#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalQuartet Week 2
By Ralph Graves
April is the fourth month of the year. And so the Classics a Day team decided to make classical quartets this month’s theme. One could easily fill up a month of postings with nothing but great string quartets. But I decided to explore further.
A piano trio is made up of four musicians. So is a vocal quartet, a percussion quartet, a brass quartet, and so on. I decided to seek out some of the more unusual quartet compositions. And while I do include some string quartets, they’re not written by the usual suspects.
Here are my #Classicsaday selections for the second week of #ClassicalQuartet
04/06/20 Libby Larson (1950 – ): Four on the Floor
Larson says her 1983 work was inspired by boogie-woogie. The unusual quartet is comprised of violin, cello, double bass, and piano.
04/07/20 Jean Francaix (1812-1997): Woodwind Quartet
This 1933 work is for what has become fairly standard makeup of a woodwind quartet: flute, clarinet, oboe, and bassoon.
04/08/20 Louis Spohr (1784-1869): String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 29, No. 1
Spohr wrote 36 string quartets. This work is No. 7, the first of three quartets in the Op. 29 set.
04/09/20 Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935): Music for Four Stringed Instruments
Loeffler’s work is for a standard string quartet, though he chose not to call it that. It was written in Memorium to a casualty of World War I.
04/10/20 John Cage – Quartet
This 1935 work is for percussion quartet. Cage wrote it while studying with Arnold Schoenberg, though it shows none of his influence.
