String Quartet No.2 for 2 violins, viola and cello Op.60 (1998) c.35'00"

I. Moderato
II. Allegro isterico
III. Andante
IV. Allegro

Commissioned by The National Federation of Music Clubs for its 100th Anniversary

First performed on August 16th, 1998 at the National Federation of Music Clubs 100th Anniversary Convention at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, Illinois by the Shanghai Quartet

ABOUT

My second String Quartet Op.62 was written twenty years after the first, my Opus 4 from 1978.

The First Quartet is an obsessively contrapuntal work in one movement, which was no doubt influenced by my studies with David Diamond.  I had always intended to return to the medium once I left the astringency of my earlier style, but it was only when the National Federation of Music Clubs commissioned a major chamber work with unspecified instrumentation to celebrate their 100th Anniversary that I was enabled to do so.

The second Quartet is in Four Movements: Moderato; Allegro isterico; an Andante theme with 11 variations; and the closing Allegro, which then returns to the tempo of the first movement.

An audience member at the premiere told me that she heard echoes of then-recent tragic events such as the Oklahoma bombing in this work.  While I had no such programmatic intent while writing the quartet, it was not an entirely incorrect assessment of the work’s intended emotional impact.  The quartet is pervaded by a sense of seriousness, even mournfulness.  The second movement’s scherzo is an aggressively animated piece of musical machinery. The third movement’s Variations unfold into a greater variety of moods then the others - but the moments of lyricism are countered by aggressive or ironic outbursts. The final movement’s attempt at triumph quickly subsides into a return of the first movement, before being transformed onto a sense of resignation and acceptance as the chromaticism of the opening theme is transformed into a pure and diatonic C-major.

The work received its world premiere by the Shanghai Quartet at the 100th Anniversary Congress of the National Federation of Music Clubs at the Congress Hotel in Chicago on August 19th, 1998.

REVIEWS

“The long opening movement had much of interest. The Allegro isterico wan an exciting set of variations on a melodic theme, In the Andante, the composer becomes playful, introducing bits of a nursery theme, while the final Allegro breathes vigorous fire into the closing music.’
The News & Observer