FITZROY STRING QUARTET
Philip Glass: String Quartet No 2 (“Company”)
I. 
= 96
II. 
= 160
III. = 96
IV. 
= 160
Perhaps, like me, you have always been resistant to minimalist music, with its simplicity, repetitions, and monotonies. Philip Glass is, of course, a leading exponent of this style of music, but his Second String Quartet has a particular feature which distinguishes it from most minimalist compositions; it has a literary base. It is just possible that an account of this might render it more accessible.
In 1983, Samuel Beckett’s prose poem Company was adapted by theatre director Frederick Neumann for a stage performance. Neumann commissioned Glass to write music for this event and the latter eventually converted the score into a concert piece. The pervasive theme of Beckett’s poem, as with much of his output, was human identity in the face of solitude and the prospect of death. Glass reflects these ideas with music which is introspective and wistful, albeit occasionally lyrical.
The four short sections are closely related, being essentially monochromatic. Violin and cello set the tone of the first with repeated phrases. When joined by the other instruments, the repetitious lines increase in intensity but remain melancholic. The tempo increases significantly in the second section and we are in familiar Glass territory of powerful rhythmic energy. Some listeners – but I am not one of them – might be able to sense subtle changes of emphasis within the beat. The third section reverts to the introspective character of the first but also draws on material from the second. A tentative dialogue between the instruments seems to emerge, only to wither away into silence. The main feature of the finale is a contrast between softer, melancholic episodes and those which are rhythmically more highly charged. The end comes with an abrupt bang.
John Luther-Adams: Canticles of the Sky
I Sky With Four Suns
II. Sky With Four Moons
III. Sky With Nameless Colors
IV. Sky With Endless Stars
John Luther-Adams, born in 1953, is an American composer whose works (for example the orchestra piece Beyond Oceans for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize) have, in recent years, conferred on him a reputation as a notable contributor to the American contemporary music scene. His creative output has largely been inspired by nature, drawing particularly on his experiences of Alaska where he lived from1978 to 2014. In his own words, “Through sustained listening to the subtle resonances of the northern soundscape, I hope to explore the territory of sonic geography—that region between place and culture...between environment and imagination.
In 2008, Adams composed a short work, Sky with Four Suns, for a Latvian youth choir. He found so satisfying the sound world achieved by this piece that he was stimulated to develop it five years later into a substantial work, Canticles of the Holy Wind, for four choirs. Material from this, was later transposed tp the medium of chamber music, one version for a cello ensemble, the other for string quartet, the work to be performed in this concert.
Canticles of the Sky does not depend on thematic material; nor does it deploy much by way of rhythmic diversity. Rather it relies on pure dimensions of sound, projected through the predominantly legato playing of the four instruments, often in unison, to evoke the infinity of space and the light and atmosphere of the universe. So described, there is not much which the writer of programme notes can add!
Jessie Montgomery: ‘Strum’
Jessie Montgomery, born in 1981, is one of the more prominent of younger American composers, particularly since declared to be 2025 Classical Woman of the Year by the radio programme Performance Today. Her output covers a wide variety of musical categories but most notable are the pieces for chamber groups. Strum was originally composed in 2006 for string quintet. Subsequently it was arranged for string quartet and, after further revisions, acquired its definitive form in 2012.
The work lasts about seven minutes and is best described in the composer’s own words. “I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, [it] has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration."
Dvorak: String Quartet No 12 in F major ‘The American’
Allegro ma non troppo
Lento
Molto vivace — Trio
Finale. Vivace ma non troppo
The only work by a non-American in the programme is, most appropriately, Dvorak’s twelfth and most familiar string quartet. In 1892, the composer had taken up a teaching position at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. The post carried not only an attractive salary but also a contractual entitlement to a period of four months each summer free of obligations. The first such period Dvorak spent in Spilville, Iowa, which had a large Czech immigrant community. He there wrote the F major quartet, completing the work in little more than two weeks.
Unquestionably, like the New World Symphony which dates from the same period, the quartet draws on the composer’s experience of American folk music, but its character reflects broader aims. Dvorak put it bluntly: “I wanted to write something for once that was very melodious and straightforward, and dear Papa Haydn kept appearing before my eyes, and that is why it all turned out so simply”.
The first movement begins with a modest rippling figure in the violins which provides a background to the viola‘s lyrical main theme. The contrasting second theme has a thrusting dimension with a more central-European feel to it. This is developed with some greater intensity and richer harmony moving into a recapitulation of both themes. The long slow second movement constitutes arguably the centrepiece of this work with its beautiful melody, often associated with a negro spiritual, played successively by violin and cello. The third movement scherzo is more elaborate than usual, alternating between a quirky tune employing cross-rhythms, and slower, more lyrical material derived, it is thought, from birdsong. One may be entitled to assume that the chugging rhythm of the finale captures Dvorak’s experience of the train journey to the American Mid-West.
© Anthony Ogus