string quartet no. 14

[lunar22]

I finished my latest string quartet a few weeks ago but at the weekend got the new solo violin and cello on sale from VSL and I must say, I think they are a considerable improvement in timbre and musicality on what went before and, unlike many of the alternative virtual solo string instruments, they are clearly designed to be used in a quartet context and not just for flashy solos. The viola has yet to be released but I'm looking forward to it as the original VSL viola is terribly nasal.

Anyway, the work is more neo-classical and outgoing (especially the superficially cheerful finale) than most of my more recent stuff, though still emotional and romantic in spirit.
https://play.reelcrafter.com/dko22/latestworks

[krummholz]

Surprised that this has not received any comment until now. It is not "easy listening" music - it's very intricate and sophisticated string quartet writing, especially in the first two movements. It is late Romantic in mood but I think is harmonically and tonally more advanced than anything we usually associate with that era - there is constant chromaticism, and frequent inflexions to unrelated keys, which sometimes turn into modulations that are not achieved by anything from the textbooks. The closest comparison I can come up with is late Havergal Brian - again, thinking only of the harmonic idiom, as the expressive world is very different.

My only reservation is with the finale - for one thing, that "superficially cheerful" opening theme is an earworm, though it's handled and developed idiomatically (very neo-classical in style). It is followed at length by an extended, very quiet passage that is both dark and wonderfully atmospheric. I did not understand the ending, so I'll leave it there. But this is a work well worth listening to, likely many times.

[lunar22]

I didn't even remember I'd put this one here to be honest -- I think one gets used to the fact there isn't in general much traffic on this sub-forum relating to posted works. But I'm very glad you've discovered this and enjoyed it. In a vague sense, it's a partner work to my latest symphony as both return to a more conventional late romantic, as you put it, mood and somewhat classical structure, though of course I do not try to strictly follow the rules of classical tonality. The finale is certainly rather lighter than the other two movements and follows my typical rondo pattern with a considerably darker 3rd subject. Try listening to the ending again as I now agree entirely that it was too throwaway and needed something more positive in this context. So I changed it!

[krummholz]

I'll dig into it again this evening if I get a chance. And yes, I had the feeling that it was a sort of companion piece to your 18th Symphony as the idiom is very similar. I was surprised to notice that it appears to have been composed first, or at least you posted it before the symphony.

[lunar22]

yes, the quartet was written in October and the symphony in March this year. Incidentally, I know you're a big fan of Harvegal Brian who I've never quite got into so far. I assume you're referring to his symphonic style as I wasn't aware he'd written string quartets?

[krummholz]

yes, the quartet was written in October and the symphony in March this year. Incidentally, I know you're a big fan of Harvegal Brian who I've never quite got into so far. I assume you're referring to his symphonic style as I wasn't aware he'd written string quartets?

According to the Havergal Brian Society he wrote one SQ in 1903-4, which is fairly early in his output, but it's listed as LOST, so I've certainly never heard it. I was referring actually not to his musical style at all but his very adventurous use of tonality in the context of late Romanticism, which was surely one of the aspects of his work that so impressed Robert Simpson. Your Quartet and Symphony are "modernistic" in a very similar way, even though your musical language is otherwise quite different.

[krummholz]

I'll add that hearing this in your work impresses ME as well, partly because this sort of thing is part of the language I'm starting to evolve towards, though I'm still in the early stages of figuring out how to get my ideas down on "paper". My problem is partly that I have no way to hear anything I write before notating it in the score, which is quite cumbersome. I will probably begin by writing some very short pieces for SQ or perhaps chamber orchestra that don't require a large-scale tonal structure like in Sinfonia Solenne, as I'm not prepared to tackle anything of that scale in this new idiom just yet.