SKU: PR.16400272S
UPC: 680160588442. 8.5 x 11 inches.
My third quartet is laid out in a three-movement structure, with each movement based on an early, middle, and late work of the great American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Although the movements are separate, with full-stop endings, the music is connected by a common scale-form, derived from the name MARY CASSATT, and by a recurring theme that introduces all three movements. I see this theme as Mary's Theme, a personality that stays intact while undergoing gradual change. I The Bacchante (1876) [Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] The painting shows a young girl of Italian or Spanish origin, playing a small pair of cymbals. Since Cassatt was trying very hard to fit in at the French Academy at the time, she painted a lot of these subjects, which were considered typical and universal. The style of the painting doesn't yet show Cassatt's originality, except perhaps for certain details in the face. Accordingly the music for this movement is Spanish/Italian, in a similar period-style but using the musical signature described above. The music begins with Mary's Theme, ruminative and slow, then abruptly changes to an alla Spagnola-type fast 3/4 - 6/8 meter. It evokes the Spanish-influenced music of Ravel and Falla. Midway through, there's an accompanied recitative for the viola, which figures large in this particular movement, then back to a truncated recapitulation of the fast music. The overall feeling is of a well-made, rather conventional movement in a contemporary Spanish/Italian style. Cassatt's painting, too, is rather conventional. II At the Opera (1880) [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts] This painting is one of Cassatt's most well known works, and it hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The painting shows a woman alone in a box at the opera house, completely dressed (including gloves) and looking through opera glasses at someone or something that is NOT on the stage. Across the auditorium from her, but exactly at eye level, is a gentleman with opera glasses intently watching her - though it is not him that she's looking at. It's an intriguing picture. This movement is far less conventional than the first movement, as the painting is far less conventional. The music begins with a rapid, Shostakovich-type mini-overture lasting less than a minute, based on Mary's Theme. My conjecture is that the woman in the painting has arrived late to the opera, busily stumbling into her box. What happens next is a kind of collage, a kind of surrealistic overlaying of two different elements: the foreground music, at first is a direct quotation of Soldier's Chorus from Gounod's FAUST (an opera Cassatt would certainly have heard in the brand-new Paris Opera House at that time), played by Violin II, Viola, and Cello. This music is played sul ponticello in the melody and col legno in the marching accompaniment. On top of this, the first violin hovers at first on a high harmonic, then descends into a slow melody, completely separate from the Gounod. It's as if the woman in the painting is hearing the opera onstage but is not really interested in it. Then the cello joins the first violin in a kind of love-duet (just the two of them, at first). This music isn't at all Gounod-derived; it's entirely from the same scale patterns as the first movement and derives from Mary's Theme and its scale. The music stays in a kind of dichotomy feeling, usually three-against-one, until the end of the movement, when another Gounod melody, Valentin's aria Avant de quitter ce lieux reappears in a kind of coda for all four players. It ends atmospherically and emotionally disconnected, however. The overall feeling is a kind of schizophrenic, opera-inspired dream. III Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun (1909) [Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts] The painting, one of Cassatt's last, is very simple: just a figure, looking sideways out of the picture. The colors are pastel and yet bold - and the woman is likewise very self-assured and not in the least demure. It is eight minutes long, and is all about melody - three melodies, to be exact (Young Woman, Green, and Sunlight). No angst, no choppy rhythms, just ever-unfolding melody and lush harmonies. I quote one other French composer here, too: Debussy's song Green, from Ariettes Oubliees. 1909 would have been Debussy's heyday in Paris, and it makes perfect sense musically as well as visually to do this. Mary Cassatt lived her last several years in near-total blindness, and as she lost visual acuity, her work became less sharply defined - something akin to late water lilies of Monet, who suffered similar vision loss. My idea of making this movement entirely melodic was compounded by having each of the three melodies appear twice, once in a pure form, and the second time in a more diffuse setting. This makes an interesting two ways form: A-B-C-A1-B1-C1. String Quartet No.3 (Cassatt) is dedicated, with great affection and respect, to the Cassatt String Quartet, whose members have dedicated themselves in large measure to the furthering of the contemporary repertoire for quartet.
SKU: PR.164002720
UPC: 680160573042. 8.5 x 11 inches.
SKU: FG.55011-853-9
Lara Poe's (b. 1993) energetic Divergence (2015-2016) for string quartet was conceived cyclically: the four movements explore drifting in and out of focus between different materials. A light ditty of the second movement diverges to the third movement's overtone derived chords.Duration: c. 25'This product includes a set of parts (violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello) and a score.Lara Poe is a Finnish-American composer who is currently based in London. Her works have been performed across a wide range of venues throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Her piece Kaamos, which she wrote for the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, was recently nominated for a Ivors Composer Award in the Large Scale Composition category. Kaamos also was selected by YLE Radio Finland to represent Finland at the International Rostrum of Composers 2021 in Belgrade, Serbia. Poe was the 2019 Tanglewood Music Patricia Plum Wilde Fellow and represented Finland at Ung Nordisk Musik 2019 in Piteå. She was also a 2018-2019 participant in the London Symphony Orchestra's Panufnik Scheme, where she worked under the guidance of Colin Matthews and Christian Mason.
SKU: PR.114410380
UPC: 680160015160. 9.5 x 13 inches.
My second String Quartet was written twenty years after the first, Opus 4 from 1978. The First Quartet is an obsessively contrapuntal work in one movement, which was no doubt influenced by my studies with David Diamond. I had always intended to return to the medium once I left the astringency of my earlier style, but it was only when the National Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a major chamber work, with unspecified instrumentation, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary that I was enabled to do so. The Second Quartet is in four movements: Moderato, Allegro isterico, an Andante theme with 11 variations, and the closing Allegro, which then returns to the tempo of the first movement. An audience member at the premiere told me that she heard echoes of recent tragic events such as the Oklahoma bombing in this work. While I had no such programmatic intent while writing the quartet, it was not an entirely incorrect assessment of the work's intended emotional impact. The quartet is pervaded by a sense of seriousness, even mournfulness. The second movement's scherzo is an aggressively animated piece of musical machinery. The third movement's Variations unfold into a greater variety of moods than the others - but the moments of lyricism are countered by aggressive or ironic outbursts. The final movement's attempt at triumph quickly subsides into a return of the first movement, before being transformed onto a sense of resignation and acceptance as the chromaticism of the opening theme is transformed into a pure and diatonic C-Major. The work received its world premiere by the Shanghai Quartet at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on August 19th 1998.My second String Quartet was written twenty years after the first, Opus 4 from 1978. The First Quartet is an obsessively contrapuntal work in one movement, which was no doubt influenced by my studies with David Diamond. I had always intended to return to the medium once I left the astringency of my earlier style, but it was only when the National Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a major chamber work, with unspecified instrumentation, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary that I was enabled to do so.The Second Quartet is in four movements: Moderato, Allegro isterico, an Andante theme with 11 variations, and the closing Allegro, which then returns to the tempo of the first movement.An audience member at the premiere told me that she heard echoes of recent tragic events such as the Oklahoma bombing in this work. While I had no such programmatic intent while writing the quartet, it was not an entirely incorrect assessment of the work’s intended emotional impact. The quartet is pervaded by a sense of seriousness, even mournfulness. The second movement’s scherzo is an aggressively animated piece of musical machinery. The third movement’s Variations unfold into a greater variety of moods than the others – but the moments of lyricism are countered by aggressive or ironic outbursts. The final movement’s attempt at triumph quickly subsides into a return of the first movement, before being transformed onto a sense of resignation and acceptance as the chromaticism of the opening theme is transformed into a pure and diatonic C-Major.The work received its world premiere by the Shanghai Quartet at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on August 19th 1998.
SKU: CF.BE24
ISBN 9781491156780. UPC: 680160915323. 9 x 12 inches. La.
Based on Wallace Stevens' poem The Planet on the Table this string quartet's world is made of the music and sounds of remembered times or of something heard that the composer, Martin Bresnick, liked. The quartet has five movements, each headed by a quotation from one of Stevens' poems as a point of departure or pathway into those remembered sounds and music. What matters is that my music, like his (Stevens') poetry, should bear some lineament or character, some affluence, if only half perceived in the poverty of its sounds, of the planet of which it was part..Wallace Stevens' poem The Planet on the Table begins - Ariel was glad he had written his poems, They were of a remembered time Or of something seen that he liked. In this string quartet, also entitled The Planet on the Table, my planet is made of the music and sounds of a remembered time or of something heard that I liked. The quartet has five movements, each headed by a quotation from one of Stevens' poems* as a point of departure or pathway into those remembered sounds and music: I. Mrs. Anderson's Swedish Baby II. She Measured the Hour III. Scene 10 Becomes 11 IV. Someone Has Walked Across the Snow V. His Self and the Sun Like Stevens, my self and the sun are one, and my music, like his poetry, although makings of my self, is also makings of the sun. Stevens wrote it was not important that his poetry survive, which is also true of my work. What matters is that my music, like his poetry, should bear some lineament or character, some affluence, if only half perceived in the poverty of its sounds, of the planet of which it was part. *Sources for the titles: I. The Pleasures of Merely Circulating II. The Idea of Order at Key West III. Chaos in Motion and Not in Motion IV. Vacancy in the Park V. The Planet on the Table.Wallace Stevens' poem The Planet on the Table begins -Ariel was glad he had written his poems,They were of a remembered timeOr of something seen that he liked.In this string quartet, also entitled The Planet on the Table, my planet is made of the music and sounds of a remembered time or of something heard that I liked.The quartet has five movements, each headed by a quotation from one of Stevens' poems* as a point of departure or pathway into those remembered sounds and music:I. Mrs. Anderson's Swedish BabyII. She Measured the HourIII. Scene 10 Becomes 11IV. Someone Has Walked Across the SnowV. His Self and the SunLike Stevens, my self and the sun are one, and my music, like his poetry, although makings of my self, is also makings of the sun. Stevens wrote it was not important that his poetry survive, which is also true of my work.What matters is that my music, like his poetry, should bear some lineament or character, some affluence, if only half perceived in the poverty of its sounds, of the planet of which it was part.*Sources for the titles:I. The Pleasures of Merely CirculatingII. The Idea of Order at Key WestIII. Chaos in Motion and Not in MotionIV. Vacancy in the ParkV. The Planet on the Table.
SKU: HL.48025395
UPC: 196288195474.
“In 2006 Kylie Kwong who is the ambassador for the Fair Trade Association of Australia and NZ asked me to write a piece for Fair Trade event, she asked for something earthy and poetic and she told me a lot about what Fair Trade stands for. This piece grew out of the many impressions of the stories of people growing coffee and sugar in harsh circumstances, transporting the produce on difficult roads. At the same time I wanted to give it a sense of optimism and hope. There are versions of it for Viola and Piano, Violin and Piano, as well as Piano solo. Version for string quartet composed 2007.†(Elena Kats-Chernin).
SKU: HL.48025396
UPC: 196288195481.
SKU: HL.49018856
ISBN 9790220133244. UPC: 884088675028. 9.0x12.0x0.204 inches.
Although this is technically Cowie's seventh string quartet, it replaces his earlier fourth quartet, which he came to feel no longer fit with his compositional voice. The quartet fluctuates between a slow, luminous sound and fast, agitated music. Unlike much of Cowie's work, this music is abstracted from his usual preoccupation with the natural world, turning instead to look at an inner landscape. The composer describes the emotional force behind his quartet: The year 2009 was a terrible year in which I lost three close friends to cancer and an elder brother to Alzheimer's disease. It was also a year in which my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer; something from which she has thankfully made a great recovery. At times like these, emotions are sorely tested and highlighted. Four people I loved have gone, so this music must remain as testament not to death, but to the magnificent fragility and loveliness of life. It closes with a gentle and almost vaporising 'benediction' a kind of 'amen' if you like.