Peter Tahourdin: Quartet For Strings (1982) - Movement I

Abstract

"The Quartet for Strings represents the European aspect of my work. The title (it is not called 'String Quartet') indicates the structural basis of the work and has its roots in the Dialogues I composed in the 1970s for various duo combinations. These dialogues spring from the notion that musicians playing together may exchange ideas rather in the manner of people in conversation. The quartet simply becomes a more elaborate form of exchange than the dialogue - a conversation between four musicians instead of two. The first four bars of the quartet present the germ from which the work grows, together with the pitch material and aspects of sonority and articulation that are central to it. This germinal idea recurs in varied form, twice in the first movement and just before the coda that ends the quartet. The initial presentation of the pitch material reveals a twelve tone row. It is not used in accordance with conventional serial practice, however, but rather as a vocabulary of intervals that underpin the melody and harmony, providing stylistic unity and coherence. The quartet is in three movements, linked together by sustained high notes which are derived from the opening four bars. These links help to maintain the conversational flow and, in so doing, prevent the break in continuity that so often occurs between movements. The first movement is in five segments -A B C B A - fast, moderate and slow, then returning in reverse order; it is perhaps the least traditional of the three. The second movement is slow and lyrical, maintaining the process of dialogue. The instruments enter successively, beginning with the cello. They then group in pairs, in threes, and finally all four join together to build the central climax. This is followed by a return to the material of the central, slow section of the first movement. The music then winds down, the instruments departing as they had entered, leaving the first violin alone on the final high note. If the first movement is the least traditional in its form, the third and last movement is the most. A sequence of contrasting ideas unfolds in a uniformly fast tempo. Ideas move between the instruments, grouping and regrouping in different formations as the material is developed and elaborated, leading to the return to the germinal idea that began the quartet, and so to the final, brief coda." -- Peter Tahourdin