Upload
heatherseelbach
View
57
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Eleventh Quartet 1966
F minor opus 122
Eleventh Quartet
• Opus.122. F minor (1966); Introduc?on: Andan?no-‐aCacca; Scherzo: AllegreCo-‐aCacca; Rec?ta?ve; Adagio-‐aCacca; Etude: Allegro-‐aCacca; Humoresque: Allegreo-‐aCacca; Elergy: Adagio-‐aCacca; Finale: Moderato-‐meno mosso-‐Moderato.
• Like a film score – seven miniatures human comedies that are ul?mately tragic. Full of dark humour.
Concep?on
• Dedicated to Vasili Pyotrovich Shirinsky – friend and co-‐founder of the Beethoven quartet.
• F minor = key of death. • 17 minutes • All movements linked. • Oddly disjointed – but there is the cello theme in the intro that is heard throughout.
• Disparate themes brought together in final mvt.
First Mvt
First mvt
• Mostly first violin tune with harmony or interjec?ons from the others.
• Simple with a theme that reappears at several places.
• Cello idea at boCom of first page the (1) important unifying element.
• Restrained dynamics throughout – p and pp. • Modified Sonata form with second subject at 2 and recap at 4.
Second mvt
Second mvt
• Lots of repeated quavers – passed around the instruments like a fugue. Shostakovich always interested in disciplined forms – love of Bach.
• Jocking glizzandi. Used a lot – e.g. 5th symphony second mvt.
• Ends on long drawn out C. • Texture unwinds towards the end. Last pge mostly viola alone – with lots of rests. Seems odd and unfinished.
3rd mvt
First 3 mvts
Third mvt
• Adagio – but very forced at the beginning and harshly discordant. Followed by quaver double stops on first violin.
• Cello theme the beginning. • Shortest and oddest. • Echo of cello theme at 22. • Goes from ff to p to pp. • Gradually fades away.
4th mvt
Etude and Humeresque
Fourth – Sixth Mvt
• Etude – windy theme on semi-‐quavers almost throughout. Violin 1 then cello. Jewishness of start – cello theme on the other instruments.
• Humoresque – second violin os?nato -‐ staccato quavers played almost throughout. (g and c)
• Elegy – sadness for friend. Funeral march of slow doCed figures.
• Finale – the themes of the other movements put together in play. No longer fragmentary but organic.
5th mvt
About Death
• His own? • Worsening health. • In trouble over his 13th Symphony – but not like 1956 and 48.
• He performed himself in the concert of premier in some songs despite poliomyeli?s.
• But tension may have brought on a heart aCack in his hotel room that night.
6th mvt
6th mvt
7th mvt
Themes together
• Os?nato quavers from 5th mvt to start. • Second mvt quaver paCerns on first violin join.
• Glissandi phrase from 2nd next aher 46. • 49 the main cello theme clearly stated. • Very first mvt 1 them heard aher 52. • Long held notes of Mvt 3 at end in high violin • etc
7th mvt
Sources
• hCp://en.scorser.com/S/Sheet+music/shostakovich+string+quartet/-‐1/1.html. All the score are downloadable here.
• Website -‐ Shostakovich string quartets an introduc?on. Good material on each quartet plus essays on context and background.
• Norman Kay, Shostakovich, (London, 1971), Has a chapter on 12th Quartet in par?cular.