Harmonic Strategies in Bartók’s Fifth and Shostakovich’s Ninth String Quartet

Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet. Edited by Robin Stowell. (Cambridge Companions to Music.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [xiv, 373 p. ISBN O521-80194-X $75 (hbk.); ISBN 0-52100042-4 $27 (pbk.)] Illustrations, music examples, bibliography, index. A volume on the string quartet is the latest contribution to the Cambridge Companion series devoted to topics. Both scholars and performers have contributed to provide a wide range of perspectives on this subject. fifteen chapters are divided into four main areas: the changing social role of the string quartet and organological developments; a history of the most celebrated ensembles; string quartet performance practices-historical and modern; and repertoire, including discussion of modern mixed ensembles involving the string quartet. Given the book's aim at broad coverage within a concise format, comprehensive referencing to the relevant literature is essential. Unfortunately there are several important omissions in this area, some of which are below. Perhaps the most valuable parts of this volume are the chapters that deal with the string quartet from angles that have not been covered in-depth elsewhere. In this respect Christina Bashford's The string quartet and society is exemplary. Bashford charts a broad shift over the genre's history from active participation to listening, giving due attention to the counterpoint between these two related reception positions. chapter serves well as an introduction to the book, since the complex relations between repertoire, performers, and recipients is a recurrent theme throughout. Her discussion of the formation of a narrow band of canonic string quartets in the nineteenth century is also invaluable here, since it provides a background to the ideology of string quartets that has served in the past to restrict our views of the genre. chapters of this book generally leave behind the traditionally narrow viewpoint; the book is expansive in terms of both the repertoire that the authors cover and the analytical and interpretive approaches that they apply. Part 4 of the Companion, in particular, contributes greatly to a rounded picture of the string quartet. It contains discussions of repertories that have traditionally been marginalized in scholarship and performance: the early string quartet (prior to Haydn's Op. 9), works by non-canonic (or equivalently non-Austro-German) composers, twentieth-century works, and genres closely related to the string quartet. But perhaps the most thought-provoking study in this section is one that deals with the string quartet qua string quartet, and with canonic composers: W. Dean Sutcliffe's Haydn, Mozart and their contemporaries. Sutcliffe attempts to characterize the distinctive features of the string quartet without positing these elements as ideals towards which other genres aspire, as has often been the case in past scholarship. His interest lies in the ways in which musical materials-textures and topics-appeal to varied listeners and on numerous levels; in particular, he considers the various social models (forms of musical conversation, for example) and dramatic modes (such as the pastoral) that they imply. chapter contains sensitive analyses of works by composers such as Carl Friedrich Abel, Giuseppe Maria Cambini, Luigi Boccherini, and Ignace Pleyel, alongside new readings of more familiar works by Haydn and Mozart. Sutcliffe might have cited Elizabeth Ie Guin's relevant studies of Boccherini's chamber music (especially One Says That One Weeps, but One Does Not Weep': Sensible, Grotesque, and Mechanical Embodiments in Boccherini's Chamber Music. Journal of the American Musicological Society 55, no. 2 [2002]: 207-54), and Mara Parker's recent book (The String Quartet, 1750-1797: Four Types of Musical Conversation. [Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002]). Tully Potter further rounds out the genre's history, in Part 2, with chapters on the most celebrated artists from the late eighteenth century through the recording age. …

The aim of the study is to identify the features of the evolution of the string (bowed) quartet genre in the works of composers of the Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century. The article examines the string quartets of A. S. Lurie, N. A. Roslavets, and A. V. Mosolov created in the 1910s-1920s – one of the most complex and contradictory periods in the history of Russian music. Through the prism of embodying traditional beginnings and innovative ideas, the features of their artistic concepts, form, dramaturgy, thematicism, and instrumental means of expression are determined. It is shown that avant-garde searches and experiments enriched the figurative-semantic and emotional field of quartet music, expanded the traditional forms of sounding of a bowed ensemble, pushed the academic boundaries of the aesthetic interpretation of the genre, and outlined the prospects for its further development. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that, for the first time, string quartets by composers of the Russian avant-garde are presented in the context of the evolution of the genre in Russian music of the 20th century. The research determined that in the context of a radical rethinking of classical canons, characteristic of the aesthetics of the avant-garde, the string quartet demonstrated the resilience of the genre tradition. Experiments and transformations were aimed primarily at updating the sound of an ensemble of timbre-homogeneous instruments, led to new readings of the classical model of the genre and the creation of individual genre solutions, predetermining similar processes in the quartet music of Russian composers of the last third of the 20th – early 21st centuries: S. M. Slonimsky, A. G. Schnittke, S. A. Gubaidulina.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore whether string quartets (SQs) adopt self‐managed‐team (SMT) principles in line with organizational models of team work. This exploration is significant in face of the status of the SQ as one of the leading and prototypical ensembles in Western music.Design/methodology/approachMembers of 22 leading SQs around the world were contacted and asked to fill out a questionnaire which measures SMT characteristics in managerial teams while referring to their own SQ ensemble.FindingsResults showed that SMT levels of all SQs were extremely high (M=4.39, SD =0.39, on a 1 to 5 scale). In addition, four factors were revealed in this questionnaire: Interpersonal relations and shared monitoring, Leadership, Management style, and Resources explaining 18.4, 15.9, 14.2, and 11.9 percent of the variance, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe current sample is limited in size and may not adequately represent professional SQs worldwide. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that SQs actually work as SMTs. Additionally, the SMT frame of SQs is expressed in distinct factors of characteristics.Originality/valueThe current study is one of a few investigations that examined descriptions of SQ members about behaviors in their own musical ensembles. This study suggests that successful SQs may serve as a benchmark for various SMTs in organizational settings.

One of the composers of string quartets who confronted the ‘memory of the genre’ in the latter half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st century was Rafał Augustyn. In the composer’s quartets one finds both classical influences (String Quartet No. 1, Do ut desfor string quartet, Dedication for Soprano and String Quartet) and references to tradition contrasted with modern solutions (String Quartet No. 2).Grand jeté. Quartet No. 2 1∕2 with electronics represents a collage of diverse musical idioms, quotations, instrumental sounds, and specific sonorities. In his final quartet, the Monadology (String Quartet No. 3), Augustyn makes a loose reference to Leibniz’s concept of monads, a term used to describe philosophical atoms. It consists of miniatures combined using static links. In the article, the author demonstrates, through the use of selected examples, how Rafał Augustyn reinterprets the string quartet genre while simultaneously remaining connected to the tradition via the ensemble.

Reviewed by: The String Quartet: From the Private to the Public Sphere ed. by Christian Speck Andrew Justice The String Quartet: From the Private to the Public Sphere. Edited by Christian Speck. (Speculum musicae, no. 27.) Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2016. [xxx, 388 p. ISBN: 978-2-503-56800-3. €110] Widely-held monographs published in the past two decades regarding the string quartet in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when not Cambridge Companions or similar, have been somewhat limited to specific studies of Haydn, Beethoven, or Schubert with the notable exception of Mara Parker's superb The String Quartet, 1750–1797: Four Types of Musical Conversation (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002). Another high-quality installment in the Speculum musicae series published by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini and Brepols, this collection of essays (originally presented at the 2013 conference The String Quartet from 1750 to 1870 in Lucca, Italy) addresses the problematic issue of the string quartet's historiography following its reception. Christian Speck, whose impressive record of scholarship on the quartets of Boccherini and others may speak for itself, continues to influence current scholarly thought regarding the venerable genre with this well-edited array of deeply focused studies on a substantially broad range of topics. In a sizeable introduction, Speck considers the quartet's binary private/public nature and how that division is often obscured in its accounts, referencing a 1785 article by Johann Georg Krünitz that situates chamber music apart from the church and theatre yet between concert and "cabinet" (p. xiii). Aristocratic and bourgeois cultivation of the quartet is shown to have a corollary in monasteries and rectories (venues not often remembered in historical surveys), citing collections containing repertoire and manuscripts. The sacred triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven is briefly addressed within the context of source quotes from Francesco Galeazzi, Heinrich Christoph Koch, Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny, and Bernhard Marx, along with the caution of noting the variant names related to the genre: quatuor brillant and concertant, quartettino, and so forth. Cliff Eisen brings his usual excellent scholarly craft to the table with a study of Mozart's late string chamber music—the 'Prussian' quartets K. 579–590 and quintets K. 593 and 614—and the traditionally problematic notion of his 'late style', arguing that they might display a shift away from diversity and multiplicity of material toward a more Baroque-like 'unity of affect' (p. 8). Claiming that historical dismissal of these works by critics represents a failure to perceive Mozart's changing style, Eisen suggests a revisionist historiography that derives meaning from the composer's life by finding it within the compositions, instead of requiring a 'late style' to have biographical justification. As head of the Music Department at the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, Balázs Mikusi has regular access to Haydn's private collection of string quartets, which he posits can enable insights into the composer's creative work. Although the collection is noticeably late in its selection of repertory, it includes many dedicated published works that Haydn appeared to value, regardless of whether they err on the side of self-promotion for the dedicator as opposed to gratitude or homage. Mikusi also discusses the sometimes overlooked role of Haydn as editor, and how this collection may assist in understanding the creation of his Op. 42 quartet, which has challenged scholars due to its brevity and lack of inclusion in a set. Speck's own contributions to the volume come in the form of two essays regarding Haydn's Emperor Quartet, Op. 76, No. 3, one a shorter study of the vocal and instrumental idioms in its variations movement and the other an exploration of the quartet's role in the public concert life of London and Vienna. Stating that the variations on the Emperor's Hymn represent a kind of metamorphosis from Lied to string quartet, he references the hymn's original status as a government commission and its recognisability while considering Haydn's avoidance of demanding polyphony or strict counterpoint, [End Page 200] instead noting that the postlude which rises from the final pitch of the Lied points toward a solution of negotiating...

Novejši slovenski godalni kvartet

Reviewed by: Sonata No. 1 for Violin Solo, Opus 82; and: Sonata No. 2 for Violin Solo, Opus 95; and: 24 Preludes for Violoncello Solo; and: Three Palms, Opus 120; and: String Quartet No. 14, Opus 122; and: String Quartet No. 15, Opus 124by Mieczysław Weinberg Daniel Elphick Mieczysław Weinberg. Sonate Nr. 1 für Violine solo= Sonata No. 1 for Violin Solo, Opus 82. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, 2014. [Score, p. 1–24. ISMN 979-0-003-04040-0, pub. no. H.S. 2432. €16.] Mieczysław Weinberg. Sonate Nr. 2 für Violine solo= Sonata No. 2 for Violin Solo, Opus 95. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, 2014. [Score, p. 1–14. ISMN 979-0-003-04041-7, pub. no. H.S. 2433. €12.] Mieczysław Weinberg. 24 Präludien für Violoncello solo= 24 Preludes for Violoncello Solo. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, [2014]. [Score, p. 1–36. ISMN 979-0-003-03936-7, pub. no. H.S. 2420. €20.50.] Mieczysław Weinberg. Drei Palmen= Three Palms. Poem nach Versen von Michail Lermontow für Sopran und Streichquartett= Poem on Verses by Mikhail Lermontov for Soprano and String Quartet, Opus 120. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, 2013. [Score, p. 1–36 + 4 parts (Violino I, Violino II, Viola, and Violoncello). ISMN 979-0-003-04035-6, pub. no. H.S. 2430. €37.] [End Page 619] Mieczysław Weinberg. Streichquartett Nr. 14= String Quartet No. 14, Opus 122. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, 2012. [Score, p. 1–34 + 4 parts (Violino I, Violino II, Viola, and Violoncello). ISMN 979-0-003-03876-6, pub. no. H.S. 2414. €36.50.] Mieczysław Weinberg. Streichquartett Nr. 15= String Quartet No. 15, Opus 124. Hamburg: Sikorski Musikverlag, 2012. [Score, p. 1–40 + 4 parts (Violino I, Violino II, Viola, and Violoncello). ISMN 979-0-003-03877-3, pub. no. H.S. 2415. €38.50.] In recent years, Mieczysław Weinberg (or Moseĭ Vaĭnberg, to use the spelling adopted by the Library of Congress; the latter will be used in this review) has been celebrated as a confident voice in Soviet music, and promoted as a lyrical complement to Shostakovich’s grotesque and monumental styles. In particular, Vaĭnberg’s chamber music has proven popular among performers and audiences alike. The editions featured here lack any foreword or commentary, and as a result, some introduction to his life and times may be helpful. Vaĭnberg (1919–1996) was a Polish-Jewish immigrant to the U.S.S.R. who achieved great success during his heyday, but eventually fell into neglect toward the end of his life. His biography is certainly unique: he evaded the Nazis twice, only to suffer anti-Semitism at the hands of the Soviets. In addition, his father-in-law was murdered on Stalin’s orders in 1948, and Vaĭnberg himself was briefly imprisoned in 1953 on trumped-up charges of “Jewish bourgeois nationalism.” Despite such treatment, Vaĭnberg continued to hail the U.S.S.R. as his savior from the Nazis, since his close family remained in Poland only to be murdered in the Holocaust (for an excellent overview of Vaĭnberg’s life and works, see David Fanning, Mieczysław Weinberg: In Search of Freedom[Hofheim: Wolke, 2010]). Vaĭnberg was an extremely prolific composer, producing twenty-six symphonies, seventeen string quartets, seven operas, some two-dozen song cycles, and around thirty instrumental sonatas. While some critics prematurely dismissed him as a “little Shostakovich,” many have since come to appreciate his highly expressive voice. Vaĭnberg and Shostakovich were close friends, and they showed each other their works in progress—in some cases, ideas can be shown to have originated from the younger composer (see Daniel Elphick, “Wein berg, Shostakovich, and the Influence of Anxiety,” The Musical Times155, no. 1929 [Winter 2014]: 49–62). In a handful of instances, it is difficult to surmise where ideas first originated. As a result, a considerable number of critics now speak of Vaĭnberg as the third composer of Soviet music, after Shostakovich and Prokofiev. The revival since his death has resulted from the tireless efforts of many individuals, performers and critics alike. The biggest success in recent years has...

HAYDN STUDIES The String Quartets of Joseph Haydn. By Floyd and Margaret Grave. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. [x, 382 p. ISBN 0-19-517357-0. $65.] Music examples, tables bibliographic references, index. In 1990 Floyd and Margaret Grave published an indispensable handbook for Haydn scholars: Franz Joseph Haydn: A Guide to Research (New York: Garland). With this latest book, they have produced yet another comprehensive and thoroughly documented addition to the Haydn literature. To undertake a study of Haydn's string they observe at the outset, to enter a domain of music scholarship whose byways far exceed the scope of a single (p. 3). However, the Graves successfully narrow their field by focusing detailed analyses that foreground opus-level observations and musical connections. Chapters Points of Departure (The Repertory, Genre and Character, and Texture, Ensemble Technique, and Sonority), and Formal Perimeters lead to studies of each opus, most of which are allotted a full chapter. These background chapters prove essential, given the authors' twofold aim, in the ensuing discussion, of accounting for the individuality of each opus group while drawing out the repertoire's constant elements, variables, and miscellaneous norms (p. 25). In light of several recent critiques of traditional evolutionary narratives of the string quartet, which are cited here, the authors are wise in their decision to address the opus groups on their own terms, and to attempt to avoid assumptions about stylistic progression. Signs of the Graves' bibliographic acumen are manifest. The text is meticulously referenced, directing the reader towards much of the relevant recent literature the subject. They acknowledge directly that their work complements important recent studies in the field, such as those by William Drabkin op. 20 (A Reader's Guide to Haydn's Early String Quartets [Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000]) and W. Dean Sutcliffe op. 50 (Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 50 [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992]). There are also references and citations from many of the relevant primary sources; these form the basis of sections within the later chapters the works' genesis, publication, and reception. Haydn's shrewd dealings with his publishers, as evidenced in contemporary correspondence, make for particularly fascinating reading. Presumably, and a little unfortunately, the book went to press too early to include mention of Mara Parker's invaluable new handbook, The String Quartet: A Research and Information Guide (Burlington, VT: Routledge, 2005). Perhaps the main contribution in the Graves' study is their discussion of large-scale integrative elements in Haydn's quartets; indeed, the topic could have been more overtly thematized. A significant thread in their narrative is what we might call Haydn's inter-opus meta-discourse in the string quartets, whereby he returned, in later works, to ideas explored in previous sets. Especially compelling is their reading of op. 17 as a critique of op. 9, one that is variously challenging, destabilizing, or indulging in ironic commentary, while at the same time building its precedents (p. 169). The specific case study of op. 17, no. 4 as a critique of op. 9, no. 4 is typical of the detailed, thought-provoking analyses that one finds throughout this book. Occasionally there are readings that are somewhat problematic: with respect to op. 20, for example, can one really speak of the cello's liberation from standard bassline duty (p. 184, my italics)? Surely this verges traditional, teleological assumptions about string quartet history and genre ideals. Perhaps a better approach would be to consider Haydn's manipulation of string quartet roles in the first movement of op. 20, no. 2 as meta-discourse these roles. Elsewhere in the chapter op. 20, the authors provide a broadly conceived reading of the works' integrative forces as they arise through disintegrative rhetorical tendencies. …

Reviewed by: 6 String Quartets, Opus 20, Hoboken III: 31-36, and: 6 String Quartets, Opus 33, Hoboken III: 37-42, and: 6 String Quartets, Opus 50, Hoboken III: 44-49, and: Streichquartette "Opus 76", "Opus 77" und "Opus 103" W. Dean Sutcliffe Joseph Haydn. 6 String Quartets, Opus 20, Hoboken III: 31–36. Edited by Simon Rowland-Jones; editorial consultant, David Ledbetter. Urtext. London: Edition Peters, c2001. [1 plate; pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. v–xv; explanation of terms, p. xvi–xvii; references, p. xviii; score, 88 p.; crit. commentary, p. 89–101; and 4 parts. ISMN M-57708-356-8; ISBN 1-901507-21-1; Edition Peters no. 7594. $55.] Joseph Haydn. 6 String Quartets, Opus 33, Hoboken III: 37–42. Edited by Simon Rowland-Jones; editorial consultant, David Ledbetter. London: Edition Peters, c2002. [1 plate; pref., references in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. v–xxii; score, 78 p.; crit. commentary, p. 79–90; and 4 parts. ISMN M-57708-357-5; ISBN 1-901507-22-X; Edition Peters no. 7595. $55.] Joseph Haydn. 6 String Quartets, Opus 50, Hoboken III: 44–49. Edited by Simon Rowland-Jones; editorial consultant, David Ledbetter. Urtext. London: Edition Peters, c2003. [1 plate; pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. v–xxiv; references, p. xxv; opening dynamics, p. xxvi; score, 98 p.; crit. commentary, p. 99–110; and 4 parts. ISMN M-57708-463-3; Edition Peters no. 7615. $55.] Joseph Haydn. Streichquartette “Opus 76,” “Opus 77” und “Opus 103.” Herausgegeben von Horst Walter mit Vorarbeiten von Lars Schmidt-Thieme. (Joseph Haydn Werke, ser. 12, vol. 6.) Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 2003. [Frontispiece (2 MS leaves from op. 103); Vorwort, p. vii–xvi; Zur Gestaltung der Ausgabe, p. xvii; score, p. 3–166; Anhang, p. 167–74; Krit. Bericht, p. 175–227. Cloth: HN 5342, €165; paper: HN 5341, €156.] Although this is not spelled out by means of a general series preface, the new Peters editions of Joseph Haydn's opus 20, 33, and 50 string quartets are meant above all for the performer. Yet whereas such performing editions of old took for granted their right to alter and add to previous texts without troubling the player, times have changed, and editor Simon Rowland-Jones shows far greater care. Thus while his brief is clearly to offer explicit and full indications for the practicing musician, he also presents an extensive critical commentary for these quartets that tracks most of the editorial decisions based on the sources at hand. Editorial brackets generally appear only when dynamic levels are suggested at the start of a movement. In most other circumstances a novel system of six numerical categories alerts players to editorial intervention by placing numbers at the relevant spots in the score (and, importantly, in the individual parts). Separate listings in each movement's critical report then elucidate these emendations by dividing them into categories of general (covering such matters [End Page 486] as varying tempo indications and fingerings), variants of pitch and duration, slurs and ties, staccato marks, ornaments, and dynamics. One can only applaud any attempt to make the details of the editorial process more approachable and to tempt players into consulting the back pages. Even reputable ensembles may still be playing from comfortable older editions despite the availability of several better, more recent alternatives. There are the editions by Reginald Barrett-Ayres and H. C. Robbins Landon published by Doblinger (op. 20: Diletto musicale, 722–27 [Vienna, 1981–87; reissued as set, 1995, Diletto musicale, 988]; op. 33: Diletto musicale, 728–33 [1988; reissued as set, 1995, Diletto musicale, 989]; op. 50: Diletto musicale, 735–40 [1985; reissued as set, 1989, Diletto musicale, 990]), likewise available as scores and parts; and for opus 20 and 33, there is, supremely, the edition in the Joseph Haydn Werke edited by Georg Feder and Sonja Gerlach (ser. 12, vol. 3 [Munich: G. Henle, 1974]), but performance parts remain unavailable. In the case of opus 50, however, we still await the verdict from the Werke; when published, the volume covering opus 42, 50, 54, and 55 will conclude the series of quartets in the complete edition. While the Doblinger edition of opus 50 was able...

[1] This two-volume, 750-page tome, edited by Evan Jones, is a major contribution both to music analysis and to scholarship on the string quartet. It comprises essays by some of today's leading theorists, each one taking on a single composer and closely examining his or her approach to the string quartet. As such, it is truly a scholarly tour de force, a monumental assembly-both in size and essence-of analytical and historical approaches to the genre.(1)[2] collection consists of twenty chapters, organized more or less chronologically according to each composer's years of productivity in the genre of string quartets, and grouped roughly around some unifying concept, school of thought, or relationship to other composers. To wit, in Volume 1 we find: New Voices from the Old World (Debussy and Ravel: Wheeldon; Sibelius: Kraus; Bartok: Straus; Hindemith: Neumeyer); The Second Viennese School (Schoenberg: Shaftel; Berg: Headlam; Webern: Clampitt); and Inherited and Indigenous Traditions (Villa-Lobos: Tarasti; Prokofiev: Minturn). Volume 2 continues with Motive, Quotation, and Form (Shostakovich: McCreless; Britten: Mark); The European Avant-Garde (Ligeti: Clendinning; Berio: Hermann; Xenakis: Jones; Sclesi: Drott); and The String Quartet in America (Cage: Bernstein; Babbitt: Mead; Carter: Bernard; Powell: Perry; Ran: Peck). reader will thus find an impressive cross-section of exemplars from a variety of compositional traditions, albeit heavy on the male-dominated canon.[3] On the whole, Intimate Voices is an outstanding example of contemporary scholarship, consciously addressing the multifaceted nature of music analysis as a between the score, the sound, and the socio-historical context of any particular piece. Each individual contribution tackles these very elements in varying degrees, highlighting the many ways in which they interlace. Some authors single out and target one specific piece-sometimes even a single movement-within a composer's oeuvre, displaying formidable analytical dexterity and ingenuity (e.g., Wheeldon, Kraus, Bernstein). Others take a more historical route, providing a bird's-eye-view of a composer's entire output and situating the string quartet within a broader narrative of his artistic development (e.g., McCreless, Clendinning, Mead, Straus). Still others zero in on a single concept that may run through a composer's career, and illustrate how string quartets served as successive stages in its evolution (e.g., Shaftel, Tarasti, Minturn, Hermann, Jones). Especially in this last group is Shaftel's chapter on Schoenberg, in which the author focuses on the idea of comprehensibility as one of the latter's central compositional goals, tracing it back to his theoretical and pedagogical writings and examining its application in the string quartets. Of particular note is Shaftel's starting point: a set of playing cards painted by Schoenberg himself (a full-color reproduction appears on the front cover of the book's dust-jacket). Here, Shaftel discusses how with just a handful of colors and alterations of shapes, positions, and textures, Schoenberg was able to achieve subtle variations while maintaining overall comprehensibility: characteristics that he was later to employ in his musical works.[4] To offer detailed summaries of all the chapters in this book would be impractical and most likely uninformative. Instead, I will opt for a close discussion of just one; namely, Jones's own contribution to the collection, an essay on the experience of musical forms in the quartets of Xenakis. Here, the author begins by stating that the experience of the listener, or the esthesic side of music (to use the familiar terminology from Nattiez 1990), was as much a consideration for the composer as the poietic perspective. Jones argues that such a distinction creates an interesting dialogue between formal segmentations and the use of pitch-class collections on the one hand, and, on the other, a special logic that emerges for the listener. …

Bartók's influence as a composer and ethnomusicologist on post-war Hungarian composers was profound. In the Stalinist and post-Stalinist regimes of Rákosi and Kádár, Bartók's legacy became increasingly complex, as his role as “internationalist” composer and ethnomusicologist became a primary pillar of the new musical ideologies. Within this socialist reality, younger composers reacted to this ideology either by integrating, emphasizing or denying the modernist and folkloristic tendencies that are found both in Bartók's music and in the socialist appropriation thereof. This chapter investigates sections of György Kurtág's String Quartet op. 1 and of György Ligeti's String Quartet no. 2, underscoring both composers’ relationship to Bartók's string quartet oeuvre. By analyzing these works in terms of topical, tonal and rhythmic structure, I demonstrate how these works either refer back to or re-contextualize similar topical and tonal structures found in Bartók's String Quartet no. 1, String Quartet no. 3, String Quartet no. 4 and String Quartet no. 6. I go on to show how elements of folk music became methodologically reinterpreted, restructured and deconstructed in the course of twentieth-century Hungarian compositional practice.

Healey Willan's activity as a composer of chamber music dates mainly from the earlier part of his career, an activity which culminated in the years 1915-16 (by which time the composer was living in Canada) with the appearance of his three greatest accomplishments in the realm of chamber music: the Piano Trio in B Minor, the Variations and Epilogue for two pianos, and the Sonata No. 1 in E Minor for Violin and Piano. After 1916 just a few small chamber pieces appeared (both original and arrangements) as well as that deliberate Baroque imitation, the Sonata No. 2 in E Major for Violin and Piano (1921). composition of both the Piano Trio in B Minor and the Violin Sonata No. 1 had begun prior to 1913, while the composer was still living in England. One might well wonder why, since the string quartet was still the most prestigious (as well as the most common) medium of chamber music at the time, Willan did produce a string quartet himself. A glance at the list of his major chamber works cited above will show that they all involve the piano. Amongst Willan's many unfinished manuscripts dating from his pre-1913 England days there are fragments of a Piano Quartet in A Minor (titled The Heroic), a Piano Trio in D Minor and two more sonatas for violin and piano, all adding to the list of chamber works involving the piano. Was Willan, in fact, like Schumann and some other Romantic composers, more at home in composing for chamber ensembles which included the rich sonorities of the piano than for the more ascetic medium of the string quartet? This may well be true. A pertinent factor here might be Willan's acknowledged admiration for the music of Brahms at the time he was working on these pieces, and the fact that for a while he had studied piano with a noted authority on the piano music of Brahms, Evlyn Howard-Jones. If Willan did find the medium of the string quartet congenial to his musical idiom it was for want of trying. An examination of the composer's unfinished manuscripts from the first decade of the century reveals that he may have attempted as many as four different string quartets during that time. Two of these attempts, thirty measures of an Energico movement in G minor and eight measures of an energico in D minor are of little importance, though the D minor opening starts promisingly enough: other two attemps involve a sizeable amount of music for several movements (unfortunately none of them completed) intended for string quartets in E minor and C minor. In the Healey Willan Catalogue Giles Bryant (1972) lists four unfinished movements as constituting an unfinished Quartet in E Minor (B.109): Allegro energico, Adagio, Lento e lugubre, and Finale (Rondo). He then states that it is not certain that the Lento e lugubre belongs to the quartet. I would go further and declare that neither the Lento nor the Finale belong, since they are both in C minor and it is highly unlikely that Willan at this stage of his career (1903-05) would have had the first two movements in E minor and the last two in C minor all in the same work! It is much more likely that the above movements were intended for two different quartets, and the following discussion of the music will proceed on this assumption. There are no less than eight unfinished versions of the first movement, Allegro energico, of the Quartet in E Minor: four for string quartet (one dated 1903), two for piano trio, one for organ and one for piano. Of the four versions for string quartet only one is near to completeness and is titled Phantasy for Two Violins, Viola and Cello rather than String Quartet. It might well be the earliest version.1 Some 200 measures long, it seems to sketch the outline of the complete movement, but often the measures are filled only by a single melodic line (especially in the second half) and it is really possible to achieve a full knowledge of the movement from this. …

An Interview with György Ligeti in Hamburg. Un article de la revue Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes (Volume 10, numéro 1, 1990, p. 1-126) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

One of the composers of string quartets who confronted the ‘memory of the genre’ in the latter half of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st century was Rafał Augustyn. In the composer’s quartets one finds both classical influences (String Quartet No. 1, Do ut desfor string quartet, Dedication for Soprano and String Quartet) and references to tradition contrasted with modern solutions (String Quartet No. 2).Grand jeté. Quartet No. 2 1∕2 with electronics represents a collage of diverse musical idioms, quotations, instrumental sounds, and specific sonorities. In his final quartet, the Monadology (String Quartet No. 3), Augustyn makes a loose reference to Leibniz’s concept of monads, a term used to describe philosophical atoms. It consists of miniatures combined using static links. In the article, the author demonstrates, through the use of selected examples, how Rafał Augustyn reinterprets the string quartet genre while simultaneously remaining connected to the tradition via the ensemble.

<p>Intonation is one of the most important issues facing performers of string quartets. Often, string students learn to play in tune strictly in terms of their own melodic line. To play in tune in a string quartet requires an understanding of the underlying harmony and how intonation can be fluid and flexible in an ensemble. This paper offers students an introduction to harmonic intonation and provides exercises to put this knowledge into practice. The text begins with instruction and exercises related to perfect intervals, which form the basis for intonation. Next, consonant intervals are discussed along with exercises for practice and ear training. Chords are constructed and practiced upon the basis of this interval practice. Student quartets are then asked to play excerpts from the repertoire presented as harmonic reductions and as originally written in order to connect the theoretical knowledge to the string quartet repertoire. Finally, chorales by J.S. Bach arranged for string quartet are provided for continuing practice of intonation in tonal harmony. It is not the attempt of this project to teach music theory or present a comprehensive study of the many issues and challenges related to intonation in string quartet playing. The aim of this essay is to provide students with a solid foundation and practical application of basic principles of playing in tune in a string quartet.</p>