String Quartet No.1

SKU: HL.50600643

ISBN 9781495071034. UPC: 888680633202. 9x12 inches.

String Quartet No. 1 was inspired by The Lindsays, who gave its first British performances and helped in the preparation of this edition. The work was commissioned by WUNC-FM, with funds from the North Carolina State Department of Cultural Resources, for the inaugural concert and broadcast of the WUNC Composers-in-Context Series. The premiere was given by The Ciompi Quartet at Hill Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on November 21, 1998. The work is dedicated, with gratitude and affection, to Ronnie and Susanne Birks, in celebration of their 20th anniversary of marriage.

SKU: BR.EB-8939

ISBN 9790004186084.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: HL.14031801

7.0x10.0x0.28 inches.

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) was a British composer and conductor. He studied under Wood and Stanford at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, where he met and drew inspiration from Vaughan Williams, Holst, Howells, and Goossens. He was appointed Master of the Queen's Music in 1953 and wrote music for many state occasions, including the Coronation and the Funeral of Winston Churchill.

The String Quartet No.1 in Bb Major was first published in 1941. It was actually the third String Quartet Bliss composed, but the first two were early works which he withdrew or lost. It was written in America in 1940 and first performed inBerkeley, California; it became the last work he wrote before he returned to Britain to help the war effort.

SKU: HL.14023669

ISBN 9780711977570. 9.0x12.0x0.155 inches.

There are two primary ideas behind this composition, the first being to create and almost orchestral chamber music, the idea for this coming from a performance of the Grosse Fuge performed by the Arditti Quartet. The second idea was to excercise the impressive and oppresive history of the string quartet by making the work a compendium of quotations from quartet repertoire. Influence from Schoenberg can be heard in chromatic, harmonic sequences and modal/diatonic varioations are also actively displayed within the piece. The quartet is written with amplification in mind and it is the composer's preference that it is performed in this way. String Quartet No.1 is dedicated to the memory of Thurston Dart. It was commissioned by the Arditti Quartet and first performed by them on 23 September 1985, Warsaw. Duration 26 minutes. Instrumental parts are available on sale.