String Quartet No. 3 (Husa)
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The String Quartet No. 3 is a composition for
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 ...
by the composer
Karel Husa Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to t ...
. It was first performed on October 14, 1968, at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, by the
Fine Arts Quartet The Fine Arts Quartet is a chamber music ensemble founded in Chicago, United States in 1946 by Leonard Sorkin and George Sopkin. The Quartet has recorded over 200 works and has toured internationally for 77 years, making it one of the longest en ...
, to whose members the work is dedicated. The piece won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music.


Composition

The String Quartet No. 3 was composed in Ithaca, New York, from late 1967 to March 1968. It has a duration of roughly 19 minutes and is cast in four movements. In the score program note, Husa wrote, "In my previous quartets – one of them, No. 2, performed quite extensively by the Fine Arts Quartet – I did not preoccupy myself as much with new sonorities as in the new Quartet no. 3. Also, the form of the movements in the former two was rather traditional. The new composition explores some solo predominance, spotlighting the several instruments in rather free forms: the viola in the first movement; violoncello in the second; the two violins in the third." He added, "After Bartok, Berg, and Webern, it is not easy to imagine new ways of playing on string instruments. I feel that I have been able to find some unusual paths for bow and finger. As for the rest, I have used all the possibilities hitherto available. The forms of the four movements are few, based mostly on contrasting colors and inner tension."


Pulitzer Prize

The work won Husa the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The award brought international attention to Czech-born composer, who favorably recalled, "You have the confidence that what you are doing is somehow rewarded. That's a terrific feeling, of course. It gives you an incredible lift, and keeps you in a mood so that you can compose more."


References

{{PulitzerPrize Music 1961–1970 1968 compositions compositions by Karel Husa Husa, Karel music dedicated to ensembles or performers Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning works