#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalQuartet Week 3
April is the fourth month of the year. And so the Classics a Day team decided to make it quartet month. This April the challenge is to post classical works that require four musicians. String quartets are the most common grouping of four — but there are others.
A piano trio has four players. And many 20th and 21st-Century quartets bring together unusual combinations of instruments. There’s a lot to choose from!
Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicsaDay for April’s #ClassicalQuartet.
04/17/23 Anton Webern: String Quartet (1905)
Webern was in his third year of studies at Vienna University when he composed this single-movement string quartet. According to one source, the paintings of Giovanni Segantini may have inspired Webern’s composition of the quartet.
4/18/23 Ernst von Dohnanyi: String Quartet No. 3 in A minor, Op. 33
Hungarian composer von Dohnanyi wrote three string quartets. His final one was completed in 1926. He did not revisit the genre during the remaining 31 years of his life.
4/19/23 Maurice Emmanuel: String Quartet
This French composer had a strong affinity for modal music. His composition teacher, Léo Delibes did not. And eventually, it caused Emmanuel to be expelled from his class. Emmanuel went on to have a successful career as a composer and academic. His own students included Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux.
4/20/23 Dora Pejačević: Piano Quartet in D minor
Pejačević was active in the first part of the 20th Century and is still considered Croatia’s greatest composer. Her catalog has 58 numbered compositions, and many more without opus numbers.
4/21/23 Libby Larsen: “She Wrote” for string quartet
The title is a quote from James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” describing a restless young woman. The four movements follow the emotional arc of the paragraph.
