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.
String
quartet based on Sonnets
by William Shakespeare
Score and. Composed
by Ludger Vollmer.
Ensemble. Classical.
Softcover. 196 pages.
Duration 1920 seconds.
Schott Music #ED22466.
Published by Schott Music
(HL.49046476).
ISBN
9781705102718. UPC:
840126931679.
My
love is as a fever was
inspired by William
Shakespeare's sonnets.
The work was created for
the Faust Quartet with
the aim of creating a
counterpart to Alban
Berg's Lyrical Suite
using new compositional
techniques, both in terms
of emotional expression
and technical
requirements. It is a
melodic-rhythmic
composition, whose
techniques consist of the
transformation of
non-European music and
the music that was
practiced in Europe a
thousand years ago.
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warehouse. The shipment
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from our US warehouse and
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delays.
When I'm Sixty-Four Quatuor à cordes: 2 violons, alto, violoncelle - Facile De Haske Publications
As performed by The Beatles. Composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Arran...(+)
As performed by The
Beatles.
Composed by John Lennon
and
Paul McCartney. Arranged
by
Nico Dezaire. De Haske
Pops
for String Quartet. Pop
and
Rock. Set (Score and
Parts).
Composed 2020. De Haske
Publications #DHP
1206259-
070. Published by De
Haske
Publications
String Quartet (2vl,va,vc) SKU: BR.EB-9259 Composed by Manuela Kerer. Cha...(+)
String Quartet
(2vl,va,vc)
SKU:
BR.EB-9259
Composed
by Manuela Kerer. Chamber
music; stapled. Edition
Breitkopf.
World
premiere: Stockholm
(Festival O/MODERNT),
June 19, 2017
Music
post-1945; New music
(post-2000). Full score.
Composed 2016/17. 32
pages. Duration 15' -
18'. Breitkopf and
Haertel #EB 9259.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.EB-9259).
ISBN 9790004185599. 9
x 12 inches.
When
Hugo Ticciati asked me to
write a new piece for his
quartet, I was
immediately enthusiastic
about this project. I
love how Hugo and his
O/MODERNT String Quartet
unite old and new music
in a completely natural
way. So, I was absolutely
excited about Hugo`s idea
of having my piece based
on two of my idols, Bach
and Beethoven,
deconstructing the one
and constructing the
other. With all my
respect for these great
composers I gave to the
piece a very personal
inner part consisting of
my own music that
influenced and inspired
the other parts. For the
whole piece I felt very
close to Beethoven, who
said: To make a fugue is
not art, which [is
something] I have made
dozens of times in my
study. But the
imagination will assert
its rights and must come
today, in light of the
old traditional form, to
another truly poetic
element. De/Con is a
travel into different
centuries with different
sound-languages. For me,
it was like having a
wonderful constructive
discussion with Johann
Sebastian Bach and Ludwig
van Beethoven, each of us
trying to speak our own
language, approaching the
others step by step. The
piece could be defined as
a Love Letter to two of
the greatest composers
ever. De/Con could be
preceded by (parts of)
Johann Sebastian Bach's
Die Kunst der Fuge (The
Art of the Fugue) and
succeeded by Ludwig van
Beethoven's Grosse Fuge
(Great Fugue). Ideally,
then, all parts should be
played attacca. It could,
but it hasn't to be
played with these two
pieces. (Manuela
Kerer)
World
premiere: Stockholm
(Festival O/MODERNT),
June 19, 2017.
String Quartet (2vl,va,vc) SKU: BR.EB-9260 Composed by Manuela Kerer. Cha...(+)
String Quartet
(2vl,va,vc)
SKU:
BR.EB-9260
Composed
by Manuela Kerer. Chamber
music; Folder. Edition
Breitkopf.
World
premiere: Stockholm
(Festival O/MODERNT),
June 19, 2017
Music
post-1945; New music
(post-2000). Set of
parts. Composed 2016/17.
32 pages. Duration 15' -
18'. Breitkopf and
Haertel #EB 9260.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.EB-9260).
ISBN 9790004185605. 9
x 12 inches.
When
Hugo Ticciati asked me to
write a new piece for his
quartet, I was
immediately enthusiastic
about this project. I
love how Hugo and his
O/MODERNT String Quartet
unite old and new music
in a completely natural
way. So, I was absolutely
excited about Hugo`s idea
of having my piece based
on two of my idols, Bach
and Beethoven,
deconstructing the one
and constructing the
other. With all my
respect for these great
composers I gave to the
piece a very personal
inner part consisting of
my own music that
influenced and inspired
the other parts. For the
whole piece I felt very
close to Beethoven, who
said: To make a fugue is
not art, which [is
something] I have made
dozens of times in my
study. But the
imagination will assert
its rights and must come
today, in light of the
old traditional form, to
another truly poetic
element. De/Con is a
travel into different
centuries with different
sound-languages. For me,
it was like having a
wonderful constructive
discussion with Johann
Sebastian Bach and Ludwig
van Beethoven, each of us
trying to speak our own
language, approaching the
others step by step. The
piece could be defined as
a Love Letter to two of
the greatest composers
ever. De/Con could be
preceded by (parts of)
Johann Sebastian Bach's
Die Kunst der Fuge (The
Art of the Fugue) and
succeeded by Ludwig van
Beethoven's Grosse Fuge
(Great Fugue). Ideally,
then, all parts should be
played attacca. It could,
but it hasn't to be
played with these two
pieces. (Manuela
Kerer)
World
premiere: Stockholm
(Festival O/MODERNT),
June 19, 2017.