PROGRAM NOTE
The Mendelssohn String Quartet’s invitation to compose a work for the group has presented a tremendous challenge for me. The string quartet, after all, is not merely an instrumental combination of two violins, viola and cello: it is a genre. For any composer undertaking the composition of a work in this medium, the weight of so many great works written over the past two hundred years or so is ever-present and awesome. But the beauty of creating a work of art, any work of art, is that it always means also a fresh beginning! While engaged in the process of putting notes together to form a new meaning, one’s concern is centered on how this piece speaks and moves.
The over-all design of my Quartet is that of three movements, creating at least a partial symmetry, especially in the use of thematic materials. The two outer movements share various themes and the very opening of the work returns to herald in the last movement as well. As a whole, though, the last movement — parts of which employ elements of a chorale and passacaglia — is slower and more contemplative than the first movement which intersperses slow with highly energetic sections. Flanked by those two movements is a fast, spirited Scherzo, the center part of which is an abrupt, almost savage Trio.
The Quartet demands considerable virtuosity from the four performers, both individually and in terms of ensemble playing. As a matter of fact, one unique feature of the work is that I have not chosen to think of the two violin parts as violins I and II, but, rather, as left and right violins, placed accordingly on stage, with both parts being more or less of equal importance. The distribution of musical materials between the two, and for that matter amongst all four players, may have been slightly influenced by my (admittedly subjective) perception of the personalities of the four Mendelssohnians as they came across in their beautiful playing.
My String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned by Chamber Music America with additional support from the Hebrew Art School in New York for the Mendelssohn String Quartet.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Commissioned by
Chamber Music America
for the Mendelssohn
String Quartet
Premiere:
July 31, August 1st,
and August 2nd 1985
Fifteenth Annual
Mozart Festival
San Luis Obispo, CA
Mendelssohn String Quartet
duration: ca. 23′
RECORDING
Mendelssohn String Quartet, Koch International Classics-3-7269-2H1
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.