String Quartet No. 1

Programme Notes

1st Movement (4 min) – Moderato Cantabile
After attending a performance of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, I was inspired by his contrapuntal treatment of the strings in the opening. My imitative material features a very lyrical subject that occasionally morphs into something chaotic. But, true to form, I’m a tease—it’s only a brief sojourn into anarchy before returning to the sweet subject of the movement.

2nd Movement (4 min) – Adagio non vibrato
In this slow movement, I aimed to create a “dry” tone, free from the techniques typically used to shape lyrical string music in the traditional Romantic style. Texturally, I leaned toward a choral-like, homorhythmic treatment, with harmonic parallelism that lends the movement a slight macabre quality.

3rd Movement (7 min) – Energico
The most virtuosic of the three movements, this finale features vigorous “sawing” of the bows. Its intense rhythmic drive suddenly gives way to a contrasting middle section, which pays homage to the previous two movements with a slower, drier tone and individual voices entering in a fugal manner. Later, all instruments use tremolo simultaneously, creating a mood of extreme tension. The coda starkly contrasts the rest of the movement, featuring a foreboding, non-rhythmic tone.

– Frank Horvat