Post on 24-Jan-2018
©2015 Goodwin Procter LLP
Strings In Spring:
String Quartet #1
by Robert Schumann
Nonantum Hill String QuartetDavid Hobbie
May 27, 2015
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Nonantum Hill String Quartet
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Lisa Kempskie, viola
Jennifer Minnich, cello
David Hobbie, violin
Matthew Liebendorfer, violin
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What is a String Quartet?
2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello
Covers range of human voices
Everything necessary with nothing extra
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Why String Quartets?
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http://viz.runningwithdata.com/quartet_composers/
By Jason Sundram
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Dead White European Men & The String Quartet
Composer Rank (NYT critic) Number of Quartets
Beethoven 2 16
Mozart 3 23
Schubert 4 15
(Debussy) 5 1
Brahms 7 3
(Verdi) 8 1
Bartok 10 6
Haydn N/A 68
Shostakovich N/A 15
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Who’s #1?
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Robert Schumann’s Life
Born 1810
Fails as law student, 1828-29 (Heidelberg)
1828 Meets 8-year old Clara Wieck, child prodigy; studies with her
father Friedrich Wieck
1830: “"My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and
Prose, or call it Music and Law.“
1835: Starts relationship with Clara
1837: Asks for & does not receive father’s permission to marry her
1840: Clara & Robert sue her father
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Robert Schumann’s Life, Continued
12 September 1840: They marry
1840 Liederjahr (“Year of Song”), 138 songs including “Widmung”
1842 Writes piano quintet, piano quartet & 3 string quartets
including #1 in a minor.
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Later Life
Eight children, including Elise, 1843-1928
1854, Robert has a complete breakdown
1856, Robert dies in insane asylum
1896, Clara passes away
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What’s Romantic About This Piece?
Romanticism generally--“intense emotion as an authentic source of
aesthetic experience”
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How Does The Piece Work?
I. Andante espressivo - Allegro
II. Scherzo (Presto)
III. Adagio
IV. Presto
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I. Andante
Opens in a Bach-like fashion, with a strange little fugue, apparently
ambiguous about what key the piece is in, it could be a minor, or C
major, it’s not clear at all– doesn’t start on the dominant note. Settles
eventually into an opening Allegro in the key of F Major, though
throughout the first movement the opening tension about the
ambiguous key doesn’t really resolve. Even the sweet and gentle
conclusion to the movement doesn’t “shut the door” on that tension, in
my opinion.
Listen for the way that the themes get passed around in this
movement—there are stretches when the players take turns and
overlap each other with themes, and then extended stretches where
the first violin has a gently surging melody and the others play
harmonic accompaniment. One of Schumann’s gifts is the seamless
way that he blends and elaborates these two types of music
(“homophony” and “counterpoint” to use the fancy words).
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II. Scherzo
The first movement is followed by a scherzo; the name means “joke”
but the movement is anything but. The overall style is of a dance, but
listen for offbeat rhythms and interruptions that keep this piece from
settling down and keep the listener pleasantly uncomfortable. The only
respite from this nervous energy comes in the brief middle “Moderato”
section.
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III. Adagio
The third movement is one of the great slow movements of the
romantic string quartet literature. There are amazing variations in
texture, from a rich dark cello opening to a slowly moving main theme
passed from the violin to the cello. There are many harmonic and
texture surprises—I won’t spoil it for you.
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IV. Finale / Presto
The last movement is much more assertive and energetic, at least at
first. A wonderful sprightly theme gets passed around, mostly between
the first violin and the viola, and there are dramatic contrasts in mood
as the theme gets developed. It starts out in a minor though, there’s a
bit of a clenched-jaw tenor to the whole thing, as if things are intense
and conflicted and they aren’t going to end well. Towards the end of the
movement though—and hence, towards the end of the quartet as a
whole—there is an amazing change, first to a brief “pastoral” section
with a drone, and then to a Bach-like mood—this time, instead of
feeling ambiguous and certain, there is a complete suspension of
normal rhythms; this brief hymn or choral leads back into A Major this
time. A return to a minor is interrupted, and the movement—and the
piece—ends in a major key, with what may well be the most triumphant
resolution of any string quartet.
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Youtube recordings
Indiana Conservatory student group, 2011—quite fine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ1Po0h5Bw4
Fine Arts Quartet—a little slurpy for my taste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km0mOMyYHKE
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