GREAT STRING QUARTETS

Transcription

1 GREAT STRING QUARTETS YING QUARTET At the beginning of each session of this course we ll take a brief look at one of the prominent string quartets whose concerts and recordings you will encounter. The Ying Quartet originally consisted of four Chinese-American siblings - Tim, Janet, Philip and David Ying - who grew up in Winnetka, IL. At an early age they won the coveted Naumberg Ward for Chamber Music and have had a very successful concert and teaching career since 1988 almost 30 years. As many of you know, the Ying Quartet has played for several years at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. For the past two years Philip and David Ying have been the co-directors of the festival. SESSION ONE The string quartet is a small, modest genre consisting of two violins, a viola and a cello. But it has been an enduring part of classical music for almost 250 years. String quartets are not as loud as concertos or brass ensembles; not as dramatic as tone poems or choral works; not as rich sounding as operas or symphonies. But a large number of people, both composers and the listening public, have remained fascinated with string quartets, really devoted to them, since about The reasons for this fascination are not completely clear, but we can speculate. Perhaps it is because many people, both composers and audiences, believe that the string quartet is the most elegant and refined genre in classical music, the most difficult to compose and the most challenging to perform. Or perhaps it is because the string quartet is a small, intimate genre, the best way for composers to express their most personal feelings, and for audiences to get in touch with their own deepest emotions. Or perhaps it is because when we watch and listen to a string quartet we experience a real human drama, a play or a film with four characters, each one collaborating with others or going its own way, sometimes cooperating or contributing to the common cause, sometimes interrupting, sometimes deliberately disrupting what other characters are doing. In each session of this course we ll compare and contrast two or three quartets by composers of the same era. We ll watch and listen to on-line performances, beginning with a landmark quartet of 1772 by Franz Joseph Haydn to The Four Quarters, written by Thomas Adès in My comments will focus on the historical and musical background of these pieces, with suggestions about what to watch for as well as what to listen for. * * *

2 WHAT WAS IN STYLE? Today, in session 1, we will listen to string quartets composed in the 1770 s and 1780 s: one each by Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the two most famous composers of their day. In this era music expressed the values of the Enlightenment, including: clarity we hear themes that are obviously the same or obviously different balance we hear musical themes and phrases of equal length; themes may be repeated two or four times, not one or three times moderation: we hear a narrow range of emotions being expressed wit, sadness, and good humor abound, but not tragedy, joy, or heroism. Tempos range from moderately slow to moderately fast; dynamics, from moderately soft to moderately loud. HAYDN-MOZART HOUSE We can summarize all these characteristics of style by examining an18 th century New England house in Portsmouth, NH - let s call it the Haydn-Mozart House. WHO PLAYED QUARTETS, AND WHERE? Who played Haydn and Mozart string quartets? Where did they play them? Who was in the audience? 1. All performances were in private homes: living rooms and parlors, or in large houses in specially-built music salons, rarely in churches or social clubs, and never in public concert halls, as is common today. 2. Hearing a string quartet required an invitation. Audiences were not members of the general public but elite groups of people personally known to the host members of the same family, neighborhood, social circle or profession. 3. String quartets were performed by amateur musicians playing at sight, or occasionally after an informal rehearsal or two. Thus, the difficulties of string quartets performed were within the ability of the performers. HAYDN

3 HAYDN PLAYING STRING QUARTETS Here s a late 18 th century painting showing Franz Joseph Haydn and friends playing a string quartet in a home-like setting. Haydn s great biographer Karl Griesinger writes of one such evening earlier in Haydn s life, in 1751: The following purely chance circumstance had led the 19-year-old Haydn to try his luck at the composition of quartets. A Baron Fürnberg had a country house several stage-coach rides from Vienna; from time to time he invited his pastor, his manager, Haydn, and another friend in order to have a little music. Fürnberg requested Haydn to compose something that could be performed by these four amateurs. Haydn, then eighteen years old, took up this proposal, and so originated his first quartet which, immediately it was published, received such general approval that Haydn took courage to work further in this form. By the end of his life Haydn had written 66 other string quartets, usually publishing them in groups of six. ESZTERHÁZA Twenty years later Haydn has become director of music at Eszterháza, the huge new estate of Prince Nickolaus Eszterhazy. Haydn s duties included staging weekly operas, conducting all musical groups, and composing music for the large number of musicians in residence, and giving lessons to children and adults who wanted them. Be sure to view the short film on the Eszterháza Palace that I have included in the links for this class. ESZTERHÁZA MUSIC HALL This was the specially-built concert hall, in which Haydn conducted various chamber music and symphonic performances. In addition there were two other music venues on the estate, an opera house which presented a complete opera each week, and a marionette theatre, both in separate, free-standing buildings. HAYDN S GRAND DESIGN In 1772 the 40-year-old Haydn published a set of six quartets that were a landmark in the development of the string quartet genre; their overall design and the way the instruments were used, became the norm for the next 150 years. So it is quite accurate to say that Haydn really invented the string quartet as we know it, and as we have known it through many generations. The main features of this overall plan are: (demonstrate all these with voices) Four Contrasting Movements: A fast first movement, a slower second movement, a dance-like third movement usually a minuet, and a fast final movement.

4 Equality of voices: The first violin no longer dominates: each instrument, and particularly the cello, has an important voice. Each instrument may play a solo or the leading melody, and each may accompany the others as they take the lead. Depth of expression: Haydn experiments with expressive techniques in the quartets, such as solo cadences, very loud or very soft endings, or bold sections in which all four instruments play the same notes at the same time. Constantly changing textures: The texture of music is a description of how many sounds we can hear at the same time and how far apart they are spaced (dem on piano). Haydn was a master of different textures, including: 1 instrument plays a melody while the other instruments are silent(solo); 1 instrument plays a melody and 1, 2, or 3 others play an accompaniment; two instruments play the same rhythm (duet) while the other 2 rest; three instrument play a melody while the 4 th rests or plays something different; all 4 instruments play the same notes and the same rhythms (tutti); all the instruments play different melodies at the same time (counterpoint). STRING QUARTET IN C MAJOR, 1772 I. Moderato Moderate speed 7:26 II. Adagio Slow 6:53 III. Menuetto, Allegretto Moderately fast 3:35 IV. Finale: Fugue in Four Voices 3:23 Total Length.. 20:17 QUATOUR EBÉNE ( EBONY QUARTET ) The performance we are about to hear is by the Quatour Ebéne, the Ebony Quartet, a young French quartet founded in 1999, which has already won many important prizes. PLAY 1 st MOVEMENT Notice the equal interplay between the instruments, the so-called quartet conversation. The first movement opens with a cello solo, accompanied by the other three instruments. In the course of the movement every instrument gets to play the solo.

5 PLAY 2 ND MOVEMENT, 7:26 One of the basic aspects of the grand design is a sequence of four movements, each different in tempo and moor or emotional content. The first movement is fast or moderately fast, and the second movement is the slowest. In this Haydn quartet the second movement is also the most dramatic, and has the most variety of textures and sounds: loud tuttis ( all ) the four instruments play the same notes in the same rhythm cello melodies with other three instruments accompanying 1 st and 2 nd violins playing duets first violin solos MOZART Mozart was the greatest composer of the generation after Haydn, and modeled his 23 string quartets on those of Haydn. In the early 1780s Mozart became friends with Haydn, who had recently retired from the service of Prince Eszterhazy and moved to Vienna. He had been highly influenced by Haydn s Op. 33 string quartets and vowed to write more of them himself. Later in the same year Mozart published a set of six string quartets, which he dedicated to Haydn. They are considered some of his very greatest works. The feeling of respect between Haydn and Mozart was mutual. In 1785, after listening to some of Mozart s string quartets in Vienna, Haydn turned to Mozart s Father and said, "Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition." STRING QUARTET IN D MINOR, 1783 We re going to listen one of Mozart s Haydn string quartets today. It is a melancholy piece, one of Mozart s rare pieces in a minor key. As such it marks the gradual transition of string quartets from being purely classical, emotionally restrained compositions to being the vehicle for more personal expression. OVERALL PLAN I. Allegro moderato Moderately Fast 7:43 II. Andante Medium Slow 6:09

6 III. Menuetto and Trio Medium 3:48 IV. Allegretto ma non troppo Moderately Fast Total Duration.. 9:31 27:11 ZAGREB STRING QUARTET Founded 98 years ago, in 1919, this Croatian quartet has played more than 3,000 concerts, made 60 recordings, and won a number of major, international string quartet competitions. PLAY 3 RD MOVEMENT, 14:27 In Haydn's grand design the third movement is a minuet, a moderately fast dance in ¾ time, similar to a waltz but a bit slower. To increase variety minuets were paired with a second section, also in ¾ time but with a different melody and different texture. It was the custom in the 18 th century to repeat both sections. Typically, and in this case, the Minuet and Trio is the shortest movement of the four. PLAY 4 th MOVEMENT, 18:27 To provide contrast with the Minuet and Trio, the fourth and final movement in the grand design was a faster piece. In this particular quartet Haydn uses the Theme and Variations form, consisting of a short, singable tune, repeated over and over in a series of variations. Although the tune remains the same, each variation has different harmonies, rhythms, and textures. The theme itself is in two parts, and each part is repeated. There are five variations, followed by a faster, shorter ending section ( coda ). All these repetitions make this by far the longest movement in the quartet, almost three times as long as the Minuet and Trio. BONUS Here s another string quartet, which we won t have time to discuss in class, but which I recommend to you. Like the Haydn quartet we listened to earlier, it was also written in It was written by the leading French composer of his age, François-Joseph Gossec, a contemporary of Haydn. Unlike the quartets we have heard today, it does not follow the grand design of four contrasting movements, having only two. But it is a charming, well-written piece that shows the lighter side of late 18 th century music.