String quartet SKU: FG.55011-510-1 Composed by Matthew Whittall. Score an...(+)
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.
Composed by
Rhian Samuel. Chamber
music. Score and Parts.
Score and parts. Stainer
& Bell Ltd. #Y279.
Published by Stainer &
Bell Ltd. (ST.Y279).
ISBN
9790220223068.
Such
is the character of the
accordion that any work
featuring its distinctive
voice within an ensemble
is likely to be a
piece
d'occasion. Written
for the prizewinning
young soloist Milos
Milivojevic and performed
with the Juritz String
Quartet at the 2011
Machynlleth Festival in
Wales, Rhian Samuel's
Mist on the
Hills is no
exception. The composer
has used the rare
opportunity of writing
for the instrument in
combination with solo
strings to exploit its
illustrative powers and
create a fourteen-minute
score inspired by the
changing weather over the
hills around her Welsh
home on the Dyfi
Estuary.
In
particular, its three
movements are suggestive
of the appearance of mist
in the landscape,
'settling', 'lingering'
and 'swirling'. In the
first movement, which is
a gentle prelude, brief
accordion motifs break
through the timbre of
strings like glints of
sunshine through mist.
The second movement, more
song-like, presents three
verses of a lament; in
the first half of each
verse the accordion sings
as if from afar, while in
the second half (led by
the viola) the music
intensifies greatly. In
the dance-like and
virtuosic last movement a
short, constantly
changing refrain
alternates with two types
of material: 'swirling'
music and lighter, more
rhythmical ideas.
Finally, scale passages
invade the texture,
ceasing only as the
accordion ascends to the
top of its range in the
closing bars.
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.