Four Centuries of Great Music October 2, 2021 Four Centuries of the String Quartet Episode 5

This is the 5th episode celebrating the String Quartet over the centuries.

We had a taste of Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27 last week, but today we will listen to the entire work.

Grieg tried the string quartet several times, but left only one mature, completed string quartet. He began writing the Quartet in G minor in the summer of 1877, and worked on it through the winter in a composing retreat in Lofthus, in the Hardanger district of Norway. "I have recently finished a string quartet which I still haven't heard," the composer wrote to a friend in the summer of 1878. "It is in G minor and not planned to be meat for small minds! It aims at breadth, vigor, flight of imagination, and, above all, fullness of tone for the instruments for which it is written."

An astonishingly rich sonority is indeed an obvious characteristic of this piece. All four parts have an extraordinary amount of double-stopping, creating a full-bodied sound that is orchestral but also often folkloric. 

The main theme of the work comes from Grieg's own song "Spillemaend" which is about the Hulder, a water spirit who offers minstrels great musical gifts in exchange for their happiness.  The theme from the song is boldly stated at the outset and recurs often throughout the first movement. Motives from it appear in the middle movements, and the motto theme returns again in the leaping finale. The Romanze movement, with its increasingly abrupt mood swings between sunny lyricism and darkly agitated passion, takes its point of departure from late Beethoven, while the scherzo-like Intermezzo is the most folkloric in its rough dancing energy and spirited play with meter.

Grieg's bold rethinking of string quartet clearly inspired Claude Debussy in his own String Quartet, composed 10 years later and also in G minor.

Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 in D Major was written quite rapidly over a summer vacation in 1881. The quartet was well-received during Borodin's life but managed to "cross-over" into the mega-popular realm when at least two of its themes were used as part of the 1953 musical Kismet. Two songs in particular, Baubles, Bangles and Beads and This is My Beloved are based directly on themes from the second and third movements respectively of  this quartet.

The quartet opens with a lyrical, delicate sensibility with the first theme. The sonata form introduces a second theme for contrast, with a stout but vigorous character to counterbalance the delicate, gentle first theme.

Borodin writes a sparkling scherzo for the second movement gives way to an interpolated waltz-like second theme that became "Baubles, Bangles and Beads". 

The slow movement Notturno is an entire musical narrative of its own as the cello and violin explore a tale of lovers complete with opening soliloquy, loving entreaty, an elegant dance, a tragic conflict and a sublime duet aria for the denouement. While the lovely theme appears wholesale as “This is My Beloved” in the musical Kismet, only the string quartet contains the contrapuntal middle section.

Borodin's finale is novel, arresting, brooding as well as humorous with nods to both Beethoven and Haydn. It is like a Slavic version of a Haydnesque romp.

Now lets explore two string quartets written in the same year, 1893, Claude Debussy’s sole String Quartet in G minor and Antonin Dvorak’s 12^th string quartet in F major, Op. 96, nicknamed the “American Quartet”.

Claude Debussy’s  String Quartet in G minor 

In 1893, Debussy composed his first important work, the String Quartet in g minor, Op. 10. It was the only work to which he attached an opus number or a key designation and it was the only work Debussy wrote in a conventional form. Outwardly, the quartet assumes the mold of a traditional string quartet comprising four movements: a first movement sonata, a rhythmic scherzo, a slow, lyrical movement and an energetic finale. But within this unremarkable template, the music sounds completely new. Debussy expanded the sound of the string quartet with a variety of novel textures and tonal effects ranging from delicate subtlety to ravishing grandeur. Especially striking is the quartet's rhythmic vitality, spontaneous agility and poetic subtlety. With swiftly changing tempi, a wealth of dazzling figurations, cross-rhythms and the special shimmering or hovering pulsations typical of his music, Debussy captures a nuanced experience of time.

Antonin Dvorak’s 12^th string quartet in F major, Op. 96, “American Quartet

Dvorak’s “American Quartet” is one of the first compositions by a major composer that was influcenced by the music of African Amercians. Strongly influenced by a student at the National Conservatory Harry T. Burleigh, a baritone and later a composer who exposed Dvorak to spirituals.  There is a spirit of spirituals or native American ritual music, but there are no specific quotes as in later music written by Dvorak in the United States. It is in 4 movements: Allegro ma non troppo, Lento, Molto vivace, and Finale: Vivace ma non troppo