The Avant Garde String Quartet in the USA

various artists compilation - The Avant Garde String Quartet in the USA

I'm going to be taking the next few days off for the Memorial Day three-day weekend holiday as I'll be spending some time with relatives. Also, I apologize that there will not be a nature/environmental sounds post this upcoming Sunday.

Meanwhile, here is this 3-LP set of interesting string quartet pieces by notable and interesting composers. This should keep everybody busy for a while as there is over 2 hours of music to digest.

Performed by The Concord String Quartet

Mark Sokol - violin

Andrew Jennings - violin

John Kochanowski - viola

Norman Fischer - violincello

released in 1973

From the liner notes by Lejaren Hiller:

The present album is the third part of a projected three volume survey of the development of the American string quartet from its beginnings in colonial times. The first album, "The Early American String Quartet," already released as Vox Box SVBX-5301, contains performances by the Kohon String Quartet of works ranging historically from a string quartet attributed to Benjamin Franklin to works by early 20th-century composers like George Chadwick and Charles Griffes. A projected second album is planned to fill the gap between that set and the present one, which is a survey of the period since the end of World War II.

There is no doubt that writing string quartets appeals to composers today just as in the past. The number of such compositions written during the past twenty-five years by recognized composers both here and abroad is by no means small despite the fact that the contemporary composer often finds it difficult to persuade established performance groups to extend their repertoires beyond the "classics" - especially if his work is technically or stylistically innovative. The Concord String Quartet, here making its recording debut, is a happy exception among these performance groups because it is currently engaged not only in learning a substantial number of works composed in America since World War II but is commissioning new works as well. The performances of the compositions recorded here, all of which have been worked out with the composers, are a first realization of this commitment.

One of the striking characteristics of the contemporary American string quartet literature is its enormous variety, a feature that will be immediately obvious upon listening to the music in this album. There is not a quartet included here that does not exhibit a strong and independent musical profile. Stylistic heterogeniety and healthy eclecticism have always been characteristic traits of the best American Music and the literature here demonstrates that this continues to be so. The particular quartets recorded here provide a distinguished cross-section of what has been written during the past two decades. It goes without saying that this group of works by no means exhausts the list of first-rate compositions for the medium.

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet: I. 92 {8:10}

2. Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet: II. 144 {8:54}

3. Earle Brown - String Quartet {11:29}

Side 2

1. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: I. Quietly Flowing Along {4:33}

2. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: II. Slowly Rocking {4:56}

3. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: III. Nearly Stationary {10:17}

4. John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts: IV. Quodlibet {1:19}

Side 3

1. George Crumb - Black Angels (Images II) for Electric String Quartet {22:10}

Side 4

1. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): I. Theme I {1:13}

2. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): II. Variations {5:23}

3. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): III. Theme II {1:16}

4. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): IV. Variations {7:49}

5. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): V. Theme III {1:18}

6. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): VI. Variations {7:56}

7. Lejaren Hiller - String Quartet No. 5 (In Quarter Tones): VII. Theme IV {1:09}

Side 5

1. Leon Kirchner - Quartet No. 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape {17:37}

2. Christian Wolff - Summer {4:30}

Side 6

1. Jacob Druckman - String Quartet No. 2 {18:14}

2. Morton Feldman - Structures for String Quartet {5:52}

(1) (2) (3)

Animus III/Synapse->Valentine

Jacob Druckman - Animus III/Synapse->Valentine

ANIMUS III

for clarinet and tape

Arthur Bloom - clarinet

This recording embraces three titles, two works, but one central concern. The works are involved with the actual presence of the performer theatrically as well as musically, limiting their focus to a particular area of human affections as well as a limited body of musical materials. Each work presumes that the theatrical and musical elements are inseparable; that the ideal performance of the music already embodies the performance of the drama. The music focuses reflexively on musicians and virtuosity.

The two sides of the record present the two polar possibilities of combinations of live and pre-recorded sound. On Side One they are inextricably combined. The sound sources of the tape are mainly concrete: the voice and clarinet playing of soloist Arthur Bloom in various degrees of transformation. During the performance of "Animus III" the clarinetist has at his disposal a microphone connected to a feedback device, which allows him to transform his playing so that he can move in and out of the electronic sounds. In this way the tape and the live player can approach each other, even crossing to opposite sides of the real/electronic gamut.

The genesis of "Animus III" began with my asking Arthur Bloom to record some clarinet sounds as sources from which I could build the tape part of the work. The recording session was late at night. We worked efficiently and informally as we are good friends and colleagues of many years standing. The tape of that session contained not only the brilliant clarinet sounds of this extraordinary musician, but also the vocal sounds of the session - the laughter, the banter, the irritation, the fatigue, the impatience. Over all this fluttered the ephemeral virtuosity - untouched, uncommitted, disassociated from the human dynamic. As I worked with the tape in the following months, I found myself more and more fascinated with the recorded sounds of the irrational dynamic. These sounds began to shape the image of the work as strongly as the instrumental material from which, I believe, they are eventually inseparable.

The completed work assumes a surreal, aloof, arch-virtuosity which follows its whimsy through many states leading to an eventual decay into a mindless hysteria. (Jacob Druckman)

synapse->VALENTINE

for electronic tape & contrabass

Alvin Brehm - contrabass

electronic tape realized at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

On Side Two, the electronic and the live are juxtaposed but completely separate. The tape sounds are made entirely of electronic sources (one tiny exception - the voice of bassist Alvin Brehm for less than one second), and the instrumental "Valentine" is completely without electronics.

"Synapse" (n., the junction point of two neurons, across which a nerve impulse passes), aside from the exception mentioned above, is totally synthesized on voltage-controlled analog machinery. It assumes the stance of "Valentine". It functions as avant-propos, paraphrase, setting for "Valentine".

"Valentine" begins with the same driven intensity with which "Animus III" ends. The work is one of the most difficult ever written for the contrabass and demands that the player attack the instrument with bow, tympany stick, both hands alternating percussive tapping on the body of the instrument with pizzicato harmonics, while the voice sustains tones, sings counterpoints, and punctuates accents. All of this necessitates the player's assaulting the instrument with an almosst deSade-like concentration (hence the title). "Valentine" moves in the opposite direction from "Animus III" - from intensity to euphoria. (Jacob Druckman)

Tracklisting:

Side One

1. Animus III {15:36}

Side Two

1. Synapse->Valentine {17:59}

(1)