Three Pieces for String Quartet is a composition by Russian composer
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
. It was finished in 1914, revised in 1918,
and eventually published in 1922.
Composition
As most of the works by Igor Stravinsky, this three-
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
work was
arranged from a
four-hands one-piano version, from which the final revised version of 1918 derives and differs in some respects. The manuscript (originally titled ''IStravinsky. Trois pièces pour quatuor à cordes – reduction pour piano à quatre mains par moi, IStr.'') contained no movement titles for any of the three pieces. However, with the passing of time, Stravinsky rearranged these three movements for large orchestra, together with his ''
Étude pour pianola'', and premiered the whole collection as ''
Quatre études
Quatre is one of the Grenadines islands which lie between the Caribbean islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada. It is part of the nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Geography
Quatre island lies southwest of Pigeon Island and south o ...
'' in 1928.
The term ''
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 ...
'' in the title refers to string quartet more as an ensemble, rather than a genre. Therefore, the work challenges the traditional notion of string quartet with its implied musical form and idiom. As music critic
Paul Griffiths points out,
Stravinsky's work, for the first time in the history of the genre, is determinedly not a 'string quartet' but a series of pieces to be played by four strings. There is no acknowledgement of a tradition or a form, and the lack of any such acknowledgement seems iconoclastic because of our own experience of the genre's traditions. The notion of quartet dialogue has no place here, nor have subtleties of blend: the texture is completely fragmented, with each instrument sounding for itself.
Structure
This collection of pieces takes approximately seven minutes to perform. There are three movements:
References
External links
*,
Alban Berg Quartett
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Compositions by Igor Stravinsky
Compositions for string quartet
1914 compositions