String quartet (P/ST) -
difficult
SKU:
HL.49033270
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.