String Quartets Nos. 7-12

Primarily known as opera composer Donizetti is also the most important Italian representative of the string quartet genre. Whereas the first quartets can be regarded as experiments of the young composer with a strict classical form the middle and later pieces are unmistakable expressions of a mature musical mind.The string quartets Nos. 7-12 make up the second of three volumes - quartets Nos. 13-18 are already published in ETP 1425. The editions are based on the autograph sources and for the first time represent the complete critically edited musical text.

Set of parts for Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen's No Ground Green for Mixed Choir (SATB) and String Quartet (2012). Score: WH31464 Programme note: New Ground – No Ground – Green In 1986 I wrote Ground for the Kronos Quartet. I used the principle of the baroque ground and created a series of chords – going up and going down symmetrically. The material formed the basis for the quartet. In my next collaboration with Kronos I wrote the darker Last Ground – at the time supposed to be my last composition of the kind. After some years this seemed a bit pathetic and I decided to write a new– lighter ground –New Ground. To disappoint my listeners as much as possible I based this piece on a very old and very well-known ground: Pachelbel’s Canon.  The piece is tonal and that suggested another –atonal – composition – No Ground (based on another string quartet – no. 7 Parted from 1984 first performed by Kronos). I am very fond of the elaborated constructivism of the medieval or early renaissance music so in my view the two new quartets needed to be connected and combined. The two quartets can be performed in combination with the four-part vocal piece Green. The text is from medieval England. The pieces are written for the Kronos Quartet and Theatre of Voices.