sonatas, continued (“String Quartet, Op. 76 no. 1” – Haydn)
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Tag: Shostakovich
December 24, 2023
sonatas, continued (Messiaen – “Quartet for the End of Time”)
“Red Quartet“
Raoul Dufy
_____
if a trio is a sonata written for three instruments,
a sonata, a piece of music consisting of more
than one segment, or movement, written for
four instruments, is called a quartet
a quartet is also what we call the group itself
of four players
quartets can play more than just quartets, they
can also play waltzes, nocturnes, rhapsodies,
for instance, just as trios, groups of three, can
play more than just trios
but quartets, the form, have had a long and
glorious history, from Mozart and Haydn,
the Classicists, through Beethoven, an
ardent Romantic, to the more political
Shostakovich, enemy, for a time, of his
repressive Soviet state, and on to
Messiaen, who composed his own
Quartet for the End of Time, in a Nazi
concentration camp
let me start with the Messiaen, now that I’ve
whetted your appetite, and work our way back
to Mozart to see where we came from, and
how
there are seven movements in Quartet for
the End of Time, not the Classical three or
four, atonality abounds, discordant, not
unexpectedly, progressions, repetition also
takes its punches, not easily identifiable
throughout, but tempo, the third pillar of
Western music, more or less holds its
own, keeping the tradition, however
precariously, together, listen
it’s 1941, we’re in a concentration camp,
Messiaen is caught between hope and
despair, give the guy a break, he hasn’t
many absolutes to hold onto, tempo
might be one of them, the heartbeat,
pulse, perseverance, an actual human
pace, a rhythmic instinct, by which
eventually, hopefully, meaning
transpires
hope is in one’s creativity, he says, each
individual answer can be a tribute to
one’s own tribulations, our responses
can be poetry, lessons rather than
invectives, epiphanies rather than
agonies, may the Force, in other words,
be with you, in the face of even the most
trying difficulties, honour can supplant
trials, he concludes, given grace and
integrity
Beethoven says pretty much the same
thing in his last piano sonata, remember,
his Opus 111, listen, a not not impressive
corroboration
R ! chard
February 3, 2018
“The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross”, opus 51 – Joseph Haydn
“Crucified Christ“ (1780)
_______
Haydn’s Opus 51 was commissioned
for the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva, the
Holy Cave Oratory, in Cádiz, Spain, a
church, as the name suggests, built
partially underground, it would be
performed, the Opus 51, for the Good
Friday service of 1787, Haydn therefore
put his Opus 50 on hold, six string
quartets, to finish this ecclesiastical
work on time
what had been required was a work for
small orchestra to inform the Seven
Last Words of our Saviour on the
Cross, it would therefore have at least
segments, movements, and would be
divided by the elaboration of the
bishop upon the significance of these
individual “Words”, or, in fact,
statements, see this example
Haydn added an introduction, and a
finale in the form of an earthquake,
quite, I think, wittily and ever so
appropriately
nearly simultaneously, Haydn
composed the orchestral
arrangement for string quartet, and
later for orchestra and voice, for, in
other words, an oratorio
to my mind “The Seven Last Words
of Our Saviour on the Cross” is
Haydn’s crowning achievement, in
all of its iterations
you’ll note that there is even first of
all a title, and the title asks for
something quite specific, indeed
words, which the composer would
have to render musically, somehow,
he’d need drama, something of a
musical narrative, no minuets
all of the movements, apart from
the end ones, are variations on
slow – adagio, lento, largo, even
grave – and how do you keep an
audience, or in this case a
congregation, happy, or even
interested, with seven potentially
lugubrious adagios in a row, all
profoundly melancholy
only Shostakovich has managed
to do that since, which I’ll talk
about at some point later
Haydn also undoubtedly inspired
Beethoven here with the
consequences of so many
movements, the possibility of
extending a musical intention
into something resembling,
indeed, a book, a story, the
introduction of narrative,
essentially, into our musical
history, which is to say, music
as literature
the orchestral version of “The
Seven Last Words” is performed
here at the very Oratorio de la
Santa Cueva, the string quartet
version, played not only better
than I’ve ever heard it played
before, but better even than any
other quartet I’ve ever heard,
period, includes the commentaries
in German by an attendant prelate,
as intended in the original
composition
the movements’ “Seven Words” are
indicated in Latin, not, incidentally,
the language of “Our Saviour”, and
move from “Lord, why have you
forsaken me” to “If it is Your will,
then let it be done”
the last version presented here is
the oratorio, for orchestra and
voice
all of them, utterly inspiring
listen
R ! chard
(to be, incontrovertibly, continued,
this piece is too loaded with
substance, it is transformational)
December 30, 2017
on string quartets – Opus 76, no 1 – Joseph Haydn
“Joseph Haydn“ (1791)
______
to not consider other musical forms of
Shostakovich would be unfair, his
symphonies are mostly propaganda,
however often, though somewhat
culturally specific, riveting
my favourite works of his, works I
consider iconic, are mostly chamber
pieces, piano solos, string quartets
a string quartet, after a symphony, is
like sitting down to dinner with four,
at the very least, acquaintances,
rather than being a guest at a party,
the conversation is more intimate,
every person plays hir part, everyone
is heeded, if even only with courtesy,
a social, a Classical, an aristocratic,
prerequisite
movements can be compared to
courses, distinct and identifiable for
their particular culinary, musical,
propriety
later variations on this reflect the
variations in social mores, where
restaurants, the modern way of
socializing, allow for disparate
choices, often superimposed,
throughout the meal for any,
every, occasion
dim sum, tapas, celebrate this, not
unhappily
but string quartets can be tricky, I
thought I’d start from the beginning,
with some Haydn, their recognized
Father, you’ll understand when you
hear this, his Opus 76, no 1, an
outstanding string quartet to live
up to
Haydn set the standard for string
quartets when the norms of Western
music were being established, Bach
had given us the alphabet, the
well-tempered clavier, Mozart, the
grammar, the structure of music,
tempo, tonality, repetition, Beethoven
gave us the literature, the poetry, the
philosophical, the transcendent
Haydn is somewhere between these
last two, but decidedly, still, the king
of the string quartet, though Beethoven
does a good job of trying to best him,
and so does Shostakovich, you’ll have
to pick
but first, let’s start with Haydn, that’ll
be already, you’ll see, or hear, enough
later, I’ll get into it
R ! chard
March 28, 2012
Shostakovich’s String Quartet no 15, opus 144 (revisited)
on a day of commemoration, or at a moment even of
merely contemplation, perhaps it’s not a bad idea to
revisit Shostakovich’s String Quartet no 15, in E flat
minor, opus 144, his flurry of mournful adagios, his
string of stately dirges, his penetrating meditation
on mortality
complete this time around, on one only site, though
just a short while ago indeed I said it wasn’t to be
found, March 28, 2012, again I was wrong
today it stood, perhaps not coincidentally, directly
before me as I clicked onto my list of music,
unadulterated, intact, complete, apart from an
irrtating audience member coughing at one point,
unforgivably, for marring so sincere an expression
of fervent string sounds, though only momentarily
by the “Filarmonica” Quartet, of Novosibirsk, Russia,
a city just north of Mongolia and Kazakhstan, the
players are not at all unimpressive
accompanying images are apparently of Russian
inspirational countryside nearby, and of
neighbouring Mongolia
Richard
Richibi's Weblog 