# Benjamin Franklin



## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

entertaining googling discovery:

Benjamin Franklin's String Quartet
Scholars revive debate on whether Ben Franklin composed tongue-in-cheek string quartet

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The five-movement quartet is written for the unusual arrangement of three violins and one cello, rather than the format of two violins, viola and cello that had become somewhat standard for string quartets by the late 18th century. But that feature is tame compared to the F-major quartet's most bizarre quality: "[It] calls for all four string instruments to retune to different pitches, creating 16 notes to be played without left-hand fingering, using only the bow," says Sarch, who is creating a performing edition for student orchestra

This technique is known as scordatura, a retuning of a string instrument to lend different tone and color to the strings (usually to make them sound thinner or brighter). The most famous examples come from Romantic composers Mahler and Saint-Sa?ns. They applied the technique to the violin for supernatural flavor in Symphony No. 4 and "Danse Macabre," respectively. However, even these composers would have thought it unusual to employ scordatura so that no fingering is required. If anything, composers tend to avoid open strings because the timbre is hollow and the player cannot use vibrato.

Just as strange are the quartet's various melodies, which are passed, note by note, around the four players. "If you can imagine four players with four hand bells having to ring one note at a time in different rhythms, that is what this is," says Sarch. Typically, of course, melodies are played on one instrument before they travel to another.

On top of that, the particular 16 notes don't allow for the music to change key or develop harmonically. Says Sarch, "There is no other quartet like it in the history of music that I know of."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06211/709108-42.stm#ixzz1UXu02Y3W





:tiphat:

Did he beat John Cage?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Biber employed scordatura, even composed a set of sonatas that required different scordatura tunings; but not for open strings.

I would be interested - to the point of buying a CD - to hear one of the 'tight ensembles', the Emerson, Alban Berg, or Petersen quartets (the violist could switch to violin easily I think), play those melodies.

Assuming that the melodies can reasonably described as such, The mature John Cage is not in the picture.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

According to the YouTube comments, Ben likely composed this for some friends of his who couldn't play well--hence the idea of only using open strings.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

With all those big open chords and the four-square rhythm, it kind of reminds me of shape-note singing. The only problem is that the shape-note method began in 1801, after Franklin had died.

Here's an example. Both Franklin and the composer of the hymn might have just been writing down what was being sung in popular folk melodies at the time.


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