Formation of a New Harmonic Language in Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 2

Abstract

One of the most significant aspects of Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet (1959) is that it represents the composer’s workshop for developing his characteristic harmonic language. Many sketches in the collection depict the composer’s systematic process of understanding the properties of all-interval tetrachords—how they combine into larger units to complete the 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-note collections, the 12-note aggregate, or how they break down into smaller units of dyads and trichords. This process did not come easy to Carter—it took many years before it evolved into a system of chord syntheses. In addition to systematizing chord properties, sketches and documents reveal that Carter studied other methods (serialism) and works of other composers he admired (such as Webern and Schoenberg) while searching for his own way of expression. This type of systematic development, combined with experimentation using different compositional techniques, clearly suggests that Carter was in the developing stages of his own harmonic language.