A Musical Revolution

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Из курса от партнера Curtis Institute of Music

The World of the String Quartet

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Curtis Institute of Music

The World of the String Quartet

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Arnold Steinhardt, first violin of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet, invites music listeners to the world of the string quartet repertoire and ensemble. Journey with him and interpretive analysis instructor Mia Chung through the history and features of quartet music, colored by stories of legendary quartets and insights from the stage. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Paul Richardson.

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The World of the String Quartet

Welcome to the World of the String Quartet, where you will hear the extraordinary stories behind great repertoire, discover renowned performers' experiences, and develop keen insight as a listener. This first program samples stunning repertoire from some of the most significant composers: Ravel, Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Dvořák. What power can four instruments hold?

A Musical Revolution3:32

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Arnold Steinhardt
Performance Faculty
Dr. Mia Chung
Instructor of Interpretive Analysis
Musical Studies

When I was still a teenager,

a friend sat me down at a record

store and said in a secretive, almost conspiratorial voice,

"Listen to this."

Was I going to have a glimpse into

an exotic and unknown world, or hear plans for the coming

revolution? The answer was a resounding

yes. Four angry voices

jumped out at me from the record player with urgent repeated notes,

then stopped. Started again. Stopped another time,

as if there was too much emotion to allow

for a complete thought. Then the voices burst out in quarrelsome conversation,

permeated by

eerie, slithering sounds only to be silenced by those

angry repeated notes briefly appearing once again like a

still-to-be deciphered secret code.

As it turned out, I was listening to the beginning of Bela Bartok's Fifth String quartet

for the very first time. I did not fully grasp

what I was hearing. And yet, I was overwhelmed.

The power of Bartok's musical language,

full of complex rhythms, clashing harmonies,

and alluring folk-like dances was new to me,

yet hypnotic. Bartok ingeniously employed

uncommon sounds for effect, such as garish

glissandos and plucked strings slapping angrily against the fingerboard.

All this despite the fact that he had never played a string instrument himself.

Then came Bartok's so-called "night

music", in which I was transported into a melancholy

and spooky world of bits and pieces of sound

that literally gave me goosebumps. They could have been the sounds of an

idealized imaginary jungle, or the whisperings from the farthest reaches of

outer space. As the quartet's five movements went by,

I heard rousing music that you could almost dance to;

strange and exotic drone-like passages;

unearthly chorales;

and snare drum-like repeated notes that made me think

of a macabre funeral procession. When the work

finally hurdled towards its end, those angry repeated notes from the quartet's

opening reappeared for one last time and then,

suddenly, out of the blue, a simple child's

tune appeared, played with indifference, the accompaniment played

mechanically. To make this weird parody complete,

the melody was repeated in what had to sound like the wrong

key. "Enough nonsense," Bartok must have said to himself.

Or was it utter despair that he was feeling?

And then the work gathered confidence and roared to a rousing end.

It was an unknown and exotic world.

It was a revolution of a musical kind

that I had just experienced.

And Bartok had done it all by using only four instruments.

A string quartet.

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