The String Quartet No. 2 in

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic ...

, Op. 35, is a piece of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

in three

movements Movement may refer to: Generic uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing * Motion, commonly referred to as movement * Movement (music), a division of a larger c ...

Anton Arensky Anton Stepanovich Arensky (; – ) was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. Biography Arensky was born into an affluent, music-loving family in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and ha ...

. Composed in 1894, it is unusually scored for violin, viola and two cellos. Arensky dedicated it to the memory of

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

who had died the previous year.

History

Arensky was professor at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

, and a friend of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

whose music influenced him. After Tchaikovsky had died, Arensky wrote the quartet in memory of him, following a Russian tradition that Tchaikovsky had also observed when he composed his

Piano Trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in European classical music, classical chamber music. The term can also ...

"À la mémoire d'un grand artiste", Op. 50, in memory of

Nikolai Rubinstein Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; – ) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Life Born to Jewish parents in Moscow, where his father ...

. Both compositions are set in

. Arensky structured the quartet in three movements: # ''Moderato'' # ''Variations sur un thême de P. Tschaikowsky''. Moderato # Finale. Andante sostenuto Dense, elegiac harmonies dominate the work. The instrumentation with two cellos gives the quartet a dark but also warm timbre that is reminiscent of Franz Schubert's String Quintet. The first and third movements use motifs from the

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

mass for the dead. The middle movement is a set of

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

based on a theme from Tchaikovsky's song ''

Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...

'', the fifth of his ''Sixteen Songs for Children'', Op. 54. The finale is reminiscent, both in structure and the use of Russian folk music, of Beethoven's '' Rasumovsky Quartets''.

Reception

Together with his Piano Trio No. 1, this string quartet is considered Arensky's most important composition; his other works are hardly noticed today. At the request of his publisher, Arensky created a variant of the quartet for the conventional instrumentation of two violins, viola and cello, which did not catch on, as well as a piano variant for four hands. Arensky also arranged the second movement for string orchestra as '' Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky'', Op. 35a.

References

External links

* {{IMSLP, work=String Quartet No.2, Op.35 (Arensky, Anton), cname=String Quartet No.2, Op.35 (Arensky, Anton)

Arensky Anton Stepanovich Arensky (; – ) was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. Biography Arensky was born into an affluent, music-loving family in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and ha ...

Compositions in A minor 1894 compositions Compositions by Anton Arensky