Beyond Long-Range Polyrhythms: Harmonic Process in Elliott Carter’s Fourth String Quartet

Abstract

In his three-decade long search for ways to restructure rhythm, Elliott Carter developed an identifiably unique and intricate rhythmic language, as manifested in his Fourth String Quartet. While much of the Carter scholarship on his works of the 1980s has focused on the rhythmic design (long-range polyrhythms), sketches show that Carter expanded his rhythmic expression without simplifying other musical elements, such as harmony, which carries equal importance as rhythm in the design of the piece. The harmonic structure is based on assigning unique intervallic restraints to each instrument that typically yield all-interval twelve-tone chords with a characteristic parallel-inversional invariance. This article illustrates Carter’s logical hierarchy in his compositional process and the meticulous detail in planning the rhythmic and harmonic framework in his least-understood string quartet.