aLoneWorldEnds on Nostr: < World Premiere > ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 2 Friday 25 March, 1960 – ...
< World Premiere >
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 2
Friday 25 March, 1960 – Juilliard School, New York
The Juilliard String Quartet
Winner of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Music
“My Second String Quartet, commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet, was begun in August, 1958, and finished in May, 1959. In it, the four instruments are individualized, each being given its own character embodied in a special set of melodic and harmonic intervals and of rhythms that result in four different patterns of slow and fast tempi with associated types of expression. Thus, four different strands of musical material of contrasting character are developed simultaneously throughout the work. It is out of the interactions, combinations, cooperations, and oppositions of these that the details of musical discourse as well as the large sections are built.
Up to the end of the second movement (Presto scherzando) the various facets of each instrument’s character are presented quite distinctively. After that, in the third and fourth movements (Andante espressivo & Allegro), there is a growing tendency to cooperate and exchange ideas, while, in the cadenzas, opposition between the solo and accompanying instruments grows. The Conclusion returns to the state of individualization of the first part of the work.”
— Elliott Carter
ELLIOTT CARTER : String Quartet No. 2
Friday 25 March, 1960 – Juilliard School, New York
The Juilliard String Quartet
Winner of the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Music
“My Second String Quartet, commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet, was begun in August, 1958, and finished in May, 1959. In it, the four instruments are individualized, each being given its own character embodied in a special set of melodic and harmonic intervals and of rhythms that result in four different patterns of slow and fast tempi with associated types of expression. Thus, four different strands of musical material of contrasting character are developed simultaneously throughout the work. It is out of the interactions, combinations, cooperations, and oppositions of these that the details of musical discourse as well as the large sections are built.
Up to the end of the second movement (Presto scherzando) the various facets of each instrument’s character are presented quite distinctively. After that, in the third and fourth movements (Andante espressivo & Allegro), there is a growing tendency to cooperate and exchange ideas, while, in the cadenzas, opposition between the solo and accompanying instruments grows. The Conclusion returns to the state of individualization of the first part of the work.”
— Elliott Carter