The Third String Quartet by American composer
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
was completed in 1971. It is dedicated to the
Juilliard String 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 ...
, and it was premiered in 1973. This quartet earned Carter his second
Pulitzer Prize in Music
The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted i ...
in 1973.
Construction
The
string quartet is divided into a pair of duos, Duo I made up of the first
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
and the
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...
, and Duo II made up of the second violin and
viola
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
, image=Bratsche.jpg
, caption=
, background=string
, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
, range=
, related=
*Violin family ...
. The two duos play in their own overlapping movements: distinct tempos,
articulation, and material, neither coinciding with the other. The first duo is instructed to play
rubato Tempo rubato (, , ; 'free in the presentation', literally ) is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor. Ru ...
throughout its four
movements, while the second plays in strict time in six movements. In addition, each movement is assigned a characteristic
interval. The ten movements are not played continuously, but rather are fragmented and recombined, producing a total of 24 possible pairings of movements between the duos, as well as a solo statement of each movement. An additional
coda brings the total number of sections to 35. The duos rarely synchronize and frequently clash in complex
polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music ( cross-rhyt ...
s and
dissonances.
Each duo uses a distinct
interval class
In musical set theory, an interval class (often abbreviated: ic), also known as unordered pitch-class interval, interval distance, undirected interval, or "(even completely incorrectly) as 'interval mod 6'" (; ), is the shortest distance in pitch ...
, dynamic range, phrasing, and
bowing techniques per movement. The movements are:
Duo I:
Duo II:
#Maestoso (
perfect fifth)
#Grazioso (
minor seventh
In music theory, a minor seventh is one of two musical intervals that span seven staff positions. It is ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two sevenths, spanning ten semitones. The major seventh spans eleven. For example, the interval fr ...
)
#Pizzicato giusto, mechanico (
tritone
In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adj ...
)
#Scorrevole (
minor second
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
)
#Largo tranquillo (
major third
In classical music, a third is a Interval (music), musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four semitones.Allen Forte, ...
)
#Appassionato (
major sixth
In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
)
Carter intended to achieve the effect of two distinct ensemble groups playing two pieces at once, clashing in sound. However, he stressed the importance of observing the combinations of sound between the two sound sources.
References
Sources
*
Further reading
* Bernard, Jonathan W. 1983. "Spatial Sets in Recent Music of Elliott Carter". ''
Music Analysis
Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances. According to music theorist Ian Bent, music analysis "is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?'". The method employed to answe ...
'' 2, no. 1 (March): 5–34.
* Godfrey, Daniel. 1987. "A Unique Vision of Musical Time: Carter's String Quartet no. 3". ''
Sonus: A Journal of Investigations into Global Musical Possibilities'' 8, no. 1 (Fall): 40–59.
* Mead, Andrew W. 1995. "Twelve-Tone Composition and the Music of Elliott Carter". In ''Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies'', edited by Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann, 67–102. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. .
*
Schiff, David. 1998. ''The Music of Elliott Carter'', second edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. .
* Schiff, David. 2001. "Carter, Elliott (Cook)". ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'', second edition, edited by
Stanley Sadie and
John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
External links
The String Quartets of Elliott Carterby David Harvey
{{Authority control
3
1971 compositions
Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works