String Quartet Set

Description

Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello — String Quartet Set was commissioned by Robert Aitken, the New Music Concerts of Toronto and the Canada Council. Its premiere was given in Toronto by the Orford Quartet. It is in five sections: 1.Variations on Walter von der Vogelweide's “Nu alrêst leb'ich mir werde”. These variations were begun in the ‘40s when I first encountered that Minnesinger’s lovely melody. Walter lived in the 13th century, and the variations are in European-style quintal counterpoint, also medieval in origin. The original version for guitar is published in Peermusic’s “Por Gitaro”. 2. Plaint. We all complain, at least a little. 3. Estampie. A medieval peasant’s stamping dance, roughneck and Breughelish. 4. Rondeaux. This homage to Dandrieu and the French Baroque is my only fully “harmonic” piece in the European style. 5. Usul (Turkish for a rhythmic mode). As 18th Century European composers wrote Turkish marches imitating the Janissary bands, I have here written imitating the gentle melodic style of the old Turkish Court. —Lou Harrison A five-movement work whose materials range widely in time and place of origin. String Quartet Set opens with a set of variations on a medieval German song, includes a medieval estampie (stamping dance), and concludes with "Usul," which uses a rhythmic mode from Ottoman classical music. Recorded by the Kronos Quartet on New World Records. Lou Harrison's centennial occurs in 2017.