String Quartets Op. 20 And Op. 33, Vol.3

The composer made this arrangement of the Third String Quartet for string orchestra in March 2003. The first performance was given by the Eos Orchestra New York conducted by Ken Selden in the Concert Hall Ethical CulturalSociety New York City on 24 April 2003.Quoting composer: In the summer of 1989 I composed a choral work Out of the Ruins for Agnieszka Piotrowska’s BBC2 documentary which dealt with the physical and emotional responsesof some of the inhabitants of Leninakhan to the earthquake which devastated Armenia the previous December. When he heard the recording of the work that I made with the Holy Echmiadzin Chorus under the fervent conducting of KhorenMeykhanejian Alex Balanescu suggested turning Out of the Ruins into a string quartet. There seemed no reason or opportunity to do this until I felt the need to add to the intensity of my experiences in Armenia the no lessprofound experience of witnessing the images of the Romanian revolution on television during the latter part of December 1989.Just as the structure of my Third String Quartet (1990) may connect it with the First so they alsoshare a debt to Thurston Dart (my professor at King’s College London between 1961 and 1965). It was Dart who had the inspiration to send me to Romania in 1965 ostensibly to study folk music. The volumes of transcriptions that Ibrought back with me had remained unopened until with this proposed ‘celebratory’ string quartet (though at the time it was difficult to know quite what to celebrate in postrevolutionary Romania) an occasion arose where I coulduse this material in what seemed to me was a non-exploitative manner. The compositional procedure was as follows: to take Out of the Ruins as a template on which the Romanian vocal or instrumental music would besuperimposed quite often stretched into new intervallic shapes through the demands of the completely pre-formed harmonic structure.

Kevin Volans has been described as one of the more inventive composers since Stravinsky. Songlines was composed in 1988 and revised in 1993. Score available: CH61335

String Quartet No.3 was written for and first performed by the Balanescu Quartet February 1990 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London. Duration 16 minutes. Instrumental parts are available on sale.Quoting composer: In thesummer of 1989 I composed a choral work Out of the Ruins for Agnieszka Piotrowska’s BBC2 documentary which dealt with the physical and emotional responses of some inhabitants of Leninakhan to the earthquake whichdevastated Armenia the previous December. When he heard the recording of the work that I made with the Holy Echmiadzin Chorus under the fervent conducting of Khoren Meykhanejian Alex Balanescu suggested turning Out of the Ruinsinto a string quartet. There seemed no reason or opportunity to do this until I felt the need to add to the intensity of my experiences in Armenia the no less profound experience of witnessing the images of the Romanianrevolution on television during the later part of December 1989.The compositional procedure was as follows: to take Out of the Ruins as a template on which the Romanian vocal or instrumental music would be superimposed quite often stretched into new intervallic shapes though the demands of the completely performed harmonic structure.