Par RANDS BERNARD. This string quartet is in one continuous movement of fifteen sections, with each section being a ’transcription’ of the music in a previous section. In these transcriptions the changes can be somewhat minimal – a slight altering of register, dynamics, rhythms, or more radical resulting in new harmonic and contrapuntal relationships. With this compositional method Rands aims to c…

Dessau's String Quartet movement was written while he was also working on Brecht's opera Puntila. After Brecht's death in 1956 Dessau found himself looking for a new direction. On the one hand he was still working on music begun in collaboration with the poet, while on the other hand Dessau was trying to work towards a socially oriented musical aesthetic, which led him to compose songs for politic…

Par BARTOK BELA. Bartók?s Second String Quartet was composed ? with several long interruptions ? between 1915 and 1918, after he had spent several years almost solely devoted to collecting folk music. The melody and rhythms of the riotous middle movement ?Allegro, molto capriccioso? provide impressive testimony of how his research trips had taken him as far as North Africa. The first edition of th…

Par BARTOK BELA. Béla Bartók?s six string quartets, composed between 1908 and 1940, are 20th-century milestones of the genre. His First String Quartet is closely linked to his unhappy love for the violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom he sent the initial measures of its first movement in early 1908 with the remark: ?My song of death?. When he completed all three movements of the work a year later, he had…

Easy String Quartets Book 3 is the third volume in this highly popular collection of classics. Each piece has been easily arranged for String Quartet by Watson Forbes , and is designed to give developing string players the chance to rehearse and perform in ensemble as early as possible. Each work is well known and relatively straightforward, enabling the musicians to obtain a sense of achievement …