Six String Quartets, Opus 32 and Opus 33

10.31022/c042 ◽  
1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leopold Kozeluch
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
String Quartets

Kozeluch, Mozart's greatest rival in Vienna, published his only string quartets in 1790 and 1792, at a time when he was being described by the lexicographer Gerber as “the most loved among living composers.” A study of these works offers much-needed insights into this significant composer, the string quartet genre, and the fascinating decade that saw the musical shift from classicism to romanticism.

Ernest Bloch's Second String Quartet

Tempo ◽  
1959 ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Frederick Rimmer
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
The Right

The four string quartets* of Bloch are a convenient medium for assessing both the strength and weakness of his unusual talent, revealing, as they do, an imperfect endowment of those processes of thought and feeling from which, in the right amalgam, a masterpiece of musical expression can emerge. Only the second quartet represents him at his best. It is one of the few works where inspiration and emotion are under the control of the intellect. There are weaknesses in the other quartets largely brought about by preoccupation with cyclic procedures—a notorious and dangerous expedient for a composer unable by nature to accept the traditional usages and disciplines of sonata form.

London, Wigmore Hall: Maxwell Davies's new ‘Naxos Quartets’ (and earlier works on CD)

Tempo ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (228) ◽  
pp. 68-69
Author(s):  
Paul Conway
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Peter Maxwell Davies ◽  
Original Approach

In a project that will be completed in 2007, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has been commissioned by the Naxos recording company to write ten string quartets. Large-scale ambitions already realized, the intimacy of chamber music offers an opportunity not only to consolidate but also to probe and quest with the precision of scaled-down forces. It is timely, then, to be reminded that, although it has not been a major preoccupation such as opera, concerto and symphony writing, the quartet form has drawn from him some significant examples evincing an original approach. A recent Metier release usefully gathers together on one disc all Max's works for string quartet prior to the Naxos series. In these persuasive recordings, the members of the Kreutzer Quartet display a keen understanding of the individual character of each piece, the circumstances of its creation and the purpose for which it was intended.

Benjamin Lees: Quo Vadis?

Tempo ◽  
1990 ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Bret Johnson
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Music ◽  
Double Concerto ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Individual Personality ◽  
Quo Vadis ◽  
Sound Spectrum

Fifteen years ago, Nicolas Slonimsky wrote of Benjamin Lees in Tempo: ‘At a time when so many otherwise valiant composers are star-crossed and complain of malign neglect, Benjamin Lees rises “in excelsis” in the musical firmament’. And so he has continued since, with many commissions and numerous major works to his credit, matched by frequent performances in the United States. It is a time that has seen the creation of his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, a set of Variations for Piano and Orchestra, a Concerto for Brass Choir and Orchestra, a Double Concerto for Piano, Cello and Orchestra, at least four other orchestral compositions of substantial scale, and the Third and Fourth String Quartets. All of these have contributed to his continuing high profile in the American musical scene. When one surveys Lees's entire corpus of music over the last four decades, one sees an impressive range of works, achievements and awards. Such pieces as the Violin Concerto (1958), Third Symphony (1969) and Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (1965), all commercially recorded, stand out as landmarks not only of his own music but of postwar American music generally. His style has continued to evolve in recent years and whilst his hallmark is still his adherence to form and structure, he has become more concerned with orchestral sonority and, without becoming explicitly programmatic, practises his art within an ever-widening sound spectrum and colouristic palette. He has always possessed a strongly individual personality, and the ‘Lees Sound’ is unquestionably unique, even through his exposition and development of musical ideas-and the technique of continual evolution which he favours at present-derive, at source, from his most important early musical teacher: George Antheil.

scholarly journals Optimal feedback correction in string quartet synchronization

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (93) ◽  
pp. 20131125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan M. Wing ◽  
Satoshi Endo ◽  
Adrian Bradbury ◽  
Dirk Vorberg
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Relative Timing ◽  
Correction Model ◽  
First Order ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Time Series Approach ◽  
Feedback Correction

Control of relative timing is critical in ensemble music performance. We hypothesize that players respond to and correct asynchronies in tone onsets that arise from fluctuations in their individual tempos. We propose a first-order linear phase correction model and demonstrate that optimal performance that minimizes asynchrony variance predicts a specific value for the correction gain. In two separate case studies, two internationally recognized string quartets repeatedly performed a short excerpt from the fourth movement of Haydn's quartet Op. 74 no. 1, with intentional, but unrehearsed, expressive variations in timing. Time series analysis of successive tone onset asynchronies was used to estimate correction gains for all pairs of players. On average, both quartets exhibited near-optimal gain. However, individual gains revealed contrasting patterns of adjustment between some pairs of players. In one quartet, the first violinist exhibited less adjustment to the others compared with their adjustment to her. In the second quartet, the levels of correction by the first violinist matched those exhibited by the others. These correction patterns may be seen as reflecting contrasting strategies of first-violin-led autocracy versus democracy. The time series approach we propose affords a sensitive method for investigating subtle contrasts in music ensemble synchronization.

David Diamond String Quartets

Tempo ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (234) ◽  
pp. 65-66
Author(s):  
Bret Johnson
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
String Quartets

DIAMOND: String Quartets (complete); Concerto for String Quartet; Night Music for Accordion and String Quartet1. Potomac String Quartet with 1Carmelo Pino (acc). 4-CD set (each disc available separately): Albany TROY 504 (Nos. 3 and 8, Concerto), 540 (Nos. 2, 9 and 10), 613 (Nos. 1, 5 and 6) and 727 (Nos. 4 and 7, Night Music).

Understanding of Structure

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-132
Author(s):  
Daphne Leong
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Folk Song ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Rhythmic Performance ◽  
Recorded Performances ◽  
Video Interview

The meters of the trio at the center of Bartók’s Fifth String Quartet scherzo are (3 + 2 + 2 + 3) / 8, (2 + 3 + 2 + 3) / 8, and (2 + 3 + 3 + 2) / 8. Well-known string quartets differ greatly in their interpretations of these meters, with rhythmic performance ranging from accented and angular to lyrical and flexible. What are the main differences in rhythmic interpretation, and what might explain them? This chapter explores the structure of the trio’s melodies in relation to Bartók’s writings on folk music (Hungarian folk song and Bulgarian meter), and examines ten recordings of the trio empirically. It concludes that the most significant distinctions in interpretation of the trio’s rhythms link to a folk-song-like understanding of its melodies, and that Bartók’s coaching influence coincides with such understanding. Bartók’s instructions to the Kolisch Quartet on the performance of the trio’s rhythms, and Bartók’s own recorded performances of similar rhythms, are examined. A performers’ guide and video interview with András Fejér of the Takács Quartet provide practical interpretive resources. Audio examples complement the written text.

Performance and Reception of Bartók’s Violin Music during His First Concert Tour of the United States (1927–1928)

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
The United States ◽  
Piano Works ◽  
Violin Music ◽  
Concert Halls ◽  
Lecture Recitals ◽  
Violin And Piano

Abstract During his first concert tour of the United States (1927–1928) Bartók played primarily his own music in lecture-recitals, orchestra performances, and chamber music concerts in fifteen American cities. Over the course of the tour, he collaborated with violinists Jelly d’Arányi and Joseph Szigeti to present a few of his works for violin and piano to members of musical clubs in New York City and Philadelphia, and before dignitaries at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. – namely his Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2 (1922), Hungarian Folk Tunes, for violin and piano (arranged by Joseph Szigeti, 1926), and Romanian Folk Dances for Violin and Piano (arranged by Zoltán Székely, 1925). In Boston and New York, Bartók played on recitals that also included performances of his String Quartets nos. 1 and 2. In this article I document the American reception of Bartók’s violin music during his U.S. recitals of early 1928. Music criticism in American newspapers and music journals, as well as detailed program notes from the string quartet performances, have been taken into account to reveal the assessment of Bartók’s violin music and string quartets and the characterization of the composer in the American press and concert halls. The reviews have also been considered in comparison to later recordings of the violin and piano works made by Bartók and Szigeti.

THE UNDISCOVERED FLIGHT PATHS OF THE ‘MUSICAL BEE’: NEW LIGHT ON HUMMEL’S MUSICAL QUOTATIONS

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROHAN STEWART-MACDONALD
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
String Quartets ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Performance Tradition ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
North Germany ◽  
Goldberg Variations ◽  
The Relationship

Hummel’s quoting of music by other composers has been mentioned briefly in a number of studies. While some of these quotations are explicit, others are a good deal more problematic. This article investigates explicit quotations that appear in two of Hummel’s string quartets dating from 1803–1804 and the finale of a piano sonata from 1807. The fourth movement of the String Quartet in G major, Op. 30 No. 2, twice quotes J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV988, the slow movement of Op. 30 No. 3 refers to Handel’s Messiah and the finale of the F minor piano sonata cultivates a complex relationship with the last movement of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony. My objective is to demonstrate the sophistication and subtlety with which Hummel manipulates the quoted material in these three cases.Hummel’s obvious quotation of Bach and Handel in particular is related to a multi-faceted preoccupation with archaic styles and earlier works that had taken root in the later eighteenth century and that continued to expand into the nineteenth and beyond. Although England was the first nation to develop a performance tradition around the ‘ancient’ musical repertory, it was the accumulation of a didactic tradition around the keyboard works of J. S. Bach in north Germany and its steady migration to centres like Vienna that is of more direct relevance here. And when one surveys the (supposed) quotations by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Clementi of works by Bach and Handel and compares them with Hummel’s, Hummel’s remain outstanding in their exactness and also in their frequent lightheartedness of tone. Whereas many straightforward quotations or instances of modelling appear reverential or seek to exalt the basic idiom, Hummel’s either are humorous or seem calculated to reduce the potency of the original in order to assimilate the earlier idiom into the later one. The three pieces considered here illustrate the spectrum of techniques used by Hummel to manipulate quoted material in his works. The quotations in the two quartets have drawn very little comment; the references to Mozart’s ’Jupiter’ Symphony in the finale of Op. 20 have been remarked on more frequently, but the relationship between the two finales is a good deal more intricate than has previously been shown. The ‘contrapuntal deconstruction’ that takes place late in the third movement of Hummel’s Op. 20, between the most explicit reference to the ‘Jupiter’ finale and the coda, is lighthearted in character – amusing, even – and is in some ways the most ingenious and vibrant episode in the movement.

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