The String Quartet No. 2 by

Ernest Bloch Ernest Bloch (; ; July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Bloch was a preeminent artist in his day, and left a lasting legacy. He is recognized as one of the greatest Swiss composers in history. Several of his most no ...

was composed between 1940 and 1945. The quartet averages 34 minutes to perform. Bloch wrote it following a close study of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's sketches for the '' Eroica'' symphony.Bloch, String Quartets. Pristine Audio CD PACM120 (2023)
reviewed at ''MusicWeb International'' After its premiere,

Ernest Newman Ernest Newman (30 November 1868 – 7 July 1959) was an English music critic and musicologist. ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' describes him as "the most celebrated British music critic in the first half of the 20th century." His ...

called the String Quartet No. 2 "the finest work of our time in this genre, one that is worthy to stand beside the last quartets of Beethoven". The composer himself called it "dry, not easy to listen to … and I doubt it will be liked". Today it is typically regarded as the finest of Bloch's five quartets. Only in the second quartet did Bloch find a synthesis between formal sonata form structure and his "fundamentally improvisational and rhapsodic" thought, avoiding the weaknesses of cyclic procedures often evident in other works.Frederick Rimmer
'Ernest Bloch's Second String Quartet'
in ''Tempo'', No. 52 (Autumn 1959), pp. 11-16 and 19

Structure

The quartet is scored for 2

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

and cello and is in four movements:

External links

References

1945 compositions Chamber music by Ernest Bloch {{classical-composition-stub