String Quartet: Deadlines and Samples

Another composition, my first of four dissertation projects, the semester, the summer, our three years in a "cheap" Brookland apartment, my four years in DC (until February). The end of all these is less than 25 days away, which brings a curious blend of anxiety and relief.


String Quartet No. 1: At Best It Sometimes Rhymes

(5 bonus points for anyone who can ID where the title comes from, without the help of Google.)

Movements 2, 3, and 4 are now complete (or, complete enough), with a combined performance time of around 8'30". I've prepared a preview of these movements, along with an early draft of Movement 1, for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Here they are. (Leave comments at the bottom of this post.)


Pending successful Development, Recap and Coda sections, my quasi-minimalist first movement (6'43") will be completed by next Monday, along with individual parts for each movement (15'15" total running time).

An elusive Movement 5, which for some reason waited until last week to appear in my head, would make a nice bookend with Movement 1. It explores repeating cycles of varying lengths, from the 2-3 beat minimalist cell, up through the period, all derived from the same material. So it's kind of like a minute-long chunk of music that's accompanied by short, repeating snippets of that same material.

At least, that's what it will be like once I've written it. Movement 5 might be completed before the summer is out, but perhaps not in time for my official dissertation submission. Once everything is truly complete, I'll re-post MP3s and PDFs of each movement.

(100 bonus points for anyone who read this far.)

Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 6: Quartet Mini-Reviews #3

Quartet Mini-Reviews #3
(...or, what I've heard since last week)

During a short trip home to see the family, I had a chance to listen to six more quartets. The two more Myaskovsky quartets and Glass' fifth (second hearing) ranged from good to great.

Here are three others quartets you likely haven't heard (but should), all composed by women in the past 10-35 years:

* Eleanor Hovda - Lemniscates (1988)
Meter and pulse are completely absent. If my memory and ear can be trusted, there are no rapid gestures (except tremolo), no dynamics above piano, and no pitches below the violin's open E in the first seven minutes of the work! These are truly the sounds of another world. Imagine a long-abandoned barn filled with decayed machinery and the assorted projects of a hobbyist inventor - squeaky weather vanes, long metal tubes half-filled with water, and various peculiar objects swaying in the wind. That's about what this sounds like, only it's made by four acoustic string instruments.

Near the end, the cello (Is it the cello? They're all playing so high!) hammers out the only forte passages, followed by an abrupt return to the earlier metallic murmurs. One unusual performance indication among the many employed deserves special attention. The cello (?) saws away on a repeated note while gradually shifting the bow position from sul pont. to sul tasto and back. The isolation of bow placement through steady rhythm, attack, and pitch makes this line jump out as though it were a tuneful melody. I will definitely steal this technique soon.

* Frances Thorne - String Quartet No. 3 (1975)
It is puzzling that pieces built around unique noises, colors, and gestures are somehow more accessible - to this listener, at least - than much traditionally-notated modernist or contemporary atonal music. It's probably unfair to classify Frances Thorne's three movement String Quartet No. 3 as either modernist or atonal, but that's my initial verdict in the context of my recent listening and current captive setting: alone with my thoughts on a familiar, strange, sparsely-populated Minnesota highway.

Before I get too carried away, let me mention that the opening few minutes of Thorne's third movement are simply gorgeous. The initial solo phrases typify this elusive brand of disjunct lyricism that I've been trying for weeks to pin down. This plaintive voice gives way to a cool polyphonic texture in the same vein. As a set of variations, the movement proceeds to other somewhat less satisfying iterations. Even at the return to the earlier subdued texture, the memory of short, erratic punctuations interrupts the moment of repose - in the listener's mind if not on the surface of the music. This work certainly has its highlights, but another listen or two is needed before I can enjoy any deeper appreciation.

* Margaret Brouwer - Crosswinds (1999)
I could be mistaken, but I think I just heard a dominant 7th resolve to tonic at the end of movement two. Sure, the 7th resolved up, but that was blatant tonality! Brouwer's cheerful tunes catch the ear instantly, yet she only lays on a rhythmic accompaniment pattern as long as she needs to establish the folksy reference she's after.

Her work sounds a little like young Americana Copland meets older, "serious modernist" Copland. I'm not sure how well the two would get along, or whether "populist" or "modernist" camps would react well to this work, but it seems to me a great amalgam of both influences. The pentatonic melodies and triadic harmonies give even the wholly uninitiated listener an "in", while originality and willingness to toss in some peculiar notes keeps the student on her or his analytical toes. Definitely give this brief set a listen.

Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 4: Quartet Mini-Reviews #2

Quartet Mini-Reviews #2
(...or, what I've heard since Saturday)

* Tina Davidson - Cassandra Sings (1989)
A good combination of background and foreground material propels the music forward. There are very nice contrasting sections of action and repose, featuring soaring cello lines. With roughly two minutes remaining, she makes a bold shift to slow, sustained harmonies that catch the listener's attention better than any bombastic outburst. Simply lovely writing.

* Andrew Waggoner - A Song (Strophic Variations for String Quartet) (1988)
The first 12 seconds or so announce the tenor of the entire work with loud and soft chords in stark contrast. Half way through, this "song" evolves into an exciting, rhythmically-charged romp with frequent starts and stops. Deepening the references to the Rite of Spring, Waggoner even features some large "interrupting" blocks of sound before moving into a more subdued section at 7:30. Things pick up again with about 90 seconds to go as we return to the closing section: driving yet bouyant repeated bow strokes so suitable for strings. This work is a great representative of the exciting, new, satisfying experiences that can be found in contemporary chamber music.

* Eleanor Hovda - Lemniscates (1988)
Eleanor Hovda certainly sets her work apart. The curious, paper-thin texture snuck under my radar for a full 7 minutes while I was browsing Amazon.com! I'll start this one over and report back later.

Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 3: Mini-Self-Revelations

Mini-Self-Revelations
(...or, what I've learned so far)

1.) I need music with a pulse. Fast, slow, irregular - any type is fine, but my ear and my body really crave some sort of coherent rhythmic structure.

2.) I don't mind harsh dissonances, when used with intention. More important than consonant sonorities is a continuity and logic in the level of dissonance from points A to B to C, etc...

3.) Early minimalism tends to rely on the repetition and modification of very small music units (1-2 beats). As the repeated cell becomes longer and more complex, minimalism gives way to simpler large structures: the repeated phrase, passacaglia, ground bass, strophic song forms, etc. Some moments in Glass' fifth quartet seem to take a few steps away from this local-level repetition to create something grander.

At what point does a minimalist cell become a repeated strophic period? I will attempt to answer this question in my first movement.

Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 2: Quartet Mini-Reviews #1

Quartet Mini-Reviews #1
(...or, what I've heard so far)

* Phillip Glass - String Quartet No. 5 (1991): I absolutely love this work! It was so much fun to listen to. It surprised me with how non-"minimalist" it is. Repeating, evolving patterns and shifting, mediant-related triadic harmonies are present, but this work really transcends mere patterning through solid orchestration and careful balance of repetition and variety.
($6.40 used on Amazon)
(Note: See Mini-Self-Revelation #3, above, for a related idea.)

* Ellsworth Milburn - String Quartet No. 2 (1988): Tightly-packed dissonances plane up and down through intense, driving sixteenth notes. Sixteen continuous minutes of muscular lines, rich textures, and baffling interlocking rhythms will leave you out of breath, even if you're not the one playing.
($4.20 used on Amazon)

* Ellsworth Milburn - String Quartet No. 1 (1974): Like an electronica piece transcribed for acoustic performance, this work successfully exploits the dramatic potential of extended techniques. The sul pont., behind the bridge, and tremolo bowings add up to so much more than weird sounds for weird sounds' sake. The music squeaks, squaks, whispers, and shouts with the best of them.

(Note: I was so floored by these Milburn quartets that I wanted to write to the composer. Sadly, he passed away May 3, 2007.)

- - -

* Julia Wolfe - Four Marys (1991): Also makes great use of propulsive rhythms and tangy dissonances. Wolfe is less extreme in these regards than the Milburn quartets, making her work less immediately impressive yet more sensitive and contemplative.

* Nikolai Myaskovsky - String Quartet No. 2 (1930): On recommendation from a friend, I threw this one into the mix. It's a really great model, I think, for what I was looking for at the time - use of a definable, singable, beautiful melody that doesn't overwhelm the other elements in terms of phrasing and pacing. I enjoyed each movement a little more than the last. Only 12 more to listen to!

* Jan Radzinski - String Quartet (1978): A nervous, unified ensemble sound blasts out modern dissonant heterophony. On the music/noise spectrum, this one is a few clicks toward the "noise" end, but again, it's not noise for its own sake. The heterophony gives the impression of a single musical unit struggling to form a unified gesture despite the overwhelming number of potential directions each moment could take.

* Daniel Godfrey - Intermedio (1986): It seems very well constructed, with imaginative harmonies and clear musical gestures. Less impressive than some, but of course the fast and flashy will always win my attention when washing dishes or riding on the Metro. Certainly worth another listen.

* Bruce Adolphe - String Quartet No. 2 "Turning, Returning" (1991): After enjoying his NPR Piano Puzzler for months, I was looking forward to Adolphe's two quartets. The experience was very pleasant, as he really knows how to marry traditional phrasing with unexpected elements to reach a diverse audience. I'm looking forward to his first quartet.

* Allen Anderson - String Quartet (1990): Conceived and laid out quite well. I didn't hear much new to report on in my single listening, but I also didn't hear the rest of his CD.

Still on the list: more Glass, more Myaskovsky, more Adolphe, Davidson, Waggoner, Hovda, Bresnick, Brouwer, Thorne, Mamlok, and a couple of others.

Mini-Post Mini-Series Part 1: My Mini-Musical Crisis

My Mini-Musical Crisis
(...or, what in the world am I doing?!)

It's been a pretty rough two weeks for my string quartet. In the process of attempting a B section for my slow movement, I did something I rarely do: I threw out and permanently deleted two 90-second chunks of music. There's nothing remarkable about this, except that I generally compose very slowly and carefully, meaning I rarely revise, and I almost never discard material. This is largely a result of experimenting with two promising but unfamiliar compositional processes that seem to be at odds with the sort of music I gravitate towards.

To gain some perspective, I've put my composing aside and dedicated this weekend to fun and exploration - musical, of course. I'm listening to as many contemporary (post-1970) quartets as possible before Monday.

S.Q. Update #2: 5 weeks left

In five weeks, I plan to submit my completed string quartet for initial review. My quartet listening has been very rewarding, but one can assimilate styles only so quickly.

Today I listened to Davies' Little Quartet No. 1 again, this time without the score, and couldn't hear the same cleverness and melodic interplay I did last time.

I also listened to two slow Borodin movements: No. 1 Mvt. 2, and No. 2 Mvt. 3. My attention waned during the first track, but his Notturno from Quartet No. 2 is really lovely to listen to.

Although I've tried out many different compositional tools, methods, and aesthetic goals in the past four years, my primary outlet remains a singable melody.

This is no surprise considering my musical background: Catholic church hymns (no vocal harmonies) and 90's country music, followed circa 1997 by Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and 80's/90's musical theater: Les Miz, Phantom of the Opera, Songs for a New World.

While I sang in numerous choirs up through undergrad, and played trumpet/baritone horn through high school, the active consumption of classical music was largely absent from my musical diet.

The first live classical music I remember hearing was the Canadian Brass and/or South Dakota Symphony Orchestra in Sioux Falls, probably sometime around 1997. My first opera experience was Fargo-Moorhead's Madama Butterfly in 2004 (five years ago, at age 21!).

I've been a composition major since 2001, and a serious composer since 2004.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting at here, other than to explain (or excuse?) my periodic struggles with "contemporary classical" composition, using models from Debussy to today. I am alternatingly fascinated, challenged, confused and bored by the prospect of "writing like them."

It seems to me that, even more so than the "death" of functional tonality, the Twentieth Century also accomplished a profound dissolution of melody as the primary structural force in a composition. (Ooh, that's a nice sentence! I'll have to remember that.)

Gesture, color, rhythm, timbre, register, text, process, technology... Virtually every post-1900 work I've heard seems to function as an exploration of one or more of these facets. (There are exceptions - Barber, some Copland - often derided as behind the times.) And yet, even the majority of classical musicians are never explicitly trained to listen for these alternate aspects as delineators of form.

Okay, so that's a long digression that I needed to get out. If you haven't guessed already, I'm hesitantly beginning the middle section for my beautifully melodic, consonant, lyrical second movement, and I'm in no place artistically to say anything worthwhile.

Perhaps a series of distinct timbral environments presented in Rondo form? Eh...

S.Q. Daily #17: Shostakovich No. 2 (complete)

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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Day #17: Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 2 (complete)

Listening to the Fitzwilliam Quartet again. (6 CDs for $12)

I'm starting to focus on Shostakovich's quartets because there are a lot of them (15, like the symphonies), they span nearly his entire life, and they each exhibits originality through solid musical craft.

I was so impressed with its second movement last night that I decided to give the entire second quartet a listen today while washing dishes. Movement II still stands out due to its stark textural contrast (two recitatives framing a "romance"), but the others combine to make this a quartet worth noting.

In the first movement the first violin spends quite a lot of time above the staff. This range can be beautiful, dramatic, and arresting, but stay up there too long, and it can become piercing as well. The movement as a whole is successful, though, with clear motives, varied textures, and a good balance of unity and variety.

The third movement is second only to the second in immediate interest for me. The low and winding cello solo, later picked up by none other than the first violin, is a great contrast to the pulse-less feel of the previous section. The action gets heavier and louder until, at about 70% of the way through, the dynamic suddenly drops before fading into nothing at the end.

The fourth movement I definitely need to listen to again. I had a terrible time discerning the form, or the emotional development of the movement in general. Then I looked at the score and discovered it's a Theme and Variations. Silly!

Give this whole work a listen. It's pretty cool.

S.Q. Daily #16: Shostakovich No. 1 (mvt. II), No. 2 (mvt. II)

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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Day #16: Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 1, Movement II, &
String Quartet No. 2, Movement II

Since recording Shostakovich's complete fifteen string quartets - and premiering his final three - the Fitzwilliam Quartet has laid strong claim as the definitive interpreters of these works.

Their complete set audio CD is still available on Amazon for under $1 per quartet.

For the past few weeks, I've been struggling with the second movement of my own quartet (the first movement I'm attempting). It's a slow ABA song form that experiments with multiple tempi and time signatures in the outer sections. I like the ideas I came up with, but not their implementation, so the writing has been crawling along quite slowly.

For inspiration, tonight I listened to the second movements of Shostakovich's first and second quartets. His first, in a moderate tempo but acting like the quartet's slow movement, didn't really light my fire in any particular way, beyond his typical solid craft and ear for melody.

The second quartet was a different story. Its ABA structure is immediately clear from a glance at the score: the outer A sections are "recitatives", framing an inner "romance" (whatever that is). The recitatives are really that: the lower three parts sustain very soft chords indefinitely while the first violin winds its way through a series of dramatic, unmetered phrases. The B section is more straightfoward. It's in tempo and gradually speeds up towards the end, just before the return to the free-meter A'.

This isn't exactly what my dual-tempo A sections do, but it's a nice model for slowly evolving, "timeless" material framing a more steady inner section. The only real problem is, Shostakovich's great second movement is 11 minutes long, while I'm only 30% of the way to my goal of 7 minutes! Well, we'll see if he inspires me before tomorrow afternoon's lesson...

Any suggestions? (generic or specific)

S.Q. Daily: 3-Week Recap

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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S.Q. Daily 3-Week Recap

(I know the numbers are off by one; I didn't review one on Day #1.)

S.Q. Daily #1: Preparing for 64 String Quartets

S.Q. Daily #2: Bartók No. 4 in C Major

S.Q. Daily #3: Shostakovich No. 7

S.Q. Daily #4: Britten No. 2

S.Q. Daily #5: Barber String Quartet

S.Q. Daily #6: Saint-Saëns No. 1

S.Q. Daily #7: d'Indy No. 2

S.Q. Daily #8: Fauré String Quartet

S.Q. Daily #9: Debussy String Quartet

S.Q. Daily #10: Ravel String Quartet

S.Q. Daily #11: Korngold No. 3

S.Q. Daily #12: Shostakovich No. 11

S.Q. Daily #13: Mozart No. 17, K.458

S.Q. Daily #14: Maxwell Davies Little Quartet No. 1

S.Q. Daily #15: Mozart No. 19, K.465


My favorites so far are, in no particular order:

Bartók 4th (Day #2): Truly amazing. Absolute mastery and fearlessness in the writing, rhythmically, harmonically, texturally. A masterpiece.

Shostakovich 7th (Day #3): Clever, memorable, and just plain fun to listen to. Among the most "straightforward" in its gestures and local-level rhythmic patterns, which makes it seem not as "deep" on first hearing... whatever that means.

Debussy (Day #9): Really changed the way string quartets were written, helped to usher in the age of Modernism in music - a significant challenge to performers and listeners in its own time and today, but certainly one worth meeting.

Ravel (Day #10): Very similar to the Debussy in style, texture and effect, but with more cleverness and rhythmic vitality. A fantastic model for melody and color.

Davies 1st "Little" (Day #14): Can "difficult" non-tonal music be cute? If so, this is it. Great control, economy of means, and expressive content beyond what the notes on the page suggest.

Mozart 19th (Day #15): Quite honestly, I just love the opening 15 bars, from which the quartet gets its nickname. The tonal ambiguity and cross-relations in this style are remarkable, even disregarding its early date of composition (1785). The rest of the quartet seems pretty typical Mozart.

S.Q. Daily #15: Mozart No. 19, K.465

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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Day #15: W0lfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, "Dissonance"

Diving right back into Mozart's Haydn Quartets, we'll look at No. 19/K. 465 ("Dissonance") today, which I'm hearing on Naxos, again courtesy of The Takács Quartet.

I absolutely love the 22-bar introduction from which the quartet gets its nickname. Okay, I really just love the opening 15 bars before the gravity of G Major (the dominant) starts to take over. The harmonic ambiguity and cross-relations in this tonal style are remarkable, even disregarding its early date of composition (1785).

The beginning:
Repeated C's in the cello. Viola Ab, then vn II Eb, completing an Ab first-inversion chord - pretty ambiguous. Then vn I enters on a high A just as the viola moves from Ab to G (the Ab-A cross-relation), forming an A half-diminished 6/5. On the next beat a D 4/2. The next downbeat: B-G-C#-A, a whole-tone cluster? Going to B-G-D-G, a G in first inversion. (The downbeat is really G Major with a suspension and a chromatic lower neighbor tone.)

And that's only the first three measures. Confused? I think that's the point. Just listen to the first 1.5 minutes or so on Youtube.

You can stick around for the rest (four movements total), which seems like pretty typical Mozart... meaning genius, of course. But that first little bit really gets me going.

S.Q. Daily #14: Maxwell Davies Little Quartet No. 1

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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Day #14: Peter Maxwell Davies
Little String Quartet No. 1

If you need something to grab your interest, click on the Youtube link at the end of this post. It's waaaaay out there.

Okay, so I'm cheating this time. Tonight's S.Q. Daily quartet is about 8 minutes long, because it's late and I'm tired.

The first movement makes great use of the homogeneous sound of the string family by making it sound like single notes emerge and split into two. This is accomplished mainly through "dovetailing," or bringing in a second instrument on the same pitch before diverging. Cool effect!

The second movement is a little faster - sort of odd for a quartet, but this is an odd quartet. Here we get some of those flashy violin I runs that everyone paid the big bucks to hear. Okay, maybe not flashy, but rapid at least. The cello is also featured.

Near the end of the movement (p.7, mm.52-57 if you're following along at home or on Classical Scores Library), the first violin has an incredibly sweet moment. A gorgeous, plantive melody is played on the G string (the lowest, darkest-sounding string). Especially when it wanders into the higher registers, this Webern-like single-string line takes on a splendid velvety timbre.

The viola finally gets its due in the third and final movement with a solo. Soon it begins accompanying the violin, a texture that is soon revisited but with a pizzicato viola. (In an eight-minute work, any repetition is significant.

A brief full-quartet pizzicato section may be paying homage to Ravel, among other famous composers of all-pizzicato inner movements.

You know, orchestration really works wonders. The final chord is not particularly pleasant out of context. But in this particular register, dynamic, and location in the work, Maxwell Davies' final chord (an 01346 set, if that means anything to you) is incredibly eerie, glassy, and beautiful.

I should listen to more Peter Maxwell Davies (and not just his Eight Songs for a Mad King -- Youtube). So should you. Wow.

S.Q. Daily #13: Mozart No. 17, K.458

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Day #13: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet No. 17 in Bb Major, K. 458, "Hunt"

Today's composing task: finish the A section (and possibly A') of my Movement II.

Today's S.Q. Daily review: Mozart's "Hunt," K. 458.

It's about time I turn to some of the "Classics" (with a large C). Quartets No. 17/K. 458 ("Hunt") and No. 19/K. 465 ("Dissonance") are probably the most famous of Mozart's twenty-three total quartets, and are part of the six Haydn Quartets, dedicated to Joseph Haydn, father of the genre.

Today, "Hunt." Perhaps "Dissonance" will be tomorrow. The Takács Quartet performs.

I. Allegro vivace assai
Compound meter such as this (here, 6/8), is often reserved for third-movement scherzos, yet the quick pace and absence of "joking" material allows this to function as a first-movement sonata. A "hunting call" is at times passed among all four players, giving the work its nickname.

The memorable tune (A section) that begins the 8.5-minute movement returns literally at 2:06, ornamented at 5:09, and then significantly varied at 7:27. Even in this light-hearted opening, the basic material is only heard once every 2.5 minutes on average. Composers would be wise to take this as a classical model for a minimum proportion of development sections.

The form is extended through multiple layers of repetition: 1-2 bar motives, 4-6 bar phrases, and 8-bar periods. Takács skipped a number of repeats in the work as a whole, yet it was not detrimental to the form.

II. Minuetto
A little less interesting melodically, but it works.

III. Adagio
I think Takács took the tempo down to grave, yet it holds up well enough. Another method for development and the extension of phrases includes passing short melodic fragments among the various voices, particularly featuring an echo of the first violin in the cello.

ABA form is at play in countless works, from simple dance and song forms, to the skeletal structure of the grand sonata-allegro form itself (A - Exposition, B - Development, A - Recapitulation). Don't overlook this trusty form.

IV. Allegro assai
Another interesting yet simple way to vary the music and challenge listener expectations is to repeat previous material with a significantly altered orchestration. Double the melody in octaves or low in the cello. Write a new accompaniment pattern. This happens near the end of Movement I, as well as in Movement IV.

This latest tip, like all those listed above, applies to tonal, quasi-tonal, and non-tonal works alike.

"Hunt" was fun and a good lesson, but I'm more looking forward to "Dissonance" tomorrow. Mmm... delicious.

S.Q. Daily #12: Shostakovich No. 11

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Day #12: Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 118

My own quartet needs some inspiration and, moreso, some hard work on my part. I hope to have Movement II sketched by Saturday.

Wiki, the ever-present though tenuous source of information on everything, has a functional list of notable string quartets. Maybe I should pick from these...

Tonight on S.Q. Daily I'll give a few brief words on Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 11. Among the shortest of his fifteen quartets (which is why I chose to listen to this one while doing tonight's late-night dishes), the eleventh consists of seven miniatures, each no more than roughly four minutes.

3. Recitative has some really awesome dissonant chords - I'll have to figure them out later.
4. Etude is a brilliant, fluttering finger-study for the first violin
Movements 1, 6, and 7, while perfectly fine, are less brilliant and immediately attention-grabbing.

The set as a whole is still quite cohesive thematically, regardless of its variety of its constituent forms and moods. I believe this is due to a certain "popular" (for lack of a better word) leaning in Shostakovich's writing that strives to grab the ear on the first listen. (That's not to say that the pieces have no substance that would reward repeat hearings.) I don't know if this is an inherent element of his style, a reaction to or result of the populist guiding hand of the Party that long held sway over much of life and the arts in Russia, or what. Just an observation.

S.Q. Daily #11: Korngold No. 3

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Day #11: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 34

Erich Korngold (1897-1957) is best known for his film scores, and next for operas such as Die Tote Stadt, written when he was only 23 years old. He wrote his String Quartet No. 3 towards the end of his life, in 1945, but his writing here is no less inventive, playful, or rigorous than those compositions from his early "prodigy" period.

Virtuosic parts and an active musical surface feature prominently amid distinctly modern counterpoint. While certainly grounded in tonal language, Korngold frequently departs so convincingly from the tonic that his final tonic triad cadences seem almost as out place as those of Hindemith (see the ending of Movement I). In this way, it is likely that he saw himself as an extension of the great late Romantic tradition or Strauss and Mahler in this way.

The Scherzo and Trio (Movement II) surrounds a smooth, sustained B section with a pair of lively A sections featuring a walking pizzicato cello line under a frantic and fragmented solo violin voice. Though slightly more ambiguous in its harmonies, Korngold's third movement rivals Barber's Adagio for Strings in its raw beauty.

The first and last movements are certainly well constructed and worth study, but they come across as somewhat dry and contrived on first hearing, without the immediate appeal of the inner movements. Of course, the idea I heard on NPR today of approaching classical music as a "long-term relationship" (as opposed to pop music's immediate sex appeal) may well apply to these outer movements. Perhaps I will pick this one up again before the summer is through.

- - -

In other S.Q. Daily-related news, I have purchased (and loaded onto my iPod) the complete Bartók and Shostakovich quartets (6 and 15, respectively). Hooray! Hopefully these will inspire me as I work frantically on my own!

S.Q. Daily #10: Ravel String Quartet

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Day #10: Maurice Ravel
String Quartet, Op. 10

I'm out of town attending a friend's wedding, but thanks to the wonders of Blogger, you can enjoy this future-dated "Friday" post on schedule.

Day #10 of S.Q. Daily brings, if you've been counting, my ninth quartet review. (I didn't review one my first day.) My favorites so far have to be the Shostakovich #7, Bartók #4, and Debussy, with the Britten #2 close behind.

Ravel's String Quartet in F Major definitely ranks up there with the best of them. If you've got 30 minutes, give it a listen (Hagen Quartet on YouTube).

Ravel (Wiki) completed the work in 1903, at age 28. This work is so amazing it even has its own Wiki page. (For that matter, so does Debussy's.)

Ravel dedicated the work to his longtime teacher and friend Gabriel Fauré, whose own quartet we heard on Wednesday. (If you're into historical gossip, read up on the "Ravel Affair".)

Ravel likely modeled the work on Debussy's of a decade earlier, which makes perfect sense when you experience them in close proximity. Ravel's work also features prominent open fifths in the cello (check out Movement III), a focus on sighing melodies, and frequent "watery" gestures that form a nice aural corollary to watercolors.

To my ear, however, Ravel is a little more rhythmically active and punchy, particularly in the final movement's extended sections of 5/8 meter. He seems to be foreshadowing the disjunct, rustic energy found in early Stravinsky and virtually all Bartók. (I know, I know, they're only 7 and 6 years younger than Ravel, respectively, and I'm not claiming that he in particular influenced them.)

Like Fauré and Debussy before him, Ravel only wrote one quartet, and like Debussy (and somewhat less, Fauré), it is a staple in the quartet repertoire. One almost wishes Ravel had penned another later in life, but this gem certainly does the job.

Each movement is worth listening to, but I'll go ahead and recommend Movement II if you're in a hurry. It's uptempo and flashy, and features the same level of idiomatic writing and attention to color as the rest of the composition.

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Another reminder, the combined score to Debussy and Ravel's quartets can be had for $7.50 + S&H on Amazon.

The audio CD is $5.75 (Emerson Quartet) or $4.50 (Kodaly Quartet), or $8 for the Kodaly MP3 album download.

S.Q. Daily #9: Debussy String Quartet

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Day #9: Claude Debussy
String Quartet, Op. 10

Back to composers without diacritical marks in their names.

Today we'll take a look at a giant in this (and just about every) genre: Claude Debussy. His Wiki article is a good place to start for a summary of his works and his rather turbulent life.

Debussy is a monumental figure in music history. His contributions to color/timbre and harmony were groundbreaking and remain hugely influential to this day.

Listening to his quartet today, I can't help but regret my recent comment dismissing the majority of melodies as interchangeable and of less importance than other factors. Debussy's melodic material here, as in his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faun (Youtube), is at once simple and captivating, almost like folk music from an unknown corner of the world. Not that whole tone or pentatonic scales are anything new to contemporary ears, but the effect remains just the same.

Despite the frequent return of single melodic lines alongside a single accompaniment or background idea, every moment of this work is engaging. The fluid "Impressionistic" (not Debussy's description) gestures certainly help this. Rarely has music with so many notes on the page sounded so effortless and un-fussy. (Compare to Carter, Boulez, etc.)

Debussy also makes ample use of the extreme registers of the individual instruments, particularly at the openings of movements and in exposed solo sections.

While every page provides something to admire, I'll single out the third movement as my strongest recommendation. Its crystal clear motives (at least one of which is derived from the first movement) are couched in a wide variety of supporting textures, from sustained chords to more active lines. At this very slow tempo, though, Debussy can not fall back on the watery "magic tricks" of 32nd notes in more moderate tempi. These undulating figures are of course integral to the charm of some of his music, but it's nice to see this contrasting setting that also gets the job done.

The return to A at Rehearsal #14 is especially gorgeous, with a soaring violin line and full double stops.

And just when I'm ready to end my post, I realize that I've got to put in a word for Movement II as well. The 16th note background material makes a perfect "sonic floor" for the material it supports, even in the absence of a fuller symphonic setting. Plus the rhythmic activity and pizzicato sections are flat out fun to listen to.

So go do that. Another one-hit-wonder of the genre, Debussy's String Quartet is definitely one you should know.

P.S. - You can get the score ($7.50) and CD ($6) of this work paired with tomorrow's entry, Ravel, who rounds out French week here on S.Q. Daily.

S.Q. Daily #8: Fauré String Quartet

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Day #8: Fauré
String Quartet, Op. 121

It is Wednesday, and now Fauré gets his due. Certainly a more well-known composer than d'Indy, let's see if there's merit to that reputation. (Links to the audio and score are below.)

Gabriel Fauré's String Quartet is the banana soufflé at the Banquet of String Quartets. Light, airy, and delicate, a fine creation, and yet somehow not a main course.

The work is generally well constructed, with good use and variation of the motives. With the slight exception of the final movement, the piece does not seem to present any great challenges to the ensemble on its surface. Offbeat accompaniment patterns and the infamous "dotted eighth-sixteenth" pattern are about as tough as it gets. That a quartet could perform this work while smiling may well add to its dainty character. (That's certainly not true of the Bartók!)

I'm coming around to the opinion that many melodies are as good as any other, and that real musical interest comes from accompaniments, texture, motivic development, and form. In the second movement (m.16, reh. #11), my attention immediately fell to the sly background pattern in the violins. Alternating eighth-notes in 3rds and 2nds provide a watery backdrop for one of many fine lyrical melodies before giving way to offbeat pizzicato chords. I do wish each of these had been prolonged, though.

Despite the late date of this composition (1924), Fauré remains true to many genre traditions: sonata forms, attention to counterpoint, and a subdominant-keyed second movement. The piece is a warm invitation to the listener to seek out the rest of his works.

You'll find another helpful account of his quartet here.
(Click "Read more about this recording" and scroll down.)

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Fauré, like Debussy and Ravel after him (who we'll explore tomorrow and Friday!), wrote only this one string quartet. Sadly, no Public Domain score is available (it is PD if you're in Canada or the EU!), as he waited until 1924 - his 79th and final year of life - to complete the work.

Buy the full score ($16).

Listen to the first movement (YouTube).

On CD, pair him with Ravel ($3.67 new!), or with Debussy and Stravinsky ($10/$8 used).

(By the way, always check Amazon's private sellers. That's where you find ridiculous deals like the Fauré/Ravel I mentioned.)

Tomorrow on S.Q. Daily: Debussy.

S.Q. Daily #7: d'Indy No. 2

S.Q. Daily: A Composer's Listening Journal

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Day #7: Vincent d'Indy
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 45

Oops. I brought the wrong score with me, so we're switching up the order a bit. Instead of Fauré, we'll tackle d'Indy's second.

* Full score and parts from IMSLP (free, Public Domain)

* Kodaly Quartet plays it on the Marco Polo label (Naxos).
(Amazon excerpts by Kodaly: tracks 1-4)

* Quatuor Mosaïques plays it on "gut string" period instruments
(Amazon excerpts by Mosaïque : disc 3, tracks 5-8)

* Other Amazon previews are here and here (no Youtube, sorry!)


Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931) - now there's a name! His second of three quartets, composed in 1897, is miles apart from Saint-Saëns' 1899 quartet in terms of aesthetic. While both draw upon similar French late-Romantic harmony, the d'Indy sounds much more conservative - even Classical (with a big "C").

The fourth and final movement is a nice place to start when examining this quartet. It is a representation of the best aspects from the other three movements put together. Tempi and moods change somewhat frequently, keeping the listener on her/his toes.

The opening melodic motive ("MI-FA-LA-SOL," for you Ear Training students out there) absolutely pervades the entire work - so much so that it can become tiresome in the absence of interesting context.

The first movement uses voicings that are quite predictable and simple, without the air of brevity and inevitability commonly seen in Mozart. The music is rather dry, with the "louds" not too loud, the "fasts" not too fast, and the lushness not all that lush. If it weren't for the specific harmonies chosen, one could mistakely guess that this work belongs to the late Classical period, and not the late Romantic. Lyrical lines crop up now and again, but they seem naked without the orchestrational interest to back them up.

Movement II provides a little more textural variety and complexity. The final seven measures are extremely promising; unfortunately, they are the culmination of an idea, and not the gensis of one. The promise is over in a matter of seconds.

Motivic connections are still going strong throughout Movement III. D'Indy is still content, however, to repeat sub-phrases literally three or four times in solo voices, producing sudden contrasts without the payoff of surprise. We catch another glimpse of excitement in the triplet accompaniment at Rehearsal #14, but this too departs in a fleeting Augenblick.

Similar to a counterpoint exercise from school, Vincent d'Indy's String Quartet No. 2 looks correct and elegant on paper, but it holds little interest for the ear. Of course, multiple hearings would likely be favorable to the composition (or good for its listener, at least).

Tomorrow on S.Q. Daily, Fauré.

S.Q. Daily #6: Saint-Saëns No. 1

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Day #6: Camille Saint-Saëns
String Quartet No. 1, Op. 112

Welcome back to S.Q. Daily. We'll be exploring French quartets all this week, in chronological order by composer's birth:

Saint-Saëns
Fauré
d'Indy
Debussy
Ravel

First, the Saint-Saëns. Visit Naxos for audio if you're a subscriber, or you can listen to four 30-second previews on Amazon.

This quartet really surprised me with its ambitious musical ideas, motivic unity, and variety. I think I had placed Saint-Saëns earlier in history than he was, and that, in general, I frequently underestimate a lot of music written before, say, Firebird (1910, 1919 Suite).

The entire work is around 30 minutes in length. It's a short and enjoyable 30 minutes, but if you only have time for one movement, listen to the second (5:34). (The Equinox String Quartet has a great 90-second excerpt.) At quarter note = 184, this liveley section is shot through with catchy syncopated melodic figures just half a beat ahead of the pizzicato accompaniment. The rhythmic coordination and ensemble awareness required to perform this piece are quite impressive.

The second movement's off-beat feel is directly anticipated by a motive from the first movement, highlighting the tight motivic unity running throughout the composition as a whole. Despite the frequent return of material, though, Saint-Saëns always keeps things fresh, varying the tempi, textures, ranges, and harmonies with skill.

Although every member of the quartet must hold her/his own and count like mad for a convincing execution of this piece, the first violin is often the center of attention. With ample melodic material, fast runs quite high in the range, and tricky rapid bowing, the part comes only slightly short of virtuoso soloist playing without abandoning the concept of the quartet as an equanimous ensemble.

For a parting factoid: Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) wrote this first of two quartets in 1899, at age 64. His second was in 1918, only a few years before his death in 1921.

Tune in tomorrow for Vincent d'Indy's Quartet No. 2!