String Quartet No. 6 Op.139 (2021) c.25’00”

I. Ricercare
II. Chaconne and Fantasia

Commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Sponsored in Loving Memory of David Cornell by Joyce Cornell

First performance on March 20th 2022 at the Leo Rich Theater, Tucson, Arizona by the Dover Quartet

ABOUT

My 6th String Quartet was completed in December of 2021.

In terms of structure, the quartet falls into two movements, both named after archaic forms.  The first, Ricercare, refers to an early instrumental form that originated during the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque era and was a predecessor of the fugue.  It usually involved the contrapuntal working out of a motive, but the term was also applied to prelude-like movements, often of an improvisatory nature.  In the case of this Ricercare, both senses of its meaning are appropriate.

The second movement is titled Chaconne and Fantasia.  The Chaconne was a form originating in the Baroque era which consisted of variations on a repeated harmonic progression. Here, it leads without break into the Fantasia.

 When speaking with Joyce before I began composing the Quartet, she expressed the wish that the work would somehow incorporate a musical quotation from one of the roles associated with her husband David Cornell, a celebrated operatic bass who performed upwards of 30 roles during his career. One of his favorite roles was the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and the quotation I ended up utilizing is from the Commendatore’s famous entrance at the end of Act II. This is first heard explicitly at the beginning of the Fantasia section of the second movement of the Quartet. However, this musical quotation ended up shaping a great deal more of the piece: not only its emotional tone, but also a great deal of its musical content - from the opening single note ostinato to the work’s chordal ending in D major.  With thoughts of Joyce and David in mind, composing this work in the context of the Covid pandemic, it could not help but take shape as a meditation on loss, love, and memory.