String Quartet No. 2 op. 31: String Quartet: Parts

Genus Quartet (For String Quartet) by Joby Talbot was commissioned by the Barbican London. was first performed on May 12th 2013 at LSO St. Luke’s London by the CalderQuartet.Duration c. 10 minutes.

Studienpartitur - STP - string quartet composer: Henze, Hans Werner Éditeur: Schott Music pages: 32 Contenu - Allegro molto - Andantino - Lento, ma non troppo - Presto

Quoting Saxton: My Fantazia for String Quartet was complete in December 1993 in response to a commission from the London International String Quartet Competition for a test piece for the 1994 competition. Funds were provided bythe John S Cohen Foundation.The title gives the clue to the nature of the music: the viol fantasia was the chosen form of composition for the greatest English composers of the mid-seventeenth century Lawes Jenkins Ferraboscoin particular. They inherited the techniques of vocal polyphony from Byrd and Gibbons and forged a new instrumental polyphonic style. The culmination of this genre was reached in the magnificent works of Henry Purcell around1680 and it was Purcell who adopted the spelling ‘Fantazia’.I have always loved this music and when asked to write a short piece for strings I decided to pay tribute to this under-rated tradition. Most fantazias consistedof short joined sections and I have expanded this to create and eight-minute piece in three larger sections the essence being contrapuntal interplay and equality of part-writing. (Any idea of stylistic reference would be absurdion the late twentieth century). The first section is a lyrical allegro moderato which leads into a sustained and intense slow movement; this in turn gives way to a final quick section of a dancing character a featurefrequently encountered in Purcell’s own consort pieces.