American composer Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 5 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 ...

. The work was composed between January and July 1995, as a commission for the Arditti Quartet by the city of Antwerp (in its year as City of Culture (1993)), by the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, by the Festival d'Automne à Paris, and by

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, New York.Schiff 1998, 92. It was premiered by the

Arditti Quartet The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. T ...

(its dedicatee) in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

at deSingel International Art Centre on September 19, 1995.

Form and content

There are twelve movements in all: six short contrasting even-numbered movements with an introductory movement and five interludes, in which the players "discuss in different ways what has been played and what will be played". :1. Introduction = 72 :2. Giocoso = 96 :3. Interlude I :4. Lento espressivo ( = 60) :5. Interlude II :6. Presto scorrevole :7. Interlude III :8. Allegro energico ( = 72) :9. Interlude IV :10. Adagio sereno ( = 48) :11. Interlude V = 96 :12. Capriccioso = 60 Typical running time – 21' The character and structure of the Fifth Quartet are determined by the repetition and development of a number of pitch and rhythmic groups described by Carter as "characters". Pitch coherence is achieved by concentrating the material on three hierarchically prominent chords, which increase in importance as the quartet progresses. Two of these are

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord ( el, τετράχορδoν; lat, tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency propo ...

s, the third a

hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six-note series, as exhibited in a scale (hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial theor ...

. In Carter's ''Harmony Book'', the four-note chords are numbers 18 and 23, and the six-note chord is number 35. The quartet represents two simultaneous "creative processes". In performance, the musicians appear to be first trying out and rehearsing musical ideas (in the introduction and interludes), and then playing them (in the even-numbered movements). At the same time, the sketches show that this mirrors the composer's compositional process as he worked out small sections, not writing linearly from beginning to end, but by assembling small phrases together and polishing them. The strong characters of the Quartet's materials emerge as a result of the conflict and resolution of rhythmic articulation created during

metric modulation In music, metric modulation is a change in pulse rate (tempo) and/or pulse grouping (subdivision) which is derived from a note value or grouping heard before the change. Examples of metric modulation may include changes in time signature across a ...

. Through the concept of the "time screen", however, Carter creates a gravitational pull toward a central tempo of = 96, the "imperceptible heart beat" of the quartet, which generally remains hidden. Because a sense of tempo relies on a clearly established regular pulse, and Carter only creates such unambiguous passages during metric modulations, it is at those transitions where these rhythmic identities become clear.Kim 2006, 90–91, 109–111.

Discography

*Carter, Elliott. ''Chamber Music'' tring Quartet No. 5, ''90+'', Sonata for Cello and Piano, ''Figment'', Duo for Violin and Piano, and ''Fragment'' for string quartet

Ursula Oppens Ursula Oppens (born February 2, 1944) is an American classical concert pianist and educator. She has received five Grammy Award nominations. Biography Ursula Oppens was born on February 2, 1944, in New York City into a highly musical family fr ...

(piano); Arditti String Quartet. CD audio disc. Montaigne MO 782091. France: Auvidis, 1998. *Carter, Elliott. ''The Complete String Quartets 1–5''.

Pacifica Quartet The Pacifica Quartet is a professional string quartet based in Bloomington, Indiana. Its members are: Simin Ganatra, first violin; Austin Hartman, second violin; Mark Holloway, viola; and Brandon Vamos, cello. Formed in 1994 by Ganatra and Vamos wi ...

. 3 CD audio discs. Naxos 8.503226 (18559362; 8559363; 8559614). Franklin, Tenn.: Naxos of America, 2010. *Carter, Elliott. ''The Complete String Quartets 1–5''. Juilliard Quartet. 3 CD audio discs. Sony Classical, 2014.

References

* Carter, Elliott. 2002. ''Harmony Book'', edited by Nicholas Hopkins and John F. Link. New York: Carl Fischer. (cloth); (pbk.) * Kim, Yeon-Su. 2006. "Stylistic Analysis of Elliott Carter's String Quartet No. 5: Aspects of Character and Rhythm". DMA diss. Boston: Boston University. *Northcott, Bayan, 1998. Liner notes in booklet to Elliott Carter, ''Chamber Music''. Ursula Oppens (piano); Arditti String Quartet. Montagne MO 782091. France: Auvidis. * Schiff, David. 1998. ''The Music of Elliott Carter'', second edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. .

Form and content

Discography

References

Further reading