Chamber Music Cello,
Viola, Violin 1, Violin 2
SKU: PR.114406980
Vistas. Composed
by Shulamit Ran. Set of
Score and Parts. With
Standard notation. 42 +
112 pages. Duration 25
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #114-40698.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.114406980).
UPC:
680160010806.
Shula
mit Ran’s second
string quartet, subtitled
“Vistas,â€
occupies a large canvas
that is cast in a
traditional fourmovement
mold, where the outer
movements present,
explore, and later return
to the work’s
principal musical
materials, surrounding a
slow movement and
scherzo-type third
movement with a trio. In
addition to tempo-based
titles, the individual
movements have subtitles
that are evocative of
each movement’s
character, as follows: I.
Concentric: from the
inside out II. Stasis
III. Flashes IV.
Vistas.
My second
string quartet,
“Vistasâ€, is
a work cast in a
traditional four-movement
formal mold, with the
outer movements,
presenting and later
returning to the
work’s principal
musical materials,
surrounding a slow
movement and a
scherzo-type third
movement.While the four
movements’
“properâ€
names -- Maestoso con
forza, Lento, Scherzo
impetuoso, and
Introduzione; Maestoso e
grande – give some
indication of the general
character of the
individual movements, I
have also subtitled, less
formally, each movement
as follows:Â 1)
Concentric:Â from the
inside out 2)Â
Stasis 3) FlashesÂ
4) Vista. The images
evoked by these titles
tell one, I think, a bit
more about the inner
workings of the
quartet.In the first
movement, a prominently
presented opening pitch
(E) reveals itself, as
the movement unfolds, to
be a center of gravity
from which ever-growing
cycles of activity
gradually evolve.Â
While various important
themes come into being as
the movement progresses,
their impact on the
listener has, I believe,
a great deal to do with
their juxtaposition and
relationship to the
initial central point of
gravity.Stasis is, as the
name implies, a movement
where activity seems, at
times, almost
suspended. Being
also, as Webster’s
Dictionary reminds us,
“a state of static
balance and equilibrium
among opposing tendencies
or forces,†it
develops various
materials, including ones
from the first movement,
without bringing them to
points of
resolution.Flashes is
short and very fast,
evoking in my mind the
quick shimmer of
fireflies, a
“sudden burst of
lightâ€, but also a
“brief
timeâ€. Perhaps,
even, a
“smile�Final
ly, the last movement,
Vista, is not only
“a view or
outlookâ€, but also
“a comprehensive
mental view of a series
of remembered or
anticipated
events.â€Â After
a brief recall of the
opening of the second
movement, this movement
brings back all the
important themes of the
first movement in their
original order. But
just as going back can
never really mean going
back in time, the
movement is much more
than recapitulatory.Â
By cutting through
previously transitory
passages and presenting
the main ideas in a
fashion more direct yet
more evolved, it also
sheds new light on
earlier events, offering
a retrospective, synoptic
view of the first
movement as it brings to
culmination the work as a
whole. “Vistasâ
€ was commissioned by
C. Geraldine Freund for
the Taneyev String
Quartet of what was then
Leningrad. It was the
first commission given in
this country to a Soviet
chamber ensemble since
the 1985 cultural
exchange accord between
the Soviet Union and the
United States.