Double String Quartet No. 1 in d, Op. 65

At the end of the 18th century the town of Cádiz in southern Spain provided the backdrop for a Passion to mark Christ?s hour of death; its focal point was the reading and interpretation of Christ?s last words. Haydn wascommissioned to write short meditative music to be played alternately with the readings. Haydn composed a work for orchestra. Due to its success the publisher commissioned Haydn to make an arrangement for string quartet. As thewind instruments double the strings for the most part only a few changes had to be made to the string parts. Here is the Henle Urtext Edition of Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ arranged for StringQuartet based upon on the musical text of the Haydn Complete Edition.

Player Score-John Luther Adams' Untouched for String Quartet. Player score. Over the years my large ensemble works have sometimes included String Quartet. However I didn't write my first piece forString Quartet alone until I was fifty-nine. Now in my second String Quartet the fingers of the players still have yet to touch the fingerboard. This music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sounds areproduced either as natural harmonics or on open strings. The highest harmonic utilized is the 10th. Some of the harmonics may be more resonant when played as double harmonics. For example the 6th harmonic can beproduced by simultaneously touching the nodes for the 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Dynamics are free. But all the sounds in the air at any moment should be equally balanced. - John Luther Adams

Cheryl Frances-Hoad's The Dreams That Fly from Me for solo String Quartet and String Orchestra. Score. 'The Dreams That Fly From Me is a ten minute work for solo string quartet and string orchestra. It is in two movements (one slow one fast) that are played without a break. I spent ten years at the Yehudi Menuhin School (a specialist music school for string and piano) growing up so this piece cannot help but be strongly influenced by the music I played in the school orchestra during this time. In particular the work is influenced by Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro Strauss’s Metamorphosen (fortwenty-three solo strings) and Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra although the harmonic language of the piece (which is essentially very jazzy) helps to obscure these musical references. In terms of extra musical inspiration the work was inspired by a poem by Ivan Goll called Bloodhound which includes the lines “Catch the dreams that fly off from me.... And savage the ankles of my fleeting angel” I was inspired by the idea of a “fleeting angel” which at a time when I had been having difficulties composing seemed very poignant: the angel of the poem seemed to be a poetic representation of my inspiration. The Dreams That Fly From Me was premiered by the Szymanowsky Quartet and the Northern Sinfonia (Bradley Creswick director) at Hovingham Hall on the 28th July 2013 as part of the 2013 Ryedale Festival.' - Cheryl Frances-Hoad

for String Quartet op. 35a-Josef Suk played second Violin in the Bohemian String Quartet. Since 1914 the ensemble was obliged to perform the Austrian national anthem at the opening of every concert. Suk decided to supplement this obligatory piece with a work inspired by the ancient sacred Bohemian St. Wenceslas hymn. The hymn?s message a plea for the well-being of the Czech people directed at their patron saint was immediately understood by the audience.The Bohemian String Quartet performed this single-movement Meditation for the first time on 27 September 1914; the premiere of the version for string orchestra followed on 22 November 1914 played by the CzechPhilharmonic. That same year the piece was published by Fr. A. Urbánek together with arrangements for Piano and Organ.This first Urtext edition prepared by the Sukscholar Zdenek Nouza is published in two scorings one for string quartet and another for String Orchestra (BA9584). The orchestral version differs in some details and has an added part for Double Bass.First Urtext editionInformative trilingual Foreword (Cz/Eng/Ger) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editorTwo versions published in two separate editions

This Simple Symphony is entirely based on material from works which the composer wrote between the ages of nine and twelve. (The actual sources are given in footnotes to each movement.) Although the development of thesethemes is in many places quite new there are large stretches of the work which are taken bodily from the early pieces - save for the re-scoring for strings. It is suitable for string quartets or string orchestras beingscored for Violin I Violin II Viola Cello and Double Bass.

Version for Double Bass and String Quartet-Once Dragonetti's showpiece 'The Famous Solo' is largely unknown today. This cannot be down to the virtuoso work itself but is more likely due to the unclear source situation with its differentversions. In this Henle Urtext edition Tobias Glöckler presents the composer's autograph arrangement for Double Bass and String Quartet for the first time.

for String Quartet op. 35a-Josef Suk played second Violin in the Bohemian String Quartet. Since 1914 the ensemble was obliged to perform the Austrian national anthem at the opening of every concert. Suk decided to supplement this obligatory piece with a work inspired by the ancient sacred Bohemian St. Wenceslas hymn. The hymn?s message a plea for the well-being of the Czech people directed at their patron saint was immediately understood by the audience.The Bohemian String Quartet performed this single-movement Meditation for the first time on 27 September 1914; the premiere of the version for string orchestra followed on 22 November 1914 played by the CzechPhilharmonic. That same year the piece was published by Fr. A. Urbánek together with arrangements for Piano and Organ.This first Urtext edition prepared by the Sukscholar Zdenek Nouza is published in two scorings one for string quartet and another for String Orchestra (BA9584). The orchestral version differs in some details and has an added part for Double Bass.First Urtext editionInformative trilingual Foreword (Cz/Eng/Ger) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editorTwo versions published in two separate editions

for String Quartet/Quintet Full Score-Calligraphies may be performed as one composition or as separate works. Calligraphies 2 and 3 are for string quartet while Calligraphy No. 1 is scored for string quartet with double bass. (1999) ca. 12'