Note by the composer:'Triple Quartet is for string quartet and two pre-recorded quartets, or three live string quartets with no pre-recording. The piece is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and is organized harmonically on four dominant chords in minor keys a minor third apart: E minor, G minor, Bb minor, C# minor and then returning to E minor to form a cycle.The first movement goes through this harmonic cycle twice with a section about one minute long on each of the four dominat chords. The result is a kind of variation form. Rhythmically the first movement has the second and third quartet playing interlocking chords while the first quartet plays longer melodies in canon between the first violin and viola against the second violin and cello. The slow movement is more completely contrapuntal with a long slow melody in canon eventually in all 12 voices. It stays in E minor throughout. The third movement resumes the original fast tempo, maintains the harmonic chord cycle but modulates back and forth between keys more rapidly. The final section of the movement is in the initial key of E minor and there the piece finally cadences. Steve Reich, 1999 / Orchestre A Cordes
SKU: HL.14015171
ISBN 9788759878224. Danish.
Quartetto Sereno - String Quartet No.21 Op.197 (op. posth.) by Vagn Holmboe.
Holmboe's last quartet work, which is unofficially also String Quartet No. 21, was the last work he ever composed, and was unfinished on his death in 1996. His pupil Per Nørgård has finished the quartet, and himself characterizes his contribution by saying that the score existed “in an only partly completed form, which could however be written out with only a few cases of doubt”. With only two movements and a playing time of about nine minutes it is at its existing length the shortest of Holmboe's stringquartets. The first movement takes the form of one long arch in a rocking triple time which constantly shifts among different tempo and pulse sensations. At the same time the rhythmic energy increases until the movement, in a faster Con moto tempo accelerates to a more flowing 12/8 time, coloured both rhythmically by cross-rhythms in duple time and timbrally by harmonics in the viola. In its middle section, Con fuoco, the movement culminates in both tempo and expression until it falls calm in brief recapitulations in reverse order of the first two sections. The rocking feeling continues in the second movement, but now at a more extroverted level from the outset, Allegro and pizzicato. The energy builds up further as the mood intensifies to Con fuoco, while all instruments go over to bowed playing, but like the first movement, this movement ends Adagio here however not as a gradual attenuation but through a sudden shift in tempo to a calm, imitative passage before the movement slowly thins out to the almost inaudible through a last, dense, open sounding chord with a brief violin solo above it.
The quartet is dedicated to Holmboe's wife MeLa May Holmboe, and was given its first performance by the Kontra Quartet on 22nd March 1997 at the Carl Nielsen Academy of.
SKU: HL.50511784
ISBN 9790080145111. 8.5x11.75x0.099 inches. Hungarian, English. Laszlo Dubrovay.
The composer wrote this work in 2004 for the Corpus trombone quartet, to whom it is dedicated. The piece consists of a slow and a fast section, both in rondo form. Its musical language makes use of a great many new elements of playing technique, which provide an excellent opportunity for displaying the fantastically virtuosic capabilities of both the new modes of sound production and the performers: they include Wah-muted notes with modulated tone colour, harmonic-glissandi, sequences of buzzing notes sung into the instrument, valve-modulated harmonic glissandi, rapid double- and tripletongued staccatos, and flutter-tongued, lip-trilled and buzzing lip-vibrating notes. The purpose: playful, good-humoured music-making, to exorcise evil from our lives.
SKU: BO.B.3664
Cuarteto San Petersburgo (The Saint Petersburg Quartet) was written between January and March 2011. It owes its name to the fact that Saint Petersburg has been a very significant city for me. I was invited there in 1988 to take part in a big contemporary music festival, but my uninterrupted bond with the city started on 2002, thanks to the negotiations of my friend and pupil Albert Barbeta. Since then, I have constantly travelled there in order to record a considerable part of my repertoire: seventeen pieces. In addition to the concerts we went to, I took the opportunity during my trips to visit the well-known conservatoire where so many great personalities from the world of music composition once taught, and the place that launched the most important violin school in the whole of Russia: the school of Leopoldo Auer. Spending a long time in Auer's classroom writing my concert for violin and orchestra was an unforgettable experience for me. His large portrait motivated me even further.Cuartet o San Petersburgo evokes many of the most cherished and moving moments that I have had in this city. It is structured in four movements. The first one, Allegretto-Allegro, opens with an introduction that sets forth the two main themes, amid a soft and elastic atmosphere. The Allegro starts vigorously and in it we find changes in the tempo and moments of mystery, as well as certain seclusion, returning then to the emphatic theme where the counterpoint finds its place. The movement ends placidly.The Scherzo-marcato that follows is marked by a persistent rhythm of triplets that carries on from beginning to end. The tempo does not change, but brief and decided themes are introduced, as well as passages of counterpoint. Brief and dissonant chords are heard throughout the movement, which ends vigorously.The third movement, Ut, is a very special one. For a while already I had been playing with the idea of writing a movement that was to have the tonality C as a leitmotiv. This one is made up by two slow and static parts. In the first one, the first violin plays pizzicatti-glissandi. In the second, the first violin and particularly the violoncello settle on C while the other two instruments produce descending chromatic harmonies.Final ly, the Introduccion-Presto (the Introduction-Presto). It starts with some bucolic passages which remind us of the introduction to the first movement. A fast and energetic Presto suddenly erupts. A kind of moto perpetuo which alternates with two expressive passages and, towards the end, a viola and violoncello tremolo, all of great mystery and expectation, make way for a resounding finale marcato.
SKU: HL.14031851
ISBN 9788759880661. Danish.
Holmboe' s last quartet work, which is unofficially also String Quartet No. 21, was the last work he ever composed, and was unfinished on his death in 1996. His pupil Per Nørgård has finished the quartet, and himself characterizes his contribution by saying that the score existed “in an only partly completed form, which could however be written out with only a few cases of doubt”. With only two movements and a playing time of about nine minutes it is at its existing length the shortest of Holmboe's string quartets. The first movement takes the form of one long arch in a rocking triple time which constantly shiftsamong different tempo and pulse sensations. At the same time the rhythmic energy increases until the movement, in a faster Con moto tempo accelerates to a more flowing 12/8 time, coloured both rhythmically by cross-rhythms in duple time and timbrally by harmonics in the viola. In its middle section, Con fuoco, the movement culminates in both tempo and expression until it falls calm in brief recapitulations in reverse order of the first two sections. The rocking feeling continues in the second movement, but now at a more extroverted level from the outset, Allegro and pizzicato. The energy builds up further as the mood intensifies to Con fuoco, while all instruments go over to bowed playing, but like the first movement, this movement ends Adagio here however not as a gradual attenuation but through a sudden shift in tempo to a calm, imitative passage before the movement slowly thins out to the almost inaudible through a last, dense, open sounding chord with a brief violin solo above it.
The quartet is dedicated to Holmboe's wife MeLa May Holmboe, and was given its first performance by the Kontra Quartet on 22nd March 1997 at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense, Denmark.
SKU: SU.28030020
Da Lontano is based on a triple variation in which three contrasting groups of musical material transforms in numerous ways gradually gaining intensity.string quartet Duration: 18' Composed: 2016 Published by: Distributed Composer.
SKU: AP.1-ADV8415
UPC: 805095084153. English. Traditional.
In writing these arrangements for clarinet quartet, Frank Reinshagen has created little masterpieces, which broaden the rhythmical and harmonic context of the original tunes in an interesting manner without detracting from their archaic and melancholic character. These original tunes are---in a direct or wider sense---of Celtic origin. In other words, they have been borrowed from the Irish, Scottish, and Gaelic musical tradition. These through-composed arrangements are rather easy to perform from the rhythmical and technical point of view. Yet, they are quite demanding in respect of the key they are written in, their intonation, and especially, their interpretation. Their different instrumentations are fully compatible with each other and, due to their overall structure, they are also suitable to be played with multi-scored parts. Annotation on Aignish on the Machair: The arrangement of Aignish on the Machair, Folksong from The Hebrides, illustrates, above all, the melancholic character inherent in the harmonies of the original tune. A short rubato passage is followed by several variations over the flowing melody in 3/4-time. The short triplet passages embedded in these variations are quite demanding from the technical point of view; considering the key they are written in, however, these passages are not too difficult to play.
SKU: AP.1-ADV7447
UPC: 805095074475. English.
This fun-loving hip-hop composition is based on simple triplet motifs and sounds best when played in a relaxed manner. Players may perform the solo section freely, and it may be extended for additional solos if desired.
