appearance of
the embarkation music,
this time in trills and
tremolos instead of
sharply accented chords.
The nostalgic theme of
the first episode makes a
final appearance, serving
now as a coda. The
rocking motion continues,
in a lullaby fashion,
leaving us drowsy and
satisfied on our homeward
journey. Harbor
Music was written for the
Cavani Quartet, and is
dedicated to Richard J.
Bogomolny. Commissioned
by his employees at First
National Supermarkets as
a gift, it represents a
thank you from many of
the people (including
this composer) who have
benefitted from his
vision and generosity. An
ardent advocate of
chamber music (and a
cellist himself), Mr.
Bogomolny has for many
years been Chairman of
the Board of Chamber
Music America. -- Dan
Welcher.
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.
Over the Rainbow Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle [Partition + CD] Santorella Publications
(from The Wizard of Oz ). Composed by Harold Arlen. Arranged by Michael Tarro. ...(+)
(from The Wizard of Oz
). Composed by Harold
Arlen. Arranged by
Michael Tarro. For string
quartet. Score and 2
play-along CDs. Published
by Santorella
Publications
The Music of the Night Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Intermédiaire De Haske Publications
String Quartet - intermediate SKU: BT.DHP-1185855-070 From The Phantom...(+)
String Quartet -
intermediate
SKU:
BT.DHP-1185855-070
From The Phantom of
the Opera. Composed
by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Arranged by Nico Dezaire.
De Haske Pops for String
Quartet.
TV-Film-Musical-Show. Set
(Score & Parts). Composed
2018. 8 pages. De Haske
Publications #DHP
1185855-070. Published by
De Haske Publications
(BT.DHP-1185855-070).
ISBN 9789043153911.
English-German-French-Dut
ch.
The Phantom
of the Opera is,
without doubt, one of the
great classics of our
time. The stage
production of this tale,
exciting and mysterious
in equal measure, has now
captivated over a million
theatre-goers. The
phantom sings the song
The Music of the
Night to the
beautiful Christine, who
he has just kidnapped
into his realm, as if
entrancing her. This
enchanting mood is so
authentically recreated
in Nico Dezaire’s
sensitive arrangement for
string quartet that it
feels like listening to
the singer perform the
original version from the
musical.
De
musical The Phantom of
the Opera is zonder
twijfel een van de grote
klassiekers van onze
tijd. De theaterversie
van dit spannende en
tegelijk mysterieuze
verhaal heeft in de loop
der tijd al een
miljoenenpubliek
getrokken. Met het lied
The Music of the
Night brengt het
spook de mooie Christine,
die hij zojuist naar zijn
rijk heeft ontvoerd, als
het ware in trance. De
betoverende sfeer wordt
in dit gevoelige
strijkkwartetarrangement
van de hand van Nico
Dezaire zo authentiek
overgebracht, dat het
voelt alsof je luistert
naar de zanger in de
originele versie uit de
musical.
Das
Phantom der Oper
gehört zweifellos zu
den ganz großen
Musical-Klassikern
unserer Zeit. Die
Bühnenversion dieser
ebenso spannenden wie
mystischen Geschichte hat
schon ein
Millionenpublikum in
seinen Bann gezogen. Mit
dem Lied The Music of
the Night singt das
Phantom die schöne
Christine, die er soeben
in sein Reich entführt
hat, gleichsam in Trance.
Eben diese Stimmung
lässt Nico Dezaire in
seiner einfühlsamen
Bearbeitung für
Streichquartett so
glaubwürdig wieder
aufleben, dass es sich so
anfühlt, als höre
man dem Sänger der
originalen
Musical-Fassung
zu.
Subject Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle Carl Fischer
Chamber Music String Quartet SKU: CF.BE11F Composed by Jason Eckardt. Ful...(+)
Chamber Music String
Quartet
SKU:
CF.BE11F
Composed by
Jason Eckardt. Full
score. 78 pages. Duration
16 minutes. Carl Fischer
Music #BE11F. Published
by Carl Fischer Music
(CF.BE11F).
ISBN
9780825888595. UPC:
798408088590. 8.5 x 11
inches.
Beginning
in the 1950s, the CIA
became very interested in
psychological research
beingconducted on the
effects of sensory
deprivation on humans.
The research, that
suggestedrapid regression
in those tested, provided
a framework for sections
of what would later
beknown as the KUBARK
manual, the first a
series of US-government
documents thatprovided
techniques for
interrogating detainees.
These methods involved
radicallyaltering a
detainee’s sense
of time and
environment.Among these
techniques, some
developed independently
of the manuals by
interrogators,were the
manipulation of light and
sound. In order to weaken
the resolve of a
detaineeand prolong
“capture
shock,†complete
sensory deprivation
followed by blasts of
light ornoise, or very
loud music, proved
effective. So much so
that variations and
combinationsof these
techniques were widely
used by the United States
as well as both its
allies andenemies in
Vietnam, Latin America,
Northern Ireland, and the
Middle East.Though the
idea of sound as a weapon
is at least as old as the
account of
Joshua’s siegeof
Jericho, it was only
recently deemed
“inhuman and
degrading†for the
purposes ofinterrogation
by the European Court of
Human Rights in the 1978
case “Ireland v.
theUnited
Kingdom.â€. Accid
entals apply only to the
notes they precede with
the exception of tied or
consecutively repeated
notes.Tempi are
consistent throughout the
meter changes (Le.,
~'=),)=)l, etc.).Grace
notes are always to be
played as fast as
possible. Each grace note
in a group should be of
the same duration.
Gracenotes curtail the
previous measured note's
duration with the
exception noted
below.Approximate
duration: 16 minutes.