String Quartet No. 2 by

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter ...

is a

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 ...

work composed in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

History

Piston's second

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

was composed two years after his First Quartet and, like it, was premiered by the Chardon Quartet, on March 16, 1935. It was written, together with the Piano Trio, while Piston was on a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Analysis

The quartet is 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 ...

: #Lento () – Allegro () #Adagio molto e con espressione () #Allegro giusto () The restlessly

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are used to characterize scales. The terms are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, es ...

Lento introduction to the first movement is built on a three-note motive, A–C–D, that is found also in a number of the composer's other works. The boisterous main allegro portion of the movement is 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 ...

and

sonata-allegro form The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th centu ...

. The slow movement is based on the motive from the Lento introduction of the first, and is in a chromatically inflected

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

. The finale is in changing meters, with a dissonant-contrapuntal first theme, and a

pandiatonic Pandiatonicism is a musical technique of using the diatonic (as opposed to the chromatic) scale without the limitations of functional tonality. Music using this technique is pandiatonic. History The term "pandiatonicism" was coined by Nicolas S ...

second one that wavers between

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

and

E major E major is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, F-flat maj ...

. These tonalities contrast sharply with the equally wavering A minor and C major tonalities of the movement as a whole, which remain undecided until an A minor

cadence In Classical music, Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a Phrase (music), phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution (music), resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don ...

at the end of the coda, followed immediately by a surprising

Picardy third A Picardy third, (; ) also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the tonic (music), tonic at the end of a musical Musical form, section that is either musical mode, modal or in a minor scale, minor key. This is ach ...

A-major triad.

Discography

* 1950. ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 2;

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 ...

: String Quartet No. 2''. University of Oregon String Quartet. Recorded in concert, November 6, 1950. 2-LP set. Portland, Oregon: Electronic Sound & Recording Co. * 1979. ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 2;

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher, and writer on music. He had started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved towards complex harmonies and postromanticism, a ...

: String Quartet No. 1, E minor''.

Budapest String Quartet The Budapest String Quartet was a string quartet in existence from 1917 to 1967. It originally consisted of three Hungarians and a Dutchman; at the end, the quartet consisted of four Russians. A number of recordings were made for His Master's ...

. Recorded Anthology of American Music. New World Records NW 302. New York: New World Records. * 1985. ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2''. Portland String Quartet. LP recording. Northeastern Records NR 216. Boston, Massachusetts: Northeastern Records. Reissued as part of ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 3''. The Portland String Quartet (Stephen Kecskemethy and Ronald Lanz, violins; Julia Adams, viola; Paul Ross, cello). CD recording. Northeastern NR 9001 CD. Boston: Northeastern University, 1988.

References

Sources * *

History

Analysis

Discography

References

Further reading