String Quartet No. 3 (Piston)
Encyclopedia
String Quartet No. 3 by Walter Piston
is a chamber-music
work composed in 1947
.
:
Both of the outer movements are in sonata-allegro form
, and are in F minor. The central Lento movement is a calm theme and variations in C minor (Pollack 1982, 102–3). However, the first movement actually begins in A major/minor, only gradually settling into F minor at the end, and the variation movement spends a lot of its time in the parallel major (the dominant of F minor). However, Piston's characteristic flexibility of tonality and thickly chromatic harmony makes it simplest to omit key signatures (DeVoto 1988).
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
is a chamber-music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
work composed in 1947
1947 in music
-Events:*August 7 – Carlo Bergonzi makes his professional debut as Schaunard in La Bohème at the Arena Argentina in Catania.*October – Enrico De Angelis leaves Quartetto Cetra to join the army...
.
History
Piston’s Third Quartet was commissioned by Harvard University and first performed by the Walden Quartet on May 1, 1947. It is dedicated to Diran Alexanian (Pollack 1982, 102).Analysis
The quartet is in three movementsMovement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
:
- Allegro
- Lento
- Allegro
Both of the outer movements are in sonata-allegro form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, and are in F minor. The central Lento movement is a calm theme and variations in C minor (Pollack 1982, 102–3). However, the first movement actually begins in A major/minor, only gradually settling into F minor at the end, and the variation movement spends a lot of its time in the parallel major (the dominant of F minor). However, Piston's characteristic flexibility of tonality and thickly chromatic harmony makes it simplest to omit key signatures (DeVoto 1988).
Discography
- 1984. Walter Piston: String Quartet No. 3; String Quartet No. 4. Portland String Quartet. Sounds of New England LP recording. Northeastern Records NR 214. Boston, MA: Northeastern Records. Third Quartet reissued on 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.
- 2010. Walter Piston: String Quartets Nos. 1, 3 and 5. Harlem Quartet. CD Recording. Naxos 8.559630
[ Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...] : Naxos Records.