String Quartet No. 1 by

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...

is a

chamber-music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

work composed in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

History

Piston's first

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

was premiered on March 7, 1933, by the Chardon Quartet, to whom it is dedicated. It is a charming work that later became a favorite of the

Juilliard Quartet The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York by William Schuman. Since its inception, it has been the quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School. It has received numerous ...

. Aaron Copland singled out this quartet, praising its "acidulous opening movement, the poetic mood painting of its second, and its breezy finale", all of which "sets a superb standard of taste and of expert string writing"..

Analysis

The quartet is in three movements: #Allegro () #Adagio () #Allegro vivace (, ) The first movement is in

sonata-allegro form Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...

in a mixed

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

/ C minor. The harmonic language stresses chords based on perfect fourths, and features the

chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...

, dissonant

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

characteristic of Piston's early period. A nightmarish quality is produced by the approach to the F minor second, waltz-like theme through C minor. The second movement is a simple ''ABA'' in E minor, with the strings muted in the brooding, chromatic outer sections, and an unmuted fugato in sharply

dotted rhythm In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. In modern practice, the first dot increases the duration of the basic note by half (the original note with an extra beam) of its original value. This means ...

s in the central part. This movement especially features the cello. The rondo finale is based throughout on a repeated-note motive of three sixteenth notes, and the first subject recalls the quartet's opening movement by alternating C and D. The string writing here is expert and spectacular, with some disorienting harmonic twists.

Discography

* 1939. ''Walter Piston: String Quartet no. 1;

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

: Movements for String Quartet (1928)''. Dorian String Quartet. 78 RPM recording, 3 sound discs. Columbia Masterworks M 388 (set) Columbia Masterworks; 69745-D 69746-D; 69747-D. ridgeport, Connecticut Columbia Masterworks. *1954. '' Gian Francesco Malipiero:

Rispetti e strambotti ''Rispetti e strambotti'' is a work for string quartet composed in 1920 by Gian Francesco Malipiero. The piece was first performed on September 25, 1920, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts; it won the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award. The piece takes ...

; Walter Piston: String Quartet''

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Juilliard String Quartet. Pittsburgh International Contemporary Music Festival, 1952. LP recording.

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

CB 156—CB 157. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. *1985. ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2''. Portland String Quartet. LP recording. Northeastern Records NR 216. Boston, Massachusetts: Northeastern Records. Reissued as part of ''Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 1; String Quartet No. 2; String Quartet No. 3''. The Portland String Quartet (Stephen Kecskemethy and Ronald Lanz, violins; Julia Adams, viola; Paul Ross, cello). CD recording. Northeastern NR 9001 CD. Boston: Northeastern University, 1988. *1991. ''Walter Piston: Quartet No. 1.

Quincy Porter William Quincy Porter (February 7, 1897 – November 12, 1966) was an American composer and teacher of classical music. Biography Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David St ...

: Quartet No. 3;

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

: String Quartet in B Minor, op. 11''. The Chester String Quartet (Fritz Gearhart, Kathryn Votapek, violins; Ronald Goravic, viola; Thomas Rosenberg, cello). CD recording. Koch International Classics 3-7069-2 H1. estbury, New York Koch International Classics. * 2010. ''Walter Piston: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 and 5''. Harlem Quartet. CD Recording. Naxos 8.559630

ong Kong Ong or ONG may refer to: Arts and media * Ong's Hat, a collaborative work of fiction * “Ong Ong”, a song by Blur from the album The Magic Whip Places * Ong, Nebraska, US, city * Ong's Hat, New Jersey, US, ghost town * Ong River, Odisha, ...

Naxos Records.

References

Sources * * * {{Authority control String Quartet No. 1 1933 compositions Music dedicated to ensembles or performers