Elliott Carter - String Quartet No. 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- Elliott Carter (1908 - 2012) - String Quartet No. 2 (1958 - 1959)
Introduction [0:00]
I. Allegro fantastico [1:16]
Cadenza for viola [4:18]
II. Presto scherzando [5:51]
Cadenza for cello [8:11]
III. Andante espressivo [10:30]
Cadenza for violin I [15:03]
IV. Allegro [16:57]
Conclusion [22:03]
Juilliard String Quartet (1991)
Elliott Carter's second string quartet was commissioned by the Stanley String Quartet, who decided not to perform the work upon seeing the score. Instead, the piece was premiered by the Juilliard String Quartet in 1960. The work was well-received and was awarded three major prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize. A typical performance of the work lasts around 22 minutes.
From Elliott Carter's own comments on the piece:
"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 and 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.
The first violin reveals itself in its cadenza and elsewhere as fantastic, ornate, and mercurial, its rapid figurations and variously expressive phrases made up primarily of minor thirds, perfect fifths, major ninths, and major tenths, aside from major and minor seconds which all the instruments share in common. It dominates the first movement (Allegro fantastico) partially imposing its ideas on the others. The second violin, dominating the second movement (Presto scherzando) and the Conclusion, plays a part which consistently projects regular rhythms and which features major thirds, major sixths, and major sevenths. It has a laconic, orderly character which is sometimes humorous. The viola, using augmented fourths, minor sevenths, and minor ninths, adds its repertory of expressive motives to the group, coming to the fore in the third movement (Andante espressivo), expanding ideas first heard in its cadenza. The somewhat impetuous cello part, which is characterized by perfect fourths, minor sixths, and minor tenths, frequently breaks out of the rhythmic scheme, a feature which reaches its greatest freedom in the cadenza and finally draws the other three into an agitated accelerando at the end of the fourth movement (Allegro). The form of the work does not follow traditional patterns but is developed directly from the relationships and interactions of the four instruments, that result in varying activities, tempi, moods, and feelings."
(source: www.elliottcarter.com/composi...) - เพลง
so good! His five string quartets are a great achievement in the history of contemporary music.
We need in my opinion to get past the qualifier "contemporary." His achievement in the history of music is nothing short of Beethoven, Bartok, Bach, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. He is one of a handful of the greatest composers in the entire Western tradition. .
@@stueystuey1962 yeah - especially since everything he did was contrived, not composed.
Morning coffee, cigarettes and prayer brought me here. More French parlor than German storm und drang in this piece. Truly an inimitable style.
This was the hardest quartet for me to get. Still dramatic as hell
@@bernabefernandeztouceda7315 my strategy with Carter in general upon listening to a work of his that is new to me is to listen as far into the piece as I can until it has lost all semblance of organization. Then I'll come back to it again and again and discover threads connecting different parts. I think what happens is I discover the starting point of some links is much later than originally perceived. After 10 or 20 listens I'm able to make my way all the way through though often without conscious recognition of where various strands start and stop. Then another 20 or more listens and an entire piece starts to emerge as coherent if only fleeting. If i really like a work even if I'm not really picking up on the structure, there is an unconscious motivation bringing me back to listen again and again. For a dilettante like me sometimes it takes 50 or more listens for it to come together as a whole. All of a sudden I'll detect conscious starts and stops bridging the entire work linking motivic cells both the note clusters, tempo, rhythms and so forth. For me it is precisely this huge effort that makes it so enjoyable. At the end of the day it is literally a faith in the composer that there is something there worth discovering. Almost like a myth or a phatasmagoria.
@@stueystuey1962 Of course, my friend, there's that "unconscious motivation" to keep listening to Carter even if you feel somewhat lost and confused. I follow similar proceedings when I tackle his works, paying attention to the exhuberance of the melodism, not very different from hearing Debussy, a composer I find a lot on Carter's music. Then you slowly realize how accesible he is and how clear and precise in his treatment of motives. Regarding to the bigger picture of form, I find him pretty conservative, with all the climaxes in their place and a traditional sense of drama that really satisfies your "emotional needs". He's a great composer and you are not wrong placing him with Bach or Beethoven. What are your top 5 Carter pieces??
@@bernabefernandeztouceda7315 string quartet 1, the first Carter piece I came to know. Piano Concerto for sure. Concerto for Orchestra, that makes three. The quartet for Harpsichord et al from 1952. And at present listening to both the Double and Triple Concertos. There are a few others which slip in and out of the rotation like the later Clarinet works both the Concerto and the Quintet. All five string quartets are wonderful pieces 2 and 3 solid masterpieces from his mature and not yet aging style.
@@stueystuey1962 a Triple Concerto by Carter?? I can't find that piece...
You are my favorite human being. Thank you.
You're doing a great service with these Carter uploads!
I'm adamant about EC. His five string quartets are an achievement over the wide gamut of Western music going back 300 years. No need to qualify with the word contemporary.
fantastic carter , amazing julliard , a real dream , dark , amazing , like the string quartet of elliot carter , discovering carter is a lifework
A comment I can work with! Yes! The range and breadth of his oeuvre is astonishing. Now with YT and the dazzling array of uploaders including Precipitato, dilettantes like myself, are exposed to so so much music. Though we are still in the very early stages of the reception history of WWII composers, Carter at least is starting to receive something like recognition as one of the greatest composers of all time. But the number of listeners who can subscribe to that notion is vanishingly small. Like literally perhaps 100 to 1,000 people the world around.
The number of works across all genres of modern music that receive first performances is probably at an all time high but so much of it isn't really worthy of our attention. No doubt some of the best works haven't received that first performance and may not for quite some time.
Carter's first ground breaking work, the 1st string quartet, is now 70 years old and is far from being acknowledged by anything like a wide range of listeners as a work of first rank genius. In fact much of Carter and other serial works are still dismissed out of hand. No matter to those of us who know and enjoy such music.
Those who comment with glee that the entire corpus starting with Schoenberg is now nothing more than an afterthought of an age littered with didactic and academic pretensions are of course morons. Or to say it more politely, they are wrong.
My enjoyment of Schoenberg, Webern, Maderna, Babbitt and a few others continues to grow.
I also realize and even understand that the audience for this group of geniuses is rather limited. Literally a few thousand people of us in a world population of 4 billion or more people.
We are extremely lucky to be able to enjoy these works of genius and it is of little consequence or import that it may take a hundred years before such music winds up in the textbooks of ordinary music appreciation courses.
Listening to this once again after many years, the first thing that struck me was first it’s melodiousness, secondly it’s charm. I fear the later quartets seem to like progressively weaker and less compelling
Masterpiece! One of Carter's best! Can we expect the other string quartets?
Utsyo Chakraborty I may do the third quartet depending on if I can get the score. It probably won't be very soon, though.
By the way Carter's other string quartets by the Juilliard Quartet are available on YT but without the score.
Update: only No 4 actually, as No 3 has been blocked for copyright reasons (it may be available in some countries though). No 1 and 5 now seem to be available with the score.
Thorny, but lyrical; fistfuls of hot licks!
2:00 박자 변조
Based,other version of the upload cuts out randomly at the end lol. Sped towards the end and at least looks like this one does not.
Pulitzer committee did itself a favor. The serious playfulness entertains.
Serious playfulness. I'm gonna agree with you. I didn't capture the playfulness until repeated listens. Now its darn near obvious. Truly a goat by any measure. Very discursive. Unlike number 1 which blows up the tradition in a good way of course but retains much of the angst of the Germans. This one leans toward the French hence the playful aspect.
Thanks for uploading and synching with the score, but does anyone notice that the music sounds like it's being played at slower motion? I think this may be on the recording and has nothing to do with the upload or TH-cam.
02:01
PURE EVIL
Confirming that that is a good thing yeah?
@@stueystuey1962 I hope you are enjoying this and that it is uplifting your soul to new heights.