Search the Community

So, here is the final (?) version of my very first, serious, String Quartet. I'm very excited about this piece -with its newly minted final movement. A bit of detail is in order: I. Andante con moto: The first movement, in an expanded ABA form, is in Episodic Form. This form, patterned after both the Medieval Estampie and Baroque Fugal Forms, consists of alternating exposition and contrapuntal series. I took care here to focus the material to create a sense of ABA form itself -where as the material itself dictated. The chief material for this movement is the nomenclature for my first name: JASON =DbABbDE. This was arrived at adjusting the note to letter key by removing Fb and Cb -as I didn't feel comfortable having either in the score.... it just didn't seem right, lol. II. Moderately: This movement is more through composed in that the material dictated where to go next -with the exception of the end. This movement plays with the theme from the first movement and introduces a, rather stark, GCD motif (I'll let people figure out the meaning of this chord). This chord is not elaborated on or development -just sort of sits in the ethereal of the piece throughout. However, the chord does impact the material that comes after its introduction in a profound way. III. Largo molto Sostenuto: Resignation to fate. I feel this movement is perhaps the strongest of the three -and the most interesting. While I love dense contrapuntal textures, this movement rests its laurels on a delicate suspension that begins with the GCD chordal motif introduced in the second movement. The JASON motif is imposed within the chordal motif using what I call the Shostakovitch crescendo (see his String Quartet no. 15). In a sense, that work deeply inspired this movement. I hope you enjoy! I may rework the second movement to make it less bulky at the ending -maybe fix the transitions? I'm not sure. Technicalities aside: This work is rather personal -obviously since I used my name as the chief material. The hidden programmatic nature of the work is probably easily noticeable to many of us on here. We have all gone through vast struggles in our lives to get to the points we each find ourselves. This work is biographical in that respect. I won't bore you with details.

This is a work I've been looking at on and off for a few months now. It began its life as the opening few bars in my head for a week until I wrote them down. I decided that I wanted to try and write a very light-hearted and maybe (hopefully) occasionally humorous piece, while still keeping it interesting and musically varied. It's quite clearly very 'Candide'-inspired, but I tried to take it in my own direction as well. I'm also using this piece for another subject at uni, where I have to write an essay about some aspect of critical practice, and I'm talking about humour in music in general, and what my approach has been towards composing this piece. I'm happy to share the essay once I finish it in a week or two, if anyone would be interested in it! There are still a few notation issues to work out before I can submit it as part of this year's composition portfolio for my degree, such as the pedal lines, but now that the music is basically complete I wanted to share it with people anyway. I've also got a soundcloud link if people prefer that player - https://soundcloud.com/fotytoo/serious-music-for-violin-and-piano/s-Howou.