GREAT STRING QUARTETS Session Five, April 19, 2017 Let begin today s class with your comments and questions about the Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Dvorak string quartets that we listened to during the past week. AMADEUS STRING QUARTET, 1947-1987 This week we highlight the Amadeus String Quartet. The Amadeus started in England in 1947, when three Jewish string players who had been driven out of Vienna by Hitler met in a postwar refugee camp. They became one of the most famous string quartets of the second half of the 20 th century. The Amadeus played and recorded almost the entire string quartet literature, but specialized in the quartets of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. They also worked with many of the leading composers of their era, especially Bela Bartok and Benjamin Britten. The Amadeus quartet disbanded in 1987 upon the death of their sole surviving original member, whom the other members considered irreplaceable. A LATE QUARTET, 2012 I d also like to call your attention to a wonderful 2012 film, A Late Quartet, which shows what it is like four musicians to work together very closely over many years. The actors include Philip Seymour Hoffman Catherine Keener, and Christopher Walken. You can rent the film locally or see it on You Tube for a small fee. I ve put a link to the preview on our class web site. SESSION FIVE: RAVEL, VILLA LOBOS, AND SCHŐNBERG Today s session will focus on the string quartets of Maurice Ravel, Heitor Villa Lobos, and Arnold Schönberg. GENERATIONS They were members of the seventh generation of string quartet composers. The quartets were composed in at the very beginning of the 20 th century, in 1903, 1908 and 1915. ERAS IN MUSIC HISTORY Music scholars have demonstrated that the history of music follows a cyclical pattern, with major changes in musical style occurring at intervals of about 150 years. The year 1900 is such a stylistic turning point, so we can expect that music written shortly before and shortly after this date may sound noticeably different from music written in the previous century.
WHAT WAS IN STYLE? In this period string quartet music expressed: Nationalism, which continued to be an important force in music in all nations. New kinds of harmonies that eventually replaced the familiar harmonies of the 18 th and 19 th centuries: impressionistic harmonies in the music of Ravel, jazz and Afro-Cuban folk harmonies in the music of Villa-Lobos, and atonal or serial harmonies in the music of Schönberg. Extreme contrasts that mirror the high levels of anxiety felt throughout America and Europe prior to World War I, resulting from unstable politics, financial problems and the need to assimilate many technical and social changes. RAVEL PIC Along with Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel was one of the leading composers in pre- World War France. Their music used new harmonies and new instrumental techniques that produce shimmering quality, which some saw as similar to the shimmering effects of impressionist painters. MONET: IMPRESSION: SUNRISE, 1872 This painting gave its name to a new style of art, impressionism, in which the light and atmosphere were the most important factors. A few years later music by Debussy and Ravel came to be called Impressionistic for its focus on atmosphere rather than clearly defined contrasts, as in previous generations. STRING QUARTET IN F MAJOR, 1903 Ravel s string quartet adheres to the long-familiar pattern of four contrasting movements developed by Haydn in the 1779s: I. Allegro moderato très doux Moderate 8:27 II. Assez vif très rhythmé Fast 6:26 III. Très lent Slow 8:56 IV. Vif et agité Fast and agitated Overall Duration 5:28 38:13
ÉCLAT QUARTET The Éclat Quartet ( strong and stylish ) is an ensemble of young performers from the United States, China and Bulgaria who are candidates for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at Rice University. PLAY 4th MOVEMENT 24:27 VILLA LOBOS PIC The first Brazilian composer to gain a world-wide reputation, Villa Lobos was a cosmopolitan figure who spent much of his life in Paris, where he knew and was influenced by most of the leading modern composers of the early 20 th century. Like the music of Dvorak that we listened to last week, his music was strongly influenced by folk music, in this case the Afro-Cuban street music of Brazil. STRING QUARTET NO. 1, 1915 This is the first of Villa Lobos s seven string quartets. It is the first string quartet we have encountered that abandons completely Haydn s Grand Design of four contrasting movements. Instead, this quartet is more like a Baroque dance suite, with six short movements, alternating conventional quartet writing in the 1 st, 3 rd and 5 th movements, and Brazilian dance styles in the 2 nd, 4 th and 6 th movements. OVERALL PLAN I. Cantilena Slow 2:44 II. Brincadiera (Joke) Fast and humorous 2:33 III. Canto Lirico Moderately slow 5:10 IV. Canconeta (light ditty) Medium 2:11 V. Melancolia Very slow 6:12 VI. Saltando como un Saci (bouncing the bow on the strings) Fast 2:27 Total Duration 20:33 CLASSICAL ART QUARTET, 2009- The Classical Art Quartet is the leading string quartet of Spain. It was formed in 2009 by four members of the Spanish Radiotelevision Orchestra in Madrid. PLAY 1 ST AND 2 ND MOVEMENTS
BREAK PROGRAM MUSIC To introduce the String Quartet by Arnold Schonberg, let s look at another major influence on this generation of string quartet composers: program music. You will remember from our discussion of Schubert s song, The Erl-King, that the romantic era began as a literary movement, with poets such as Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley. Romantic composers such as Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms devoted a great deal of time to writing songs, a genre in which they could combine music and stories or dramatic scenes. As we discovered in Session Two, listening to a Schubert song is a bit more complex than listening to an instrumental piece, for it requires us to integrate the effect of the music and the effect of the text or story. Gradually composers began to write longer pieces that include literary, pictorial and dramatic associations. 18 th century works with non-musical titles, such as Mozart s Prague Symphony, use these terms as nicknames only, and did not indicate the composer s intent to write a piece about the city of Prague. But two slightly later symphonies did have real programs. Beethoven s 1808 Pastorale Symphony was a musical description of a rural scenario, each movement of which described an aspect of rural life: Awakening of Cheerful Feelings upon Arrival in the Countryside; Scene by the Brook; Merry Gathering of Country Folk; Thunder and Storm; Shepherd s Song: Cheerful and Thankful Feelings after the Storm. Berlioz s Symphony Fantastique, subtitled An Episode in the Life of an Artist, told a complicated story of how an overdose of opium triggers an episode of danger and despair. Gradually the desire to write music about non-musical matters spread. Mendelssohn s Scotch Symphony, 1829, arose from this diary entry written during the composer s trip to the Hebrides Islands: In the deep twilight we went today to the palace were Queen Mary lived and loved...the chapel below is now roofless. Grass and ivy thrive there and at the broken altar where Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is ruined, decayed, and the clear heavens pour in. I think I have found there the beginning of my 'Scottish' Symphony." His later Italian Symphony was inspired by the color and atmosphere if Italy. From 1840 on, a new musical genre based on non-musical subjects began to compete with the symphony. Franz Liszt wrote 13 tone poems or symphonic poems including Les Preludes. Unlike symphonies, these works are intended to inspire listeners to imagine or consider scenes, images, specific ideas or
moods, rather than to present traditional patterns of musical form. The symphonic poem remained a popular genre from the 1840s until the 1920s. One leading critic commented that "virtually all Russian music is programmatic." He no doubt had in mind such famous examples as Mussorgsky s Pictures at an Exhibition, Tchaikovsky s Romeo and Juliet, or Rimsky- Korsakoff s Scheherazade. The best-known symphonic poems are those by Richard Strauss, several of which are staples of the orchestra repertoire: Ein Heldenleben, Don Juan, Till Eulenspiegel, and Death and Transfiguration. But during this long period, string quartets remained absolute music: no programs here, no invitation to think of non-musical matters; just pure music for its own sake. Until 1876, when Czech composer Bedrich Smetana wrote his String Quartet No. 1, subtitled From My Life, in which each movement describes some aspect of Smetana s personal history. By contrast, Antonin Dvorak made no specific references to America or American music in his American Quartet, which we listened to last week. But now we have Arnold Schonberg s second string quartet, a genuinely programmatic piece. ARNOLD SCHŐNBERG Today Arnold Schönberg is best known as the creator of the serial or 12-tone method of composition. Long before he did this he was recognized as the leading composer of pre-world War I Vienna. STRING QUARTET No. 2, 1908 This intense, late Romantic piece was written long before he began composing in the serial or 12-tone style. It follows Haydn s Grand Design with one important change: in the 3 rd and 4 th movements Schonberg adds a soprano voice to sing two texts by the mystical Viennese poet, Stefan George. You will also find a link to these texts on our class web site. I. Mässig Moderate 6:56 II. Sehr rasch Very Fast 8:01 III. Langsam ( Litany ) Slow 5:57 IV. Sehr langsam ( Rapture ) Very Slow Overall Duration. 11:08 32:02
HAUSMANN QUARTET, 2010- The Hausmann Quartet was founded in 2010. Although it concertizes throughout the United States, it is based in San Diego, where it is deeply involved in teaching and providing chamber music for school children, low income families, and senior citizens. LITANY, by STEFAN GEORGE Deep is the sadness that gloomily comes over me, Again I step, Lord, in your house. Long was the journey, my limbs are weary, The shrines are empty, only anguish is full. My thirsty tongue desires wine. The battle was hard, my arm is stiff. Grudge peace to my staggering steps, for my hungry gums break your bread! Weak is my breath, calling the dream, my hands are hollow, my mouth fevers. Lend your coolness, douse the fires, rub out hope, send the light! Fires in my heart still glow, open, inside my heart a cry wakes. Kill the longing, close the wound! Take my love away, give me your joy. PLAY 3 rd MOVEMENT, LITANY, 14:57