# The Contemporary String Quartet: works written since 1970



## SanAntone

The string quartet has always been a favorite form of mine, and the 20th century saw a growth in the number of works being written multiply dramatically. Bartok, Shostakovich, Weinberg, Carter all wrote what are generally considered great works for the string quartet.

They continue to be written well into the 21st century, I discover new works just about every day, and will be posting some of them in the coming days.

But here's one from 1975 that I just found by a composer I'd not heard of before.






*Friedrich Goldmann: Streichquartett Nr. 1* (1975)
Arditti Quartet

Please post your contemporary string quartets as nominations for a YouTube playlist.

Thanks for participating.


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## Mandryka

Not sure whether this is the sort of thing you had in mind, but I won't let that stop me, I like it very much


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## calvinpv

This is no doubt a well-known contemporary SQ, so not the obscure ones you're probably interested in. But it's an all-time favorite SQ for me:


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## Art Rock

String Quartet No. 3 · Sofia Gubaidulina · Stamic Quartet


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## SanAntone

Mandryka said:


> Not sure whether this is the sort of thing you had in mind, but I won't let that stop me, I like it very much


A new composer for me, so I am glad to hear this work. The work itself is interesting, as well.



calvinpv said:


> This is no doubt a well-known contemporary SQ, so not the obscure ones you're probably interested in. But it's an all-time favorite SQ for me:


Yeah, a class in the genre by a composer who has become so successful I have a tendency to take him for granted. Thanks for posting.



Art Rock said:


> String Quartet No. 3 · Sofia Gubaidulina · Stamic Quartet


I just posted her 2nd in another thread. This is a wonderful work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*I have no expectations for this thread other than folks posting works they wish to bring attention to. *

(For a minute I forgot what this thread was about. Before this edit, I had posted that only SQ from C21 were acceptable - but then I saw my title. Sorry if my earlier post was seen by anyone.)


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## mikeh375

As requested by the OP. Richard Danielpour has an impressive set of 4tets, the first of which was composed in 1983.


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## Guest002

Britten's String Quartet No. 3 was written in 1975, so ought to count! Also a masterpiece, which helps.


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## SanAntone

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> View attachment 143907
> 
> 
> Britten's String Quartet No. 3 was written in 1975, so ought to count! Also a masterpiece, which helps.


Yep. Since I meant for this thread to be a place to listen, here's the YT clip






Thanks for posting!


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## SanAntone

mikeh375 said:


> As requested by the OP. Richard Danielpour has an impressive set of 4tets, the first of which was composed in 1983.


Thanks for posting the Danielpour works. I look forward to listening to them.


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## sonance

SanAntone: 
Before reading your post above (see post no. 5) I had begun to work on a list of string quartets since 1970 which are in my collection. I thought the initial request was meant as collecting as much contemporary string quartets as possible, not only those which are in high favor of an individual poster. I got quite some quartets, but of course don't like them all on the same level. Some I've got only out of curiosity. But couldn't it be that others will like them more? And is your interest turned more to avant-garde and experimental music or will all styles be accepted?
So what to do? Continue with the list? Post just one that I'm quite fond of? 
For now I'll post one I'm quite fond of (Nordgren) and one that I find somehow interesting, although it won't become a favorite (Haas) ...

Pehr Henrik Nordgren: SQ no. 10 (2007; Tempera Quartet)
[info - 1: 1967; ... 3: 1976; ... 11: 2008]





Georg Friedrich Haas: SQ no. 7 (2011; Jack Quartet)
[info - no. 1: 1997; ... 10: 2016]





Edit: Sorry for the Haas, I've got only nos. 1 and 2 by the Kairos Quartet in my collection. Somehow I got confused ...


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## mikeh375

Ades from 1994.


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## SanAntone

sonance said:


> SanAntone:
> Before reading your post above (see post no. 5) I had begun to work on a list of string quartets since 1970 which are in my collection. I thought the initial request was meant as collecting as much contemporary string quartets as possible, not only those which are in high favor of an individual poster. I got quite some quartets, but of course don't like them all on the same level. Some I've got only out of curiosity. But couldn't it be that others will like them more? And is your interest turned more to avant-garde and experimental music or will all styles be accepted?


All styles are acceptable. I may focus on the latest things, but the thread is covering 50 years and counting, so by all means anything written during that period would be on-topic.



> So what to do? Continue with the list? Post just one that I'm quite fond of?


Post as many as you wish, the more the merrier. I like your idea of "as much as possible."



> For now I'll post one I'm quite fond of (Nordgren) and one that I find somehow interesting, although it won't become a favorite (Haas) ...
> 
> Pehr Henrik Nordgren: SQ no. 10 (2007; Tempera Quartet)
> [info - 1: 1967; ... 3: 1976; ... 11: 2008]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Georg Friedrich Haas: SQ no. 7 (2011; Jack Quartet)
> [info - no. 1: 1997; ... 10: 2016]


Both great additions to this thread. Please feel free to post as many quartets from your list as you wish.

I want this to be a repository of contemporary quartets that people can listen to at their leisure.


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## mikeh375

I'm so pleased this qualifies as it always touches me deep within. Written in 1978.


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## sonance

SanAntone - thanks.

R. Murray Schafer: SQ no.8 (2012; Molinari Quartet)
[info - no. 1: 1970; no. 13: 2015]





Elena Ruehr: playlist with nos. 1 - 6 (1991 - 2012; Cypress String Quartet; Borromeo String Quartet; I've got nos. 1, 3 and 4 in my collection)
[info - 1: 1991; new 7: 2019]





John Harbison: SQ no. 3 (1993; Lydian String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1985; 2: 1987; "Thanks Victor", 1994, 4: 2002; 5: 2011; 6: 2016)





Edith Canat de Chizy: "Vivere" [no. 1] (2001; Quatuor Parisii)
[info - 2 "Alive": 2003; 3 "Proche invisible": 2010; 4 "En noir et or": 2017]





Benjamin Lees: SQ no. 6 (2005; Cypress String Quartet)
[info - 3: 1982]


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## sonance

Georg Katzer: SQ no. 4 (2005; Sonar Quartet)
[info - 1: 1965; 3: 1987; the composer's homepage doesn't mention no. 2)





Jeffrey Ryan: "Quantum Mechanics" (without number, 1996; Scott St. John et al.) 
[info - 2: 2004; 3: 2006; 4: 2011]
first movement:













Nikolaus Brass: SQ no. 3 (2004; Auritus Quartet)
[info - 1: 1996; 2: 1999/2000; 4: 2008; 5 with two clarinets: 2013; 6 and 7: 2015]





Pascal Dusapin: SQ no. 5 (2004/05; Arditti Quartet)
[info - no. 1: 1983; no. 7: 2009]





Peteris Vasks: SQ no. 3 (1995; Navarra Quartet)
[info - 1: 1977; 2: 1984; 4: 1999; 5. 2004) 
first movement:

















(Tomorrow I'll continue.)


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## Knorf

*Brian Ferneyhough*: String Quartet No. 6 (2010)






*Luciano Berio*: _Glossa_ (1997)






*Hans Abrahamsen*: String Quartet No. 1 "Ten Preludes" (1973)






*Iannis Xenakis*: _Tetora_ (1990)


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## Ravn

Horațiu Rădulescu's fifth quartet quickly became a favorite of mine. This video has a score of the piece as well.


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## SanAntone

Here's my quartet for today.






*Alexandra du Bois - String Quartet: Oculus pro oculo totum orbem terrae caecat* (2003)
performed by Kronos Quartet

I like the mournful quality of the opening section that then becomes more active but still very expressive.


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## RICK RIEKERT

For me, this Nono is a YesYes.


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## SanAntone

*Lera Auerbach - Frozen Dreams* (World Premiere) 
Jasper String Quartet


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## sonance

Michael Tippett: SQ no. 4 (1977/78; Britten Quartet]
[info - 1:1934/35; ... 5: 1990/91; in my collection with Lindsay Quartet] 





Krzysztof Penderecki: SQ no. 3 (2008; Meccore String Quartet) 
[info - 1: 1960; 2: 1968; "Der unterbrochene Gedanke" [without number] 1988; 4: 2016; in my collection nos. 1-3 by the Royal String Quartet]





Alfred Schnittke: SQ nos. 1 - 4 (Kronos Quartet)
[info - 1: 1966; 2: 2: 1981; 3: 1983; 4: 1989]
playlist:





Boris Tchaikovsky: SQ no. 6 (1976; Ilya Ioff et al.)
[info - 1: 1954; ... 4: 1972; 5: 1974]





Tigran Mansurian: SQ no. 1 (1983/84; Lisbon Chamber Ensemble)
[info - 2: 1984; 3: 1993; "Testament" 2004; in my collection nos. 1 and 2 by Rosamunde Quartet]


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## sonance

Lex van Delden: SQ no. 3 (1979; Utrecht String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1954; 2: 1965]





Ben Johnston: SQ no. 9 (1987/88; Kepler Quartet)
[info - 1: 1959; ... 4: 1973; 5: 1979; 6: 1980; 7: 1984; 8: 1984/86; 10: 1995]





John Joubert: SQ no. 3 (1986; Brodsky Quartet)
[info - 1: 1950; 2: 1977; 4: 1988; in my collection nos. 1-3]
first movement:













Henryk Gorecki: SQ no. 3 (1994/95; Dafo String Quartet) 
[info - 1: 1988; 2: 1990/91; 3: 1994/95; in my collection with Kronos Quartet)





Per Norgard: SQ no. 10 (2005; Kroger Quartet)
[info - 1: 1952; ... 9: 2000/01; in my collection nos. 1 to 6 with Kontra Quartet; nos. 7 to 10 with Kroger Quartet]


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## sonance

Krzysztof Meyer: SQ no. 6 (1981; Wieniawski String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1963; ... 3: 1971; ... 15: 2018; in my collection nos. 5, 6 and 7]





Tomas Marco: SQ no. 2 (1987; Arditti Quartet)
[info - 1: 1968/69; 3: 1993; 4: 1996; 5: 2007, 6: 2011; 7: 2018; in my collection nos. 1 to 4 on the label col legno]





Sylvie Bodorová: SQ no. 1 (1987; Stamic Quartet)
[info - 2 ??: "Terezin Ghetto Requiem" for baritone and string quartet: 1998; 3 ??; 4: 2000; in my collection nos. 1, 3 and 4]





Peter Maxwell Davies: SQ no. 5 and 6 (2004 and 2005; Maggini Quartet)
[info - Naxos String Quartets 1: 2002; ... 10: 2007; in my collection only nos. 1, 2, 5 and 6; other works: Little Quartet no. 1: 1982; Little Quartet no. 2: 1987; "A Sad Paven for These Distracted Tymes": 2004; Military March no. 2 (2015); Musikgeschichte in einem Satz, Kurz: 2015]
playlist:





Jouni Kaipainen: SQ no. 3 (1984; Sibelius String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1973; 2: 1974; 4: 1994; 5: 2004; in my collection only no. 3 as part of the "Meet the Composer" series]
first movement:


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## sonance

Gloria Coates; SQ no.8 (2001/02; Kreutzer Quartet)
[info - 1: 1968; 2: 1972; ... 9: 2007; there is mention of a no. 10 as composed in 1971/76 resp. in 1962: faulty information?; in my collection nos. 1-9]





Boris Tishchenko: SQ no. 6 (2008; Ilya Ioff/Elena Raskova/Lidia Kovalenko/Alexey Massarsky)
[info - 1:1957; ... 5: 1984]
first movement:









James Macmillan: SQ no. 3 (2007; Brentano Quartet)
[info - "Visions of a November Spring":1988/91; "Memento": 1994; "Why is this night different?" 1998; "Etwas zurückhaltend": 1982/2008; short works: "For Sonny": 2011; "Ein Lämplein verlosch": 2018; in my collection "Visions ...", "Etwas ...", "For Sonny" and no. 3 by Edinburgh Quartet]





Friedrich Cerha: SQ no. 3 (1992; Stadler Quartet)
[info - 1: 1989; ... 4: 2001; in my collection nos. 1-3 by Arditti Quartet]
first movement:

























Olivier Greif: SQ no. 2 with voice on three sonnets of Shakespeare (1996; Ensemble Syntonia; Alain Buet)
[info - 1:1966; 3 with voice "Todesfuge": 1998; 4 "Ulysses": 2000; in my collection: nos. 2-4]
first movement:





















That's enough for today ...


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## mikeh375

Some more Brits....


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## SanAntone

*Sonance, while I definitely want you to post all of your string quartets from the list you've been compiling - it might be more useful for you to not post so many at one time.

I want to listen to all of the quartets posted, but when you post so many, it's hard to keep up. And individual posts by others can get lost among a series of your posts.*


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## mikeh375

I loved this when I first heard it...Kernis no.3


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## sonance

SanAntone – I’m sorry. In the future I’ll post only two or three per day. Will that be okay?


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## SanAntone

sonance said:


> SanAntone - I'm sorry. In the future I'll post only two or three per day. Will that be okay?


Perfect!  Thanks, also, it would be nice to have you around longer.


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## SanAntone

*Carter Pann - Love Letters for String Quartet* (2000)
Ying Quartet


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## EmperorOfIceCream

-----------------------------


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## EmperorOfIceCream

The best one since 1970 is Ainsi la nuit... obviously.


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## Kilgore Trout

EmperorOfIceCream said:


> The best one since 1970 is Ainsi la nuit... obviously.


No... obviously.


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## mikeh375

Apparently so good that it's been posted twice I see....(post no.13).
I don't think the OP wants to get into a 'mine's better than yours' thread. I think it's meant to be a listening resource and as such, it's shaping up very nicely.


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## sonance

Aulis Sallinen: SQ no. 5 (1983; Jean Sibelius Quartet)
[info - 1: 1958; ... 4: 1971; 5: 1983; 6: 2014; in my collection nos. 1 to 5]





Manfred Trojahn: SQ no. 4 (2009; Henschel Quartett)
[info - 1: 1976; 2: 1979/80; 3: 1983; "Fragmente für Antigone" [six pieces for SQ]; in my collection nos. 3, 4 and "Fragmente ...")
first movement:


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## tortkis

George Lewis: String Quartet No. 1.5 "Experiments In Living" (2016) - Spektral Quartet


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## SanAntone

I especially liked those last two: Manfred Trojahn & George Lewis.


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## sonance

Fernando Lopes-Graça: SQ no. 2 (1982; Quarteto Lopes-Graça)
[info - 1: 1964; Suite Rústica no. 2 for string quartet: 1965; 14 Anotações para Quarteto de Cordas: 1966]





Elliott Carter: SQ no. 5 (1995; Pacifica Quartet)
[info - 1: 1951; 2: 1959; 3: 1971; 4: 1986]





SanAntone - I guess you know Carter's quartets. There has been much praise for them and I would love to second that. But alas, until now they don't reach out to me. I don't deny the skills of composer or performers (I'm in no way qualified to do that). But maybe I just need another emotional wavelength. I guess I have to try again in a few years ...


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## Mandryka

This last, late, Carter quartet, is a recent discovery for me. When it came out a friend of mine, a composer, dismissed it in a conversation, he said Carter was past it, and that kind of put me off investigating. But in fact I think he was wrong, I rather like it for its lyricism.


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## SanAntone

sonance said:


> SanAntone - I guess you know Carter's quartets. There has been much praise for them and I would love to second that. But alas, until now they don't reach out to me. I don't deny the skills of composer or performers (I'm in no way qualified to do that). But maybe I just need another emotional wavelength. I guess I have to try again in a few years ...


One thing I like about the Carter SQ is that each one occupies a specific stylistic spot.

Quartet No. 1: metric modulation, the parts do not share the same tempo
Quartet No. 2: assigning different characters to each part, much like characters in a play, having a conversation
Quartet No. 3: the four parts are divided into duos
Quartet No. 4: begins with an opposition of the parts that gradually unify into a continuous melodic line
Quartet No. 5: somewhat like a suite or interlude/statement of twelve movements divided into pairs of complimenting sections

The 5th is the one I have listened to least, but I doubt I would agree with your composer friend since right up until the day he died Carter was writing compelling music.

I rank the 20th century quartets by Bartok, Shostakovich, Weinberg, and Carter as among the best ever written. I also would put Krzysztof Meyer's in that group, but his are not as well known (yet). The 20th century (and continuing into C21) had a blossoming of activity concerning the string quartet. Almost all of the major composers wrote them, and many spent considerable time/energy with the form, writing a group of them across their entire career.


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## Simon Moon

While not exactly a strict string quartet (it has the addition of the flute), this is very good.

Joan Tower - Rising (2009)


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## SanAntone

Simon, your flute quartet is a nice contribution - for the *21st Century Chamber Music *thread.

But I would like to keep this thread limited to string quartets, only.

Thanks.


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## Simon Moon

Here's Charles Wuorinen's 1st string quartet.

Wuorinen is one of my favorite composers, but I'm not sure how I feel about his string quartets yet.


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## SanAntone

Simon Moon said:


> Here's Charles Wuorinen's 1st string quartet.
> 
> Wuorinen is one of my favorite composers, but I'm not sure how I feel about his string quartets yet.


I agree. Wuorinen was a 20th century master. Sad loss this March.


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## SeptimalTritone

Morton Feldman - String Quartet (1979)






This is a late Feldman quartet, but whereas the better-known String Quartet 2 lasts 4-6 hours, this work is only an hour and a half, more typical for late Feldman.

This work has an agile urgency and subtle humour. It's less glowingly sensual than the String Quartet 2 and doesn't luxuriously linger on a cellular idea for nearly as long. By late Feldman standards it even has a propulsive momentum, even compared to "faster" works like Patterns in a Chromatic Field or For John Cage, because it doesn't linger on cells as long. It will keep you to the edge of your seat.


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## SanAntone

*Christopher Cerrone - Can't and Won't *(2017)
Performed by the Argus Quartet


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## sonance

If this thread is restricted to pure string quartets only, should I erase the earlier mentioned string quartet with voice by Olivier Greif?

Concerning Joan Tower: here's a regular string quartet:

Joan Tower; SQ no. 5 "White Water" (2012; Daedalus Quartet)
[info - "Night Fields": 1994; "In Memory": 2002; 3: "Incandescent": 2003; 4 "Angels" 2008; in my collection nos. 3 and 4 with Miami String Quartet, no. 5 with Daedalus Quartet)





Hao-fu Zhang: SQ no. 3 (1999; Quatuor Danel)
[info - 1: 1991; 2: 1997/2004; in my collection nos. 2 and 3)


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## Mandryka

SanAntone said:


> I especially liked those last two: Manfred Trojahn & George Lewis.


The George Lewis especially. There's more of his music on soundcloud and I intend to explore it.


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## SanAntone

sonance said:


> If this thread is restricted to pure string quartets only, should I erase the earlier mentioned string quartet with voice by Olivier Greif?


No. There has been at least one other famous string quartet that included a vocal part, Schönberg's 2nd. Also acceptable are string quartets with electronics.

The ones that don't qualify are ones which do not have are those without a complete string quartet, like the one that substituted a flute for the first violin. Flute, clarinet, piano, oboe, quartets are different animals from the string quartet. And also no string quartet concertos.


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## Simon Moon

SanAntone said:


> sonance said:
> 
> 
> 
> The ones that don't qualify are ones which do not have are those without a complete string quartet, like the one that substituted a flute for the first violin. Flute, clarinet, piano, oboe, quartets are different animals from the string quartet. And also no string quartet concertos.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you are referring to the Joan Tower piece I posted previously (post #41), you may want to have a second look.
> 
> *There is no substitution of flute for first violin.* There is a complete string quartet on that piece, and on that video. In the still shot for the video, the flautist is blocking the first violinist.
> 
> If you actually watch the vid, you will shortly (about 5 seconds in) see the violinist become visible.
> 
> If you still think it does not belong on this thread, since it has a flautist in *addition* to a full string quartet, I completely understand, you are looking for _only_ string quartets.
Click to expand...


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## SanAntone

Simon Moon said:


> SanAntone said:
> 
> 
> 
> If you are referring to the Joan Tower piece I posted previously (post #41), you may want to have a second look.
> 
> *There is no substitution of flute for first violin.* There is a complete string quartet on that piece, and on that video. In the still shot for the video, the flautist is blocking the first violinist.
> 
> If you actually watch the vid, you will shortly see the violinist become visible.
> 
> If you still think it does not belong on this thread, since it has a flautist in *addition* to a full string quartet, I completely understand, you are looking for _only_ string quartets.
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah, I missed that - but I am hoping to keep this limited to string quartets with the caveat in my post #49.
Click to expand...


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## SanAntone

*Adam Neiman: String Quartet* (2011)

This is the world premiere performance of Adam Neiman's String Quartet, composed in 2011. The concert took place on July 16, 2012 at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. This self-published work is comprised of five movements:

I. Overture (begins at 0:46)
II. Pavane (begins at 7:04)
III. Canon (begins at 12:04)
IV. Chorale (begins at 19:22)
V. Fugue (begins at 24:27)

Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Richard O'Neill, viola
Ron Thomas, cello


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## flamencosketches

*Jürg Frey*: String Quartet No.3

Just listened to this last night. I found it pretty enjoyable. Very slow, quiet music.


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## sonance

SanAntone - Yesterday I listened to your clips with string quartets by Carter Pann and by Christopher Cerrone and liked them both very much. I guess Cerrone will be someone to watch.

My two quartets for today:

Donald Erb: SQ no. 3 (1995; Maddox/Thompson/Krope/Blumhard)
[info - 1: 1960; 2: 1989; in my collection no. 2 by Cavani Quartet and no. 3 by Audubon Quartet]





György Kurtág: Hommage à Jacob Obrecht (2004/05; Athena Quartett)
[info - 1: 1959; Hommage à Mihály Andras [12 microludes]: 1977/78; Aus der Ferne III: 1991; Aus der Ferne V: 1999; Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky: 1988/89; 6 Moments musicaux: 2005; Arioso - Hommage à Walter Levin 85: 2009]





There is also a playlist with the complete works performed by the Athena Quartett, but the sequence of the works is incorrect and sometimes even the parts of work are torn apart; therefore I give the link to the performance by the Quatuor Molinari:


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## SanAntone

flamencosketches said:


> *Jürg Frey*: String Quartet No.3
> 
> Just listened to this last night. I found it pretty enjoyable. Very slow, quiet music.


Yeah, I liked it as well. The composers of the Wandelweiser group are an interesting lot. Clearly they seem to be continuing along the lines of Morton Feldman - but also especially with Frey, a preoccupation with drones. Nice. I'm listening right now to _Memorie_, a 30 minute work.


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## SanAntone

sonance said:


> SanAntone - Yesterday I listened to your clips with string quartets by Carter Pann and by Christopher Cerrone and liked them both very much. I guess Cerrone will be someone to watch.
> 
> My two quartets for today:
> 
> *Donald Erb: SQ no. 3* (1995; Maddox/Thompson/Krope/Blumhard)
> [info - 1: 1960; 2: 1989; in my collection no. 2 by Cavani Quartet and no. 3 by Audubon Quartet]
> 
> *György Kurtág: Hommage à Jacob Obrecht* (2004/05; Athena Quartett)
> [info - 1: 1959; Hommage à Mihály Andras [12 microludes]: 1977/78; Aus der Ferne III: 1991; Aus der Ferne V: 1999; Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky: 1988/89; 6 Moments musicaux: 2005; Arioso - Hommage à Walter Levin 85: 2009]
> 
> There is also a playlist with the complete works performed by the Athena Quartett, but the sequence of the works is incorrect and sometimes even the parts of work are torn apart; therefore I give the link to the performance by the Quatuor Molinari:


I'm glad you got something out of the *Pann* and *Cerrone* quartets. These two you posted today are some I've not heard before (which is true for this thread, often) - thanks for your contributions, I am really enjoying this journey.


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## sonance

Vincent Persichetti: SQ no. 4 (1972; Lydian String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1939; ... 3: 1959]





Ge Gan-ru: SQ no. 5 „Fall of Baghdad" (2007; Yoshioka/Fukuhara/Salas/Shapiro)
[info - 1: 1983; 2 and 3 ???; 4: 1998; in my collection nos. 1, 4 and 5]


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## Lilijana

OH HEY FANTASTIC THREAD!!!

I will be spending a lot of time listening to the stuff here, I reckon.

Hope you don't mind if I plug one of my own... 






EDIT: sorry, this is from the american premiere not the world premiere


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## flamencosketches

Lilijana said:


> OH HEY FANTASTIC THREAD!!!
> 
> I will be spending a lot of time listening to the stuff here, I reckon.
> 
> Hope you don't mind if I plug one of my own...


Loved it! Loved the Mozart quotes. I found the music eclectic and all around enjoyable. Pretty cool that you got the JACK Quartet to premiere it too, they're one of the best quartets around for contemporary avant-garde music.


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## SeptimalTritone

^ I remember listening to that quartet on youtube a while back when someone else (I think it was member ComposerOfAvantGarde) recommended it on TalkClassical - love how the finale of the Mozart Dissonance quartet gradually comes to the forefront behind the polyrhythms as the piece goes on!


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## tortkis

Kory Reeder: Don't Just Sit There and Pretend Everything's Fine (2017) for string quartet


__
https://soundcloud.com/kory-reeder-music%2Fdont-just-sit-there-and-pretend-everythings-fine

_"I have recently taken an interest in creating literal, proportional, translations of visual art into musical mediums. For Don't Just Sit There and Pretend Everything's Fine, I was interested in mathematical and rhythmic proportions found in the linear styles of the High Renaissance, in particular, Raphael's Ansidei Madonna. Although this piece is not about the painting, I looked back to the church music of the same period as a referential similarity to the visual style. Additionally, I found the time-ridden decay of these near-ancient arts an interesting element in their structures (although these were never intended). To reconcile these ideas, I initially began this piece by writing my own chant-style music using modern set collections then stripped them down to their component parts and pushed them into the background as faded tapestries."_ - Kory Reeder

I really liked Reeder's music so I have been collecting recordings of his works. Here is his bandcamp page.
https://koryreeder.bandcamp.com/music


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## sonance

Onutė Narbutaitė: SQ no. 2 (1980; Vilnius String Quartet)
[info - 1: ??; 3: 1991; 4: 2004; [5??] „just strings and a light wind above them": 2017; in my collection nos. 2 and 3]





Paweł Szymański: Four Pieces for String Quartet (2013: Neo Quartet)
[info - [1??]: 1975; Two Pieces for String Quartet: 1982; Five Pieces for String Quartet 1992; Fotografia z przyjęcia urodzinowego: 1998; in my collection: Two Pieces, Four Pieces, Five Pieces by Royal String Quartet]


----------



## SanAntone

*Lerdahl - String Quartet No. 2* (1982-2010)
Daedalus Quartet

Alfred Whitford (Fred) Lerdahl (born March 10, 1943, in Madison, Wisconsin) is the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University, and a composer and music theorist best known for his work on musical grammar and cognition, rhythmic theory, pitch space, and cognitive constraints on compositional systems. He has written many orchestral and chamber works, three of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: Time after Time in 2001, String Quartet No. 3 in 2010, and Arches in 2011.

Lerdahl's influences include the German classics, Sibelius, Schoenberg, Bartók, Stravinsky, Carter, Messiaen, and Ligeti. Lerdahl has said he "always sought musical forms of [his] own invention," and to discover the appropriate form for the intended expression. Writing in Fanfare, Robert Carl noted: "Lerdahl is a profoundly musical composer, engaged in all his work in a rigorous and respectful dialogue with tradition, eager to imbue his pieces with the maximum of both information and clarity." Of Lerdahl's composition Waves, Phillip Scott wrote, "Waves is an orchestral scherzo. It conjures up (rather than depicts) the motion and the sense of waves, not merely of the oceanic variety but also those found on graphs: sound waves, heartbeats, and so on. It begins with a surge of activity and never lets up in its cascading scales and rapid figuration. Unlike Debussy's La mer, whose deep-sea swells it recalls only fleetingly, it has no moments of repose." (*Wikipedia*)






*Fred Lerdahl: Quartet no. 3* (2008)
performed by the Daedalus Quartet


----------



## Lilijana

I love these two


----------



## longgone

Great thread!

I propose:

Per Nørgård's _Tintinnabulary_





and
Tōru Takemitsu's _A Way a lone_


----------



## Mandryka

Lilijana said:


> I love these two


Very enjoyable, expressive and rather beautiful, delicate, poised, at least the second, I haven't had time to explore the first.

It is a really clear example of something I believe: that expanding the use of conventional instruments beyond standard conservatory techniques is only to the good, the result can be an enhancement of expressive possibilities.


----------



## SanAntone

Yeah, I also like Turgut Erçetin's string quartets, I know I've listened to them recently, and had thought I had already posted one - but maybe it was in the 21st Century Chamber Music thread. He is one of the composers I *interviewed back in 2014*.


----------



## sonance

Jaques Hétu: SQ no. 2 (1991; New Orford String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1972]
first movement:













Konstantia Gourzi: SQ no. 2 (2007; Signum Quartet)
[info - 1: 2004; in my collection nos. 1 and 2 by Ensemble Coriolis]


----------



## SanAntone

*Yifan Guo - Wanderer in May*, for string quartet (2018)

Performed by Yue Qian, Ji Soo Choi, Jiawei Yan, Issei Herr

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The work starts out very loud and very dissonant, but soon becomes more dynamically and polyphonically varied.


----------



## calvinpv

Rihm: *String Quartet No. 12* (2000-2001)

Another example of Rihm's "overpainting". Almost the entire second half of the quartet is the opening couple minutes of Jagden und Formen (which was a duet) + new accompaniment for the viola/cello. There is also the entirety of Fetzen 1, about a third of the way through. And according to an Amazon review, there are fragments from Concerto "Dithyramb" as well (not yet familiar with that work, so can't say where they are). The melody in the opening couple of bars, made up of rising fifths, also serves as the "gestalt" (in Rihm's terminology) for Verwandlung 1 and 6, which Rihm would compose later on. Finally, a piano would get added to it a couple of years later to get the work Interscriptum. This string quartet, in other words, is like a central node in a giant network of revisions, insertions and deletions towards some unspecified final form of music, never to be realized.

Two recordings: Arditti Quartet and Minguet Quartet.


----------



## sonance

George Perle: SQ no. 8 (1988; Daedalus Quartet)
[info - [1??] "Molto Adagio": 1938; ... 7: 1973; 9: 1998; in my collection "Molto Adagio" and nos. 2, 5 and 8 with Daedalus Quartet]





Jesús Rueda: SQ no. 2 (2003; KNM Quartet)
[info - 1: 1990; 3: 2004]
first movement:


----------



## SanAntone

*George Perle *is a very interesting composer. He devised his own form of 12-note composition and wrote a book all about it.

*Jesús Rueda* is a new name to me.

Thanks for posting these.


----------



## starthrower

Too many to keep up with but I like Norgard No.10, Schnittke No.3, and Dutilleux. I have the Gubaidulina's on Supraphon but I haven't decided whether I like them or not.


----------



## SanAntone

*Enno Poppe: Freizeit *(2016)
Kuss Quartett


----------



## Torkelburger




----------



## sonance

SanAntone - I'm glad you liked the Rueda string quartets. I had to chuckle a bit, because I myself am still struggling with those. I'm not giving up though ...

Vadim Salmanov: SQ no. 6 (1971; Taneyev Quartet)
[info - 1: 1945; ... 5. 1968]
first movement:

















Cristóbal Halffter: SQ no.3 (1978; Arditti Quartet)
[info - no. 1: 1955; no. 2: 1970; 4: 1991; 5: 1996; 6: 2001/02; 7: 2007; 8??; 9 premiered in 2016; 10: premiered in 2019; in my collection nos. 2, 3, 6, and 7 by Arditti, label "anemos"]


----------



## SeptimalTritone

Simon Steen-Andersen - String Quartet 2 (2012)






Utilizes amplified bows, which provide a unique sound bordering between pitch and noise. I like this work a lot because while the ensemble texture is intentionally restricted as the quartet usually speaks as one voice, the sounds coming out are well developed and the texture is physically compelling. It feels like percussion/noise music, and yet there is pitch behind it too. But make no mistake, this music is completely unlike that of someone like Lachenmann and I'd argue that this is a masterwork.


----------



## Mandryka

SanAntone said:


> Yeah, I also like Turgut Erçetin's string quartets, I know I've listened to them recently, and had thought I had already posted one - but maybe it was in the 21st Century Chamber Music thread. He is one of the composers I *interviewed back in 2014*.


I enjoyed reading his replies, I like the music, sort of sounds superficially like Ferneyhough lite. I don't understand how he uses the algorithms, or why, but I'm not sure it matters so much.

Jeff's comment is like a bit of litter on your website.


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## SeptimalTritone

You haven't made it big in the contemporary music world until a Jeff accesses you of worshiping the Emperors New Clothes. I'd consider it an honor.


----------



## calvinpv

SeptimalTritone said:


> Simon Steen-Andersen - String Quartet 2 (2012)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Utilizes amplified bows, which provide a unique sound bordering between pitch and noise. I like this work a lot because while the ensemble texture is intentionally restricted as the quartet usually speaks as one voice, the sounds coming out are well developed and the texture is physically compelling. It feels like percussion/noise music, and yet there is pitch behind it too. But make no mistake, this music is completely unlike that of someone like Lachenmann and I'd argue that this is a masterwork.


Having heard several other works by Steen-Andersen (Black Box Music, Run Time Error, Piano Concerto, TRIO, Double Up, AMID, in spite of and maybe even therefore, etc.), this guy is the real deal. Even at his young age of 40 or something, I'd already call him a major contemporary composer, and all the works I listed, except maybe the last one, I'd call a contemporary masterpiece. It's the way he combines sampler sounds with instruments, or the way he prepares the instruments (like in this SQ), or the way he integrates visual media with sound, or the way he uses everyday tactile objects, that is unlike anything I've heard. Really creative composer that you should all check out.

Good introductory essay to his music here (this same site publishes his scores).


----------



## SanAntone

calvinpv said:


> Having heard several other works by Steen-Andersen (Black Box Music, Run Time Error, Piano Concerto, TRIO, Double Up, AMID, in spite of and maybe even therefore, etc.), this guy is the real deal. Even at his young age of 40 or something, I'd already call him a major contemporary composer, and all the works I listed, except maybe the last one, I'd call a contemporary masterpiece. It's the way he combines sampler sounds with instruments, or the way he prepares the instruments (like in this SQ), or the way he integrates visual media with sound, or the way he uses everyday tactile objects, that is unlike anything I've heard. Really creative composer that you should all check out.
> 
> Good introductory essay to his music here (this same site publishes his scores).


Nice essay. An example of a young composer who has his own style and something to say with new music.


----------



## sonance

Philip Glass: SQ no. 5 (1991; Kronos Quartet)
[info - 1:1966; 2: 1983; ... 8: 2018; in my collection nos. 2 to 5)
first movement:





















Liz Johnson: SQ no. 3 (2003; Fitzwilliam String Quartet)
[info - 1: 1998; 2: 2000; 4: 2005]


----------



## SanAntone

Mandryka said:


> I enjoyed reading his replies, I like the music, sort of sounds superficially like Ferneyhough lite. I don't understand how he uses the algorithms, or why, but I'm not sure it matters so much.
> 
> Jeff's comment is like a bit of litter on your website.





SeptimalTritone said:


> You haven't made it big in the contemporary music world until a Jeff accesses you of worshiping the Emperors New Clothes. I'd consider it an honor.


Even though I must approve all comments, I don't remember this one. No matter, I don't censor negative comments, and rarely reply since it only encourages more of the same.


----------



## SanAntone

Another avenue for posting in this thread would be to spotlight a string quartet ensemble that specializes in contemporary music.

*Quatuor Bozzini*

Here's a new quartet they posted on their YT channel






*Naomi Pinnock - String Quartet No 2*



> The circling, persistent viola solo with which the quartet begins is repeated, chopped up, magnified, distorted and stretched out. This treatment of musical material is similar to my manipulation of text in recent works. It has a lot to do with memories - how sometimes a vividly experienced dream can suddenly vanish upon waking and all you can grasp hold of are fragments. And how these fragments often linger but finally fade away.


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## sonance

Vagn Holmboe: SQ no. 17 (1982/83; Kontra Quartet)
[info - some early and unnumbered quartets; 1: 1948/49; ... 11: 1972; 12: 1973; 13 and 14: 1975; 15: 1977/78; 16: 1981;17: 1982/83; 18: 1982; 19: 1982-85; 20: 1985; "Swarm": 1992; 21: completed by Per Nørgård]
first movement:

















André Boucourechliev: SQ no. 3 (1994; Quatuor Ysaÿe)
[info - Archipel 2: 1968; Miroir 2: 1989]


----------



## SanAntone

*Juhi Bansal - String Quartet*
performer unknown


----------



## sonance

SanAntone - at the moment I'm not sure whether you are still interested in string quartets from (let's say) before 2000 or even 2010. I am afraid that the bigger part of my collection can't meet your expectations. - Should I still continue? Concentrate only on (the few) string quartets after 2000?

As you asked for string quartet ensembles specializing in contemporary music - just two days ago I read a favorable review of a new CD with the Asasello-Quartett (but neither do I know the quartet nor the composers):

Viera Janárčeková: String Quartet no. 8 (2015)





Márton Illés: String Quartet no. 3 (2016/17)





Lisa Streich: [Engel, ...] noch tastend (2015)


----------



## SanAntone

*György Kurtág, 12 Microludes for String Quartet* (Hommage à Mihály András) 
Maxwell Quartet


----------



## SanAntone

*Lewis Edmunds - String Quartet* (2014)
uncredited quartet


----------



## newyorkconversation

*Gabriella Smith* - Carrot Revolution (2015)

Written for the excellent Aizuri Quartet, who perform it here:






And here is their rendition of "Blueprint" by *Caroline Shaw* (after which their album "Blueprinting" is named):


----------



## SanAntone

newyorkconversation said:


> *Gabriella Smith* - Carrot Revolution (2015)
> 
> Written for the excellent Aizuri Quartet, who perform it here:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And here is their rendition of "Blueprint" by *Carolyn Shaw* (after which their album "Blueprinting" is named):


Very nice. The work by Gabriella Smith has a jazzy feel. Thanks for posting these two.


----------



## newyorkconversation

another Caroline Shaw piece for SQ -

*Caroline Shaw* - Entr'Acte (2011)

inspired by (and referring to) Haydn's Op. 77 no. 2 (based on a performance by the Brentano quartet, who premiered this piece).

YouTube has this rendition by the Calidore:






Shaw's "Blueprint," which I posted earlier, written for and performed by the Aizuri Quartet, also refers to a classic quartet - in that case Beethoven's Op. 18 No. 2 (which itself of course refers back to Haydn)


----------



## Merl

newyorkconversation said:


> another Caroline Shaw piece for SQ -
> 
> *Caroline Shaw* - Entr'Acte (2011)
> 
> inspired by (and referring to) Haydn's Op. 77 no. 2 (based on a performance by the Brentano quartet, who premiered this piece).
> 
> YouTube has this rendition by the Calidore:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Shaw's "Blueprint," which I posted earlier, written for and performed by the Aizuri Quartet, also refers to a classic quartet - in that case Beethoven's Op. 18 No. 2 (which itself of course refers back to Haydn)


I love Caroline Shaw's 'Entr'Acte'. I almost chose it for the weekly quartet thread.


----------



## Josquin13

Great thread, thanks! I'd also recommend keeping up with the Lydian Quartet's annual SQ commission prize to a contemporary composer; although it hasn't been given out regularly in recent years (it seems not since violinist Daniel Stepner left the group): http://www.lydianquartet.com/prize. Past winners have included composers John Harbison, Martin Boykan, Peter Child, Alan Stout, Lee Hyla, and Yehudi Wyner, and usually a recording is made and issued of the award winning quartet:

http://www.lydianquartet.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqcU8dIgsiOKA3ahQkDxKEQ

For example,

Boykan, String Quartet no. 2: 




Harbison, String Quartet no. 2: 




Apart from the Lydian's premiere recordings, I've also liked Peteris Vask's 6 String Quartets. Here is no. 4, composed in 1999, which I consider a masterpiece (though Vasks' more experimental quartets are nos. 1-3):






I'd consider Vagn Holmboe's String Quartet no. 13 to be a masterpiece, as well: 



 .

Lately, I've also been listening to & liking post-1970 string quartets by Per Nørgård, Joonas Kokkonen, John McCabe, and Anders Hillborg:

--Nørgård, String Quartet no. 10, dedicated to the Kroger Quartet: 




--Kokkonen, String Quartet no. 3:













--McCabe, String Quartet No. 7 "Summer's Eves": 




--Hillborg, "Kongsgaard Variations":





And, although not strictly a string quartet per se, I've also been impressed by Poul Ruders "Dreamland" for soprano, clarinet and string quartet: 



.


----------



## tortkis

Daniel Kidane: Foreign Tongues for string quartet (2015)





Starting around 56:00. Part of Festival NOW! 2020 Ensemble Modern "Afro-Modernism" live stream, curated by George E. Lewis. Wonderful concert.


----------



## Roger Knox

sonance said:


> SanAntone - thanks. R. Murray Schafer: SQ no.8 (2012; Molinari Quartet)
> [info - no. 1: 1970; no. 13: 2015]


I heard R. Murray Schafer's First String Quartet in 1970, shortly after it was composed for the Purcell String Quartet. That was at a summer music school on Vancouver island that is still running -- Courtenay Youth Music Centre. It was my introduction to avant-garde string writing; at the end there is a repeated snap pizzicato which Schafer told us represented the snapping of film against the reel when the film has run out. Who could have guessed that he would compose 13 string quartets? Sadly, it has been announced that Schafer is now inactive due to a chronic condition.


----------



## calvinpv

SeptimalTritone said:


> Simon Steen-Andersen - String Quartet 2 (2012)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Utilizes amplified bows, which provide a unique sound bordering between pitch and noise. I like this work a lot because while the ensemble texture is intentionally restricted as the quartet usually speaks as one voice, the sounds coming out are well developed and the texture is physically compelling. It feels like percussion/noise music, and yet there is pitch behind it too. But make no mistake, this music is completely unlike that of someone like Lachenmann and I'd argue that this is a masterwork.


Simon Steen-Andersen: String Quartet 1 (1999)

I just heard his first quartet. It's a pretty interesting early piece. On the surface, it sounds like one of Lachenmann's string quartets combined with some Lutoslawski-esque bow bouncing techniques and limited aleatoric passages. And yet, all four instruments tend to do the same one or two extended techniques at any given time, giving a sense of density and kinetic energy that anticipates Raphäel Cendo and Franck Bedrossian's music by a couple of years. And then there's the technique of combing a glissando with an arpeggio (heard at the very opening) which sounds so quirky that only someone like Steen-Andersen could pull it off, given how quirky and humorous his music would become later on.

It's interesting that Steen-Andersen would eventually adopt a related but ultimately very different musical style than what can be heard here. He may have become a saturationist like Cendo and Bedrossian had he stuck with it.

Score can be read here.


----------



## Mandryka

I'm going to put one here which I find really difficult, Birtwistle's 2007 Quartet called Tree of Strings. To me it sounds like a hotchpotch of melodic ideas randomly cobbled together. I'm hoping someone can say what I'm missing.


----------



## RICK RIEKERT

Mandryka said:


> I'm going to put one here which I find really difficult, Birtwistle's 2007 Quartet called Tree of Strings. To me it sounds like a hotchpotch of melodic ideas randomly cobbled together. I'm hoping someone can say what I'm missing.


On Cambridge.org (Cambridge Core) you'll find Jonathan Cross' review of the Arditti quartet's disc which gives a useful overview of what Birtwistle is doing in _The Tree of Strings_. The review originally appeared in the April 2013 edition of _Tempo_, the quarterly review of new music.


----------



## Littleman

One that I return to on occasion, and surprised I have not seen on these pages is Harold Schiffman No 2. No 1 is also fine, but predates 1970.


----------



## SanAntone

*York Höller - String Quartets (and more)*









I am really enjoying this recording of all the music for string quartet, and with piano, by York Höller. Although most of the music was written after 1970, the first three "fragments" date from 1968.


----------



## Mandryka

RICK RIEKERT said:


> On Cambridge.org (Cambridge Core) you'll find Jonathan Cross' review of the Arditti quartet's disc which gives a useful overview of what Birtwistle is doing in _The Tree of Strings_. The review originally appeared in the April 2013 edition of _Tempo_, the quarterly review of new music.


Just saw this Rick

https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...on-aecd-1217/35FC00C750B846E1044BC48B03ADBDAA

He does his best to talk it up, I shall listen again very soon.


----------



## Jay




----------



## SanAntone

*The Lick Quartet - David Bruce*






Mvt. 1: Tigran's Lick 0:00 
Mvt. 2: Antonin's Lick 5:54 
Mvt. 3: Jacob's Lick 10:41 
Mvt. 4: Leoš's Lick 15:09

__________________________________________________ ___________

I really like this one.


----------



## Merl

SanAntone said:


> *The Lick Quartet - David Bruce*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mvt. 1: Tigran's Lick 0:00
> Mvt. 2: Antonin's Lick 5:54
> Mvt. 3: Jacob's Lick 10:41
> Mvt. 4: Leoš's Lick 15:09
> 
> __________________________________________________ ___________
> 
> I really like this one.


So do I. That 3rd movement is really captivating.


----------



## SanAntone

*Cassandra Miller* : _Warblework_ (2011-17) 
Quatuor Bozzini






A new composer for me - and a fascinating string quartet posted on YT by the Bozzini Quartet. Worth a listen.


----------



## SanAntone

*Corie Soumah* - _Reflets _(2019)
performed by Flux Quartet


----------



## SanAntone

*Filigree - Music of Hannah Lash*
by JACK Quartet & Hannah Lash

View attachment 150697




> Hannah Lash's multi-layered music balances rhetoric with sensuality and enters into a dialogue with pre-existent forms while simultaneously reexamining them. On this excellent recording of her music for string quartet by the JACK Quartet, we hear Lash's engagement with two canonic traditions as points of inspiration (the Baroque Suite as well as an extra musical discipline - tapestry arts from the Middle Ages), alongside two works that concern themselves with instrumental and musical phenomenon.







"_Frayed_ opens with sighing chords, breathing through the quartet like a series of inhales. The passage is performed with mutes on, lending it a covered sound, almost like a delicate harmonica. The accumulated energy eventually explodes into vigorous music before material from the opening is re-integrated, toggling back and forth between contrasting energies. As the work evolves, "frayed" edges of each expressive world begin to show-overpressure on the culmination of a repeated chord, a hybrid gesture of pizzicato and glissando articulated with the back of the frog of the bow. " (New Focus Recordings)


----------



## SanAntone

*Onutė Narbutaitė* - _Open the Gate of Oblivion_ - String Quartet No. 2 (1980)






Vilnius String Quartet : Audronė Vainiūnaitė, Artūras Šilalė, violins / Girdutis Jakaitis, viola / Augustinas Vasiliauskas, cello.



> Onutė Narbutaitė (born June 12, 1956, Vilnius) is a Lithuanian composer. She graduated in 1979 from the Lithuanian State Conservatory where she studied composition with Julius Juzeliūnas. From 1979 to 1982 she taught music theory and history there. Since then she has been working as a freelance composer in Vilnius.


----------



## SanAntone

*Peter Garland *: _String Quartets_
Apartment House

View attachment 150836


Garland's style has elements of Aaron Copland and Terry Riley, these quartets were highly praised by his teacher, Lou Harrison. Not for everyone, David Vernier at Classics Today was unimpressed and said so in great detail in his review, but he even complained about the ensemble, Apartment House's name. Imagine a string quartet not calling themselves that!

However, I found them worthwhile and generally pleasing. But I am not sure of their lasting power - there is a sameness which could easily grow tiresome.

Here's a sample:


----------



## SanAntone

*Marti Epstein* - _Hidden Flowers_






Performed by Micah Brightwell, violin ::: Lilit Hartunian, violin ::: Ashe Gordon, viola ::: Ben Swartz, cello


----------



## SanAntone

*Panayiotis Kokoras* - _Holophony_ (2003)








> Holophony (2003)
> an aesthetic approach to the Doppler Effect
> for amplified string quartet
> duration 10' minutes
> 
> Holophony is a piece with a strictly monothematic character. It combines the symbolism of a concrète sound with an abstract sound object, that of the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect is a phenomenon whereby the perception of a moving sound varies according to its position in relation to the listener. As the sound approaches a listener it is perceived at a higher frequency and then, as it moves away, at a lower one. This is the idea, the starting point of the work. However, I have transferred it to the concert hall and applied it to musical instruments. Holophony is a kind of artistic or aesthetic simulation of that natural phenomenon.
> 
> Through spectromorphological processes, spectral content and sound objects constantly undergo transformations varied from 'sonic boom' to microscopic phase-shifting. The basic elements for a thorough understanding of the work's abstract structural relations and behaviours are systematic morphological, timbral and synthesis procedures and models of the sound material and its chronotopological precision. In addition, tempo indications such as Allegro, Presto, etc. are replaced by expressions such as Noisy, Distorted, Squeaky, etc. The significance of the diatonic interval ceases to exist.
> 
> Finally, the title Holophony, as an effort to give a term of a likely musical evolution, cf.: Monophony, Polyphony, Homophony... signifies my intention to determine a rather general aesthetical frame for the work. Each independent sound (phonos in Greek), contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). Abstract sound constructions are "collected into a composite image, wherein the 'object' loses its identity but contributes to the quality of the more embracing image". The final musical output becomes perceptible as a single abstract sound with internal components and with focal points. - Panayiotis KOKORAS, January 2003, York -.
> 
> This piece was awarded First Prize at the International Jurgenson Competition for Young Composers 2003 in Moscow / Russia; First Prize Brave New Works Composers Competition 2005 in Michigan / USA; as well as Honourable Mention at the International Gaudeamus Music Week 2003 in Amsterdam, Netherlands; and First Prize at the Megaron New Music Workshops 2003 in Athens, Greece.


----------



## SanAntone

*John Luther Adams* - _Everything That Rises_ (2017)
JACK Quartet


----------



## Malx

SanAntone - your dedication to this thread is commendable, I have listened to a few of your selections but the old adage of 'too much music so little time' comes into play.


----------



## SanAntone

Malx said:


> SanAntone - your dedication to this thread is commendable, I have listened to a few of your selections but the old adage of 'too much music so little time' comes into play.


Thanks. I made this thread as a repository of works, a place where people can find contemporary string quartets at their leisure. I try to post a variety of styles, and encourage others to do the same. The string quartet is a popular form for 20th and 21st century composers, so there's a lot out there.


----------



## Art Rock

I haven't had time to go through all the suggestions in this excellent thread, but just a general comment: I have found that for me the string quartet is usually the best way to explore a contemporary composer. Most likely this goes back to the days of the Kronos Quartet's CD's.


----------



## SanAntone

Art Rock said:


> I haven't had time to go through all the suggestions in this excellent thread, but just a general comment: I have found that for me the string quartet is usually the best way to explore a contemporary composer. Most likely this goes back to the days of the Kronos Quartet's CD's.


I feel the same way. In fact I almost always prefer a composer's string quartets over his orchestral music, e.g. Shostakovich, Bartok and Weinberg, as well as Beethoven and Haydn.


----------



## SanAntone

*Kronos' Fifty for the Future*



> Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association (KPAA), the San Francisco-based non-profit organization of the Kronos Quartet, has launched 50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, a string quartet commissioning, performance, education, and legacy project of unprecedented scope and potential impact.
> 
> Drawing on more than 45 years of collaboration with prominent and emerging composers from around the world, Kronos is commissioning a library of fifty works designed to guide young amateur and early-career professional string quartets in developing and honing the skills required for the performance of 21st-century repertoire. Each of the fifty works will be an artistically complete composition that will be premiered by Kronos with the entire 50 for the Future body of work becoming a core component of its own repertoire over six performance seasons (2015/2016 through 2020/2021). *Digital versions of the scores and parts, recordings, and other pedagogical materials for each work can be accessed here on our website free of charge.*


This is a very exciting project - you can listen to all the works either on the Kronos website or their Soundcloud page.


----------



## SanAntone

*Liliia Iskhakova* - _Meditation_ (2020)






performed by Quatuor Diotima (Yun-Peng Zhao, Constance Ronzatti, Franck Chevalier, Pierre Morlet)


----------



## WNvXXT




----------



## Mandryka

WNvXXT said:


>


His first quartet is a masterpiece IMO.


----------



## SanAntone

*Nicolaus Richter de Vroe* (*1955): _lum'q'uart'inance_ (1986)






played by the composer with Stephan Kalbe, Reimund Dewerny & Egbert Schimmelpfennig


----------



## SanAntone

*Abrahamsen* - _String Quartet No. 1_ "10 Preludes for String Quartet"

William Overcash, violin
Heemin Choi, violin
Jebat Kee, viola
Jakob Nierenz, cello






Recorded LIVE at Duncan Recital Hall, Shepherd School of Music, Rice University on December 7, 2016.


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## SanAntone

*Ernst Krenek*: _String Quartet No.8_, Op. 233 (1980)


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## arpeggio

For me it seems that the string quartet is still a vibrant medium in contemporary music.

I have read that one of the reasons is the string quartet as an ensemble can live with a new work several weeks before they perform it. Unlike an orchestra which has to perform a new work after just a few rehearsals.

I enjoyed many of the above examples.

Some string quartets I have just discovered in the Fromm Music Foundation 20th Century Composers Series:
Benjamin Less: _String Quartet #1_
William Denny: _String Quartet #2_
Jerome Rosen: _String Quartet #1_
Ilhan Usmanbas: _String Quartet_


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## fbjim

WNvXXT said:


>


Thanks for this - I'm on a very enjoyable Philip Glass kick with his symphonies, but hadn't done his chamber work yet.


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## Burbage

arpeggio said:


> For me it seems that the string quartet is still a vibrant medium in contemporary music.


On the matter of vibrancy, I've recently been made aware of the String Quartet Smackdown* via Ted Gioia's blog. It seems to be a lot of varied and sometimes suprising fun, and worthwhile both as endeavour and entertainment.

It doesn't seem to have been mentioned here before, but I can't (for the moment) think of any other competitions for string quartet composers/compositions, as opposed to performers. Perhaps I've lived a sheltered life and simply missed them, but if so, I'd be happy to hear of any.

* https://www.goldenhornet.org/smackdown
** https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/here-are-the-20-new-albums-i-recommended


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## SanAntone

*Frank Zappa* - _None Of The Above_ (1982-85)
Kronos Quartet


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## JUSTO

I recall liking very much Carlos Surinach´s SQ from the mid-seventies. I have it on a VOX 2-CD set titled New World Composers From The Old World, in which the New World Quartet (that´s the ensemble name if memory serves) performed several 20th century String Quartets.


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## SanAntone

stacy garrop | string quartet no 4 'illuminations' (2011) | avalon string quartet






A very good new string quartet.

- Notes by Susan Yasillo and Stacy Garrop



> Stacy Garrop's String Quartet No. 4: Illuminations was inspired by five illuminated pages from a medieval Book referred to as "The Hours of Catherine of Cleves." Books of Hours, the most prolific book of the late Middle Ages, are prayer books for lay people that enable a person to participate privately in the daily round of prayers and devotions that were originally recited only by monks and priests. The main text of a Book of Hours contains a cycle of daily devotions consisting of psalms, lessons from scriptures, hymns, collects and other prayers. Because Books of Hours did not have page numbers or indexes, the illuminations (or illustrations) enabled the owner to quickly find the text needed for reciting the prayers. The quality and number of illuminations, often using silver and gold, depended upon the patron's ability to pay.
> 
> Catherine (1417-1476), duchess of Guelders and countess of Zutphen, commissioned her Book of Hours and received it around 1442. Today her Book of Hours is considered to be the masterpiece of the finest (although anonymous) Dutch illuminator of the late Middle Ages. "The Hours of Catherine of Cleves" is one of the finest in the collection of Books of Hours in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.
> 
> In trying to craft the experience of reading Cleves' Book of Hours, the composer approached the work similarly to Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. As in Mussorgsky's work, the audience follows the reader as he or she opens the Book of Hours, studies and reflects upon five illuminations, and then closes the book at the end of prayer.
> 
> Below is a brief description of the five illuminations represented in the quartet:
> 
> Plate 1. Catherine of Cleves Prays to the Virgin and Child
> The first illumination in Catherine's book shows her kneeling before the Virgin and Child praying, "O, Mother of God, have mercy on me." The setting may be the castle chapel in Cleves and the statue at the top center of the panel may be of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the Cleves castle. Musical angels are on the battlements and coats of arms of Catherine's ancestors surround the illumination. The composer based this movement on the Gregorian Chant "Ave Maria."
> 
> Plate 3. Singing Angels
> Three angels start to sing the hymn "Te Deum Laudamus" (although this hymn is not utilized in the quartet). The beginning words are on the banderol, "We praise thee, O God." It is thought that this illumination refers to the preceding one, now missing, of the Annunciation to St. Anne (Mother to be of the Virgin Mary). The large open pea pods of the boarder are symbols of fertility. For this plate, the composer envisioned a harmonious chorus of angels and achieved this sound using high string harmonics.
> 
> Plate 24. Christ Carrying the Cross
> This illumination shows Christ carrying the cross with Simon of Cyrene, St. John and the Virgin Mary behind him. Hanging from Christ's waist are two blocks of wood with nails that torture his ankles and feet. St. Veronica appears on the left side margin. The music for this plate invokes the sound of Christ's feet as he slowly walks to his final destination.
> 
> Plate 99. Mouth of Hell
> This illumination of Hell begins the Office of the Dead. One prayed often for protection from and to prepare for death, which could be sudden and unexpected due in part to the plague and new strains of influenza. This frightening entrance to hell has one mouth with talons and pointed teeth leading to a second fiery mouth with creatures boiling souls in the depths of hell. Around the picture, souls are being tormented while at the top a third mouth of fire is heating caldrons into which souls are cast. At the bottom is a green creature spewing out scrolls with the names of the seven deadly sins. The music captures both the ghoulish glee of the demons as they carry out their tortures, as well as the wailing souls of the unfortunate inmates of hell.
> 
> Plate 35 Trinity Enthroned
> The Trinity, similar in posture and dress, sit on a throne with the Father on the left, the Son in the middle and the Holy Ghost on the right. The banderoles address death and salvation. The text on this page begins with the plea, "Oh, God, come to my assistance." In the middle of the text a prayer begins, "Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." The nine different colored angels around the throne are thought to represent different orders of celestial beings. The composer sought to represent the majesty and benevolence of the Trinity, represented by a string of three-note chords (one note for each member of the Trinity).
> 
> String Quartet No. 4: Illuminations was commissioned by Nicholas Yasillo in honor of his wife, Susan, who has a passion for learning about Books of Hours.


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## SanAntone

Salvatore Sciarrino: String quartet N°7


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## SanAntone

*Kelley Sheehan* - _Four Sharp Corners_
performed by Elara Quartet (2018)


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## SanAntone

*Jennifer Castellano* : _Images by Paul Klee_ (2008)






performed by the Sirius Quartet

1. [00.05] : Die Zwitscher-maschine (Twittering Machine) (1922) - MoMA, New York (USA)
2. [03.29] : Dream City (1921)
3. [05.24] : Fugue in Rot (Fugue in Red) (1921) - Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (Switzerland)


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## Highwayman

*Ali Can Puskulcu* - String Quartet No. 1 (2014-15)


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## Torkelburger

Composer: Fred Lerdahl
Title: String Quartet No. 3
Date of Composition: 2008
Performers: Daedalus Quartet
Min-Young Kim and Matilda Kaul, violins
Jessica Thompson, viola
Thomas Kraines, cello


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## maestro267

The string quartet (and other chamber ensemble I guess) is a fascinating demonstration of the question of how much can be done with the same rigid, unchanging group of instruments. Unlike the symphony orchestra which gets added to all the time, chamber ensembles are bound by their name. Once you have more than four instruments or even other types of instruments, a string quartet is no longer a string quartet. The only real instance of breaking the standard instrumentation is the very rare inclusion (most famously by Schoenberg) of a singer.


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## Mandryka

Clara Iannotta’s Dead Wasps in a Jam Jar (2017) has been well accepted - I own two bootlegs (Diotima, Arditti), Jack have released it commercially, and it looks as though there are more on Spotify and YouTube. The guy who writes 5:4 (forget his name) said that it’s a pretty original music (makes you rethink from scratch what music is, blah blah blah) - I wouldn’t go that far, but I do think it’s fresh.


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## SanAntone

*Beat Furrer* | _String Quartet No. 4_ (2021)






Quatuor Diotima

World Première, 20 November 2021, Wien Modern '21


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## SanAntone

*George Rochberg*: _String Quartet No. 5_ (1978) (1/2)






-- Concord String Quartet --

I. Molto allegro marziale
II. Mesto


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## Mandryka

Arditti played Rihm 13 a lot in 2017, there are a few bootlegs. I’ve been given one from Paris in October that year and it’s fabulous, they were on a high. Avoid the commercial recording I think, which seems a bit lacklustre to me.


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## justekaia

The Spanish master Francisco Guerrero (1951-1997) was a student of Iannis Xenakis and used fractals and other mathematical tools to concoct his compositions which are full of phenomenal energy. The SQ is part IV of a cycle of string trios and quartets. The quartet was composed in 1994 and is played with unbridled energy by the Arditti Quartet.


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## SanAntone

*Joan Tower* - _Night Fields_ (1994)
Muir String Quartet






"Night Fields, my first string quartet, is dedicated with affection and admiration to the Muir String Quartet. The title came after the work was completed and provides an image or setting for some of the moods of the piece: a cold windy night in a wheat field lit up by a bright full moon where waves of fast-moving colors ripple over the field, occasionally settling on a patch of gold." - Joan Tower


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## justekaia

Madardal (2013) is the Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi's (1981) second string quartet with plenty of inspiration from Swedish and Romanian folksongs as well as birdsongs.


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## SanAntone

David Moliner - Eindringlicher Satz (Streichquartett III) for String Quartet (2020)






Shai Nakash, violin
Samir Obaido, violin
Özüm Şemis, viola
Idil Pulat, 'cello

http://www.davidmoliner.com/


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## SanAntone

Spiros Mazis - Gazing into the infinity for String Quartet (2007-08)






NeoQuartet



> Program Note: The piece "Gazing into the infinite", for String Quartet was written during my PhD studies at the University of York, UK, in 2007-08. I explore harmonic series and the relationships of intervals among their partials in a way I call multi-harmonic (multi-spectral) modes.
> 
> The multi-harmonic (multi-spectral) modes take shape when we combine different harmonic series. When we combine two, three or more harmonic series, a new shaping of sounds takes place in the vertical and horizontal directions.


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## justekaia

Juan Arroyo is a Peruvian composer who has been living and researching in France for many years. His music is innovating and it is partially explained in the YT excerpt.


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## SanAntone

*Larry Tuttle* - Morning Chorale for String Quartet (2003)


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## Kjetil Heggelund

Listening to a Ukrainian composer these days. Valentin Silvestrov has composed 3 string quartets that are very nice.


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## Enthusiast

I'm going through a brief and rewarding period of listening to a lot of Heinz Holliger's music, including this:


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## Mandryka

I’ve been listening a lot to the Ferneyhough cycle this past month, and I’m more impressed than ever before by the poetry and expressiveness of it. Every one of them seems to me a major masterpiece, even the sonatas - the 4th is one which has particularly caught my imagination.


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## tortkis

Mauricio Sotelo: String Quartet No. 3 "La mémoire incendiée" (2007/09) - Quatuor Diotima





Mauricio Sotelo is Spanish composer and conductor. His string quartet No. 1 and No. 2 are elusive and hard to grasp for me, but No. 3 is more tight and intense, full of fascinating sounds.


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## SanAntone

*Olga Neuwirth*: _"In the realms of the unreal"_ (2009)
Arditti Quartet


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## SanAntone

*Steve Reich*: _WTC 9/11_ (2011)
Live performance by Cuarteto Quiroga


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## SanAntone

*Ya-Lan Chan — Sand aSH (2021)*






*Quartet121* 
Molly Germer and Julia Jung Un Suh (Violin)
Lena Vidulich (Viola)
Thea Mesirow (Cello)


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## SanAntone

(I previously stipulated that string quartets with a vocal soloist are acceptable.) In this work the baritone appears in three of the six movements.

*JOHN MCCABE : Silver Nocturnes *(String Quartet No 6) (2011)






*Program Note*
_Silver Nocturnes _was commissioned by Jo Boosey in memory of her husband, for first performance by Marcus Farnsworth and the Alberni String Quartet in St Mary’s Church, Pembridge, Herefordshire, on 17th March 2012. Mrs Boosey was very keen to include a baritone voice along with string quartet, an idea that had attracted me for some years (there are some splendid examples of voice plus string quartet in the repertoire), and we worked out a scheme with poems by three of the so-called “Silver Poets” of the sixteenth century: Henry Howard (Earl of Surrey, and one of my favourite poets), Sir Edward Dyer, and Sir Philip Sidney. To act as prelude and postlude , I chose an extract from a speech by John of Gaunt in Shakespeare’s Richard II.

The essence of the music is, of course, reflective, with Dyer’s The lowest Trees have tops acting as a kind of scherzo. Before the final song, Sir Philip Sidney’s My true love hath my heart, there is an Interlude for string quartet alone, perhaps the most consistently intense music in the work. Silver Nocturnes begins with a unison statement on muted strings, but playing forte, of a plainsong-like phrase which assumes considerably importance during the music, driving especially the vocal melodies for the Howard and Sidney songs. (c) John McCabe


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## SanAntone

*Sarah Bernstein* : _World Warrior_ 
Veer Quartet: Sarah Bernstein · Sana Nagano · Leonor Falcón · Nick Jozwiak
Released on: 2022-09-02






℗ 2022 Panoramic Recordings


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## tortkis

Stefano Scodanibbio: Lugares Que Pasan - A Adolfo Castañon (1999)





Intricate sound texture beautifully played by Arditti Quartet.


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## SanAntone

*Jim Aitchison* : _Black Something_ (2006)
from Four Trajectories After John Hoyland 
Kreuzer Quartet


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## EdwardBast

Here's an obscure composer whose quartets from the 1970s have yet to be linked to this thread (unless I just missed them):


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## SanAntone

*Roman Vlad*: _String quartet "Ecouri îngemănate II_ (Twin echoes II)" (2020)
played by the Gaudeamus Quartet






Composer *Roman Vlad* (born October 11, 1982 in Bucharest) is the son of composer *Ulpiu Vlad* (1945), and he is not be confused with the older composer by the name Roman Vlad (1919-2013).


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## SanAntone

*Panayiotis Kokoras | Holophony* (2003) 
for amplified string quartet






Holophony (2003)
an aesthetic approach to the Doppler Effect
for amplified string quartet
duration 10’ minutes

_Holophony_ is a piece with a strictly monothematic character. It combines the symbolism of a concrète sound with an abstract sound object, that of the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect is a phenomenon whereby the perception of a moving sound varies according to its position in relation to the listener. As the sound approaches a listener it is perceived at a higher frequency and then, as it moves away, at a lower one. This is the idea, the starting point of the work. However, I have transferred it to the concert hall and applied it to musical instruments. _Holophony_ is a kind of artistic or aesthetic simulation of that natural phenomenon.

Through spectromorphological processes, spectral content and sound objects constantly undergo transformations varied from ‘sonic boom’ to microscopic phaseshifting. The basic elements for a thorough understanding of the work’s abstract structural relations and behaviours are systematic morphological, timbral and synthesis procedures and models of the sound material and its chronotopological precision. In addition, tempo indications such as Allegro, Presto, etc. are replaced by expressions such as Noisy, Distorted, Squeaky, etc. The significance of the diatonic interval ceases to exist.

Finally, the title _Holophony_, as an effort to give a term of a likely musical evolution, cf.: Monophony, Polyphony, Homophony… signifies my intention to determine a rather general aesthetical frame for the work. Each independent sound (phonos in Greek), contributes equally into the synthesis of the total (holos). Abstract sound constructions are “collected into a composite image, wherein the ‘object’ loses its identity but contributes to the quality of the more embracing image”. The final musical output becomes perceptible as a single abstract sound with internal components and with focal points. – Panayiotis KOKORAS, January 2003, York


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## SanAntone

branches turned into kindling // JACK Quartet // 2021
Isaac Barzso


__
https://soundcloud.com/isaac-barzso%2Fbranches-turned-into-kindling-jack-quartet-2021


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## SanAntone

*John Zorn - The remedy of fortune (2016)*






Arditti Quartet: 
Irvine Arditti - violin
Ashot Sarkissan - violin
Ralph Ehlers - viola
Lucas Fels - cello
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, St Paul's Hall, Huddersfield, November 29, 2015


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## SanAntone

*Julia Wolfe: Forbidden Love *(performed by So Percussion)






Adam Sliwinski - violin I
Eric Cha-Beach - violin II
Jason Treuting - viola
Joshua Quillen - cello

Recorded on August 15th, 2020 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY for the TIME:SPANS Festival
Recorded by Nelson Dorado and Caley Monahon-Ward
Assisted by Jimin Brelsford


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## Art Rock

Joey Roukens: What Remains (String Quartet IV), performed by the Dudok Quartet during the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam (2020)


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## SanAntone

*Behind Rainbows by Alexandra du Bois* (2019)

performed by the Kronos Quartet: 
David Harrington (violin)
John Sherba (violin)
Hank Dutt (viola)
Sunny Yang (cello)






Every time I hear a new work by *Alexandra du Bois* I am impressed. She has written six string quartets, which is an exciting focus for a young, active, composer in the 21st century.

Also, the *Kronos Quartet* is commissioning new quartets, through their _*50 for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire*_, a string quartet commissioning, performance, education, and legacy project of unprecedented scope and potential impact.


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## SanAntone

*L’esprit du Nord (Spirit of the North) by Pierre Jalbert *(2019)
_L’esprit du Nord_, for string quartet, was inspired by and is infused with French-Canadian folk song. Each of the three movements uses a folk song as its basis. The first movement, Chanson de Lisette, is a playful theme and variations in which the folk song theme is gradually transformed into a contemporary musical language. The second movement, Cantique (Canticle), contains two religious folk tunes: a ‘Passion’ song and a tune entitled Les Pèlerins. An optional 1940s field recording may be used, combined with the live string quartet at the opening and end of the movement. The third movement, Fiddle Dance, was inspired by the French-Canadian fiddling tradition. Here again, an optional 1940s field recording (a short excerpt with harmonica and spoons) may be used with the live string quartet at the beginning of the movement. 






L’esprit du Nord was written for the *Apollo Chamber Players* as part of their 20x2020 project.

Apollo Chamber Players
Matthew J. Detrick and Anabel Ramirez, violins
Whitney Bullock, viola
Matthew Dudzik, cello


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## SanAntone

*Yuri Umemoto — Fluffy Pink!*
Tatsuki Narita (violin)
Natsumi Tsuboi (violin)
Ayako Tahara (viola)
Tatsuki Sasanuma (cello)


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## hammeredklavier

SanAntone said:


> *Yuri Umemoto*


Better than Yuki Kuramoto


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## SanAntone

*Onutė Narbutaitė* — _just strings and a light wind above them_ (2017)
performed by the Kronos Quartet: David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello)






Part of the Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire a new composer for me, and one I will delve into more deeply.


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## SanAntone

A very unique kind of string quartet, but I like it, very evocative and interesting listening.

*Julia Wolfe: Forbidden Love (performed by So Percussion)*






Adam Sliwinski - violin I 
Eric Cha-Beach - violin II 
Jason Treuting - viola 
Joshua Quillen - cello 

Recorded on August 15th, 2020 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY for the TIME:SPANS Festival


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## SanAntone

*Édith Canat de Chizy | Quartet No. 4 "En noir et or"*






Quatuor Van Kuijk:
Nicolas Van Kuijk, Violin
Sylvain Favre-Bulle, Violin
Emmanuel Francois, Viola
Francois Robin, Cello


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## SanAntone

*Stefano Scodanibbio : String Quartets - Arditti Quartet*






Here’s a twelve-track CD bringing together four urgently seared-to-angularly scorched pieces for string Quartet from Italian composer and double bassist Stefano Scodanibbio. His compositions are both shrill, and darting- yet there is an often a keen sense of both atmospheric unease, and bounding malevolence about his work.

The release appears on Vienna based Kairos Music- coming presented in the labels house style dull digipak. On the front cover, we get a release tone fitting busy and abstract painting in red, orange, black and blue. Inside we find a stuck on twenty-seven-page booklet- in both German and English- this features writings about Scodanibbio, and the pieces presented here.

All of the works here are played by the respected London based Arditti Quartet- who for this release consisted of Irvine Arditti- violin, Ashot Sarkissjan- violin, Ralf Ehlers- violin, and Lucas Fels- cello. 

The four pieces here were composed between 1985 and 2003. 1999’s “Lugares que pasan – a Adolfo Castañon”- this nearing twenty-minute track moves from darting-to-baying layers of (at points) wince-inducing string saw. Onto blends of malevolent low-end hover, and high pitch wailing string slices and neck picks. (continue)


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## justekaia

Source Code (2013) for SQ by Jessie Montgomery (1981)


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