String Quartet No. 2 by
Walter Piston is a
chamber-music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
work composed in
1935
Events
January
* January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims.
* ...
.
History
Piston's second
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer 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 violinists ...
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 grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
.
Analysis
The quartet is in three
movements:
#Lento () – Allegro ()
#Adagio molto e con espressione ()
#Allegro giusto ()
The restlessly
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
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, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major.
The A natural minor scale is:
:
Changes ...
and
sonata-allegro form. 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 (or the key of C) 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 ...
. The finale is in changing meters, with a
dissonant-contrapuntal first theme, and a
pandiatonic second one that wavers between
G major and
E major
E major (or the key of E) 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, ...
. 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 at the end of the
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
, followed immediately by a surprising
Picardy third 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. As well as producing music ...
:
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: String Quartet No. 1, E minor''.
Budapest String Quartet. 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
*
*
Further reading
*
Copland, Aaron
Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
. 1968. ''The New Music 1900–1960'', revised and enlarged edition. New York: W. W. Norton.
* Donahue, Robert Lawrence. 1964. "A Comparative Analysis of Phrase Structure in Selected Movements of the String Quartets of Béla Bartók and Walter Piston". D.M.A. thesis. Ithaca: Cornell University.
{{Authority control
String Quartet No. 2
1935 compositions