String Quartet No. 5 (Carter)
Encyclopedia
American composer Elliott Carter
's String Quartet No. 5 is a composition for string quartet
. 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
, New York. It was premiered by the Arditti Quartet
(its dedicatee) in Antwerp at De Singel International Art Centre on September 19, 1995.
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
s, the third a hexachord
. 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
. 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.
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
's String Quartet No. 5 is a composition for string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
. 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
Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
The Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik is a music festival for contemporary chamber music, jointly organised by the town Witten in the Ruhr Area and the broadcasting station Westdeutscher Rundfunk...
, by the Festival d'Automne à Paris, and by Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
, New York. It was premiered by the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...
(its dedicatee) in Antwerp at De Singel 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
Tetrachord
Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...
s, the third a hexachord
Hexachord
In music, a hexachord is a collection of six pitch classes including six-note segments of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt's serial theory.-Middle Ages:...
. 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
Metric modulation
In music a metric modulation is a change from one time signature/tempo to another, wherein a note value from the first is made equivalent to a note value in the second, like a pivot...
. 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.
Discography
- Carter, Elliott. Chamber Music [String Quartet No. 5, 90+, Sonata for Cello and Piano, Figment, Duo for Violin and Piano, and Fragment for string quartet]. Ursula Oppens (piano); Arditti String Quartet. CD audio disc. Montaigne MO 782091. France: Auvidis, 1998.
- Carter, Elliott. The Complete String Quartets 1–5. Pacifica Quartet. 3 CD audio discs. Naxos 8.503226 (18559362; 8559363; 8559614). Franklin, Tenn.: Naxos of America, 2010.
Further reading
- Kim, Helen Heran. 2001. "Elliott Carter's Fifth and Fourth String Quartets: An Analytical Study". DMA diss. New York: Juilliard School.
- Schiff, David. 2001. "Carter, Elliott (Cook)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley SadieStanley SadieStanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
and John TyrrellJohn Tyrrell (professor of music)John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
. London: Macmillan Publishers.