String Quartet No. 5

Description

Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Violoncello — After finishing a serious woodwind quintet in the fall of 2001 [Tela Lacerata], I found, in the ensuing months, that its “cinders/ashes” were still impregnating my eardrums.xa0 Therefore, when I set out to write the present string piece, I realized that the musical veins of the quartet, like related cousins, were sharing the same blood as the earlier wind composition.xa0 The resultant Fifth Quartet evolved into two large, extended movements, each one containing seven parts that are played without pause.As the list of the various sub-sections clearly indicates, the formal structure of the movements appear to be identical: each with three main parts enveloped by interludes, plus an introduction and coda.xa0 However, the principal segments of the first (slow) movement gradually decrease in length, while those of the second (fast) movement increase.xa0 In addition, there is a goodly amount of sonic material “stolen” from the first movement which reappears — stitched together in a new guise — into the world of the second.xa0 for example, the bulk of Parts B and C of Movement II are lifted bodily, although elaborately modified, from their first appearances in the Introduction and Part A of the fist movement.xa0 This offers, I suppose at least a hint of a traditional “recapitulation.”As was true in the earlier woodwind piece — both harmonically and melodically — the embryonic growth of the musical fabric (primarily the tritone and perfect fifth) is omnipresent, almost obsessively, throughout the course of the whole work.xa0 These two intervals, not unlike plasticine, habitually transform themselves into the scales, chords, and melodic lines that pervade the texture of the quartet.Owing to the largely unrelieved dramatic flow, the shifting speed, and the often fervent intensity, the quartet places considerable demands on the dexterity, virtuosity, and stamina of the four performers.String Quartet No. 5 is approximately 22 minutes in duration and affectionately dedicated to my violinist wife Elizabeth, as a gift for our 47 years together.xa0 It was commissioned by the Corigliano String Quartet, New York, NY.— Sydney Hodkinson