Whose string quartet, you ask querulously? Well, mine. I class my first as juvenilia and the premiere of my second is delayed due to plague, so I have been working on a third. The Second Quartet is a fairly straightforward three movements written for the Pro Nova Ensemble in Vancouver and therefore the three movements are titled Mountain with Birdsong, Moments in the Forest and The Surrounding Ocean. I say therefore because that is the coast of British Columbia: mountains, forest and ocean.
My Third Quartet is somewhat different. Instead of three movements it is one longer movement of about fifteen minutes. There are five sections, each roughly three minutes long. They don't have names or titles. The odd sections, one, three and five, are through-composed, but the even-numbered two and four are in moment form. The first section is rather etherial, the third lyrical and the last dynamic and pointillistic.
What I would like to do is post the three sections that are not in moment form for you in hopes that there might be comments. Obviously I can't post the moment form sections because they do not have a score, only instructions, and every performance will be unique. These "performances" are actually sound files from Finale using sampled instruments, but they are a reasonable imitation of what an actual performance would sound like. Accompanying the audio tracks I have chosen a few photos not entirely at random, but they don't have much to do with the music, I just had them handy. Unlike most music videos these days where the exciting and diverting video is meant to distract from the dullness of the music, the music here will hopefully distract you from the dullness of the photos!
Here is Section 3. This is actually my first official upload to YouTube and both the composition and the video may be revised. The photos I took in the countryside a few weeks ago. I hope you enjoy the piece and please leave a comment. If you didn't enjoy the piece, also leave a comment!
Obviously we don't have the context since it is Section 3. My quick judgment is that it sounds structurally sound, is pleasant but non idiomatic to string quartet. I don't mean that a string quartet can't readily play it but that other combinations of instruments could also play it without much loss. Was that the intent?
ReplyDeleteIt is really about the counterpoint, so yes, it could be played on other instruments, but I really like the sound on string quartet.
ReplyDeleteSounds good and interesting, but like Maury said it would be helpful to see/hear the other sections for context. I like string quartets for their contrapuntal clarity. I imagine the lines would be quite beautiful and lyrical played by real players. The moment when violin I or II (I think) reenters at 3:22 is very nice. The ending is curious. I imagine it leads into Section 4 in some way?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steven. I put this up because it is rather a self-contained section. On either side are sections in moment form so this section is neither led into, nor out of. Section 1 is finished--I think! And Section 5 is about halfway done. So I will put up the three "composed" sections in a few days. Sections 2 and 4 are in moment form, so the only way to hear them is if I can get a performance! I might see if a quartet in Toronto would be willing to do an archival recording for me.
ReplyDeleteAh re-listening I realise the section starts and ends on the same note, so yes self-contained. I'm clearly conditioned when I hear a piece ending on the dominant to expect something to come... Look forward to hearing the other sections.
ReplyDeleteYou only think it ends on the dominant because of the key signature. It is actually in D Phrygian and begins and ends on D. I just write it in a way that sounds a little different from the way modal music usually sounds. Now sort out the counterpoint!
ReplyDeleteMy musical critical vocabulary is almost nil so I will second Maury's #1 comment and also say that I liked the sustain and the long phrases ...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dex. Honestly I don't think you need critical vocabulary, just ears. If you said, sounds weird and floaty, that would be fine. Whatever your reaction is, is helpful to me.
ReplyDeleteI think that I provisionally finished the last section this morning, so I will let it steep a couple of days and post it as well. It is a considerable contrast with this section, being quirky and sardonic.
Just downloaded the Kindle edition of your book!
Steven, I know you are not looking at the score because I haven't posted it, but you have excellent ears and I assume that you believe the section to be in G minor because you are hearing that both B and E are flat?
Sorry for delayed reply, been without wifi. To answer your question: yes, and I'm also hearing cadences in G minor. Not strong cadences, often imperfect cadences, but enough to imply a tonal centre of G. Possibly humans playing it with proper phrasing might make my ears react differently. Hope that helps?
ReplyDeleteNo problem! I just assumed you (and everyone) were listening to it over and over in a state of mild ecstasy. 8^)
ReplyDeleteHmm, I'm not hearing any cadences in G for the reason that there are no F sharps!
All your comments are helpful.
I wouldn't say you need a leading note to hear a cadence. Perhaps it's all the heavy metal I used to listen to, but I often hear minor 7ths as essentially leading notes. Let me try to find some examples where I think I hear cadences of sorts and you can tell me whether 'my ears are on wrong' (to borrow from Ives).
ReplyDelete0:24-27 sounds like an imperfect cadence to me. 0:37 the Eb-C-D in the violin sounds like a plagal cadence. 0:45-0:51 imperfect cadence again. A sort of VII-I cadence at 1:05-1:13. I think that's probably enough rather than go through the whole thing? Obviously harder without score.
It doesn't sound like normal G minor at all, and that's what makes it interesting, but it definitely doesn't feel like D phygrian either to me. Hope that helps, I like it more with each listen as I follow the different parts more closely.
Ha, interesting. My concept of the cadence comes, I'm afraid, from Bill Caplin's Formal Function theory. A Perfect Authentic Cadence, the only one that counts, has a dominant in root position, with or without a seventh, followed by a tonic in root position. There must be a leading tone and it must go up. The interesting thing is, that if you look at the Classical Era, there are NO violations of this. But sure, lots of weird hermaphroditic thingys since. Neoclassicism, which Prokofiev called Bach with smallpox.
ReplyDeleteSure, it is a point of arrival with three As and a D. What I see there is a theme in the cello, the same theme inverted and augmented in the first violin, the same theme inverted in the second violin and doubly augmented and the same theme, right side up, but in note values plus 50% in the viola. In measure 7, where you hear the cadence, it just happens to be particularly consonant. But it's all voice-leading. One of the influences for this piece is Nuper rosarum flores by Dufay.
Shh, don't tell anyone.
Steven, thanks for listening multiple times. Why don't I send you the whole score?
ReplyDeleteI'd certainly be interested to see the score. My email is steven802@hotmail.co.uk
ReplyDeleteI confess I have never heard of Bill Caplin's Formal Function theory. I have almost no formal training in music so I probably have some daft ideas, but to me cadences are puncuation and have more to do with phrasing than harmony.
And I love Nuper rosarum flores too. Particularly fond of the recording by Cantica Symphonia (you may well know them), whose many albums of Dufay have been superb.
I'll shoot you the score tomorrow. Have to turn it into pdfs and I'm afraid I've been sipping the Glenlivit, so first thing tomorrow! 8>)
ReplyDelete