University Musical Society - Ann Arbor District Library

14 Guarneri String Quartet
incidental music for Sigurd Jorsalfar and
Peer Gynt— labeling them "trashy occasional
pieces." So much composing for popular
tastes had led him to the verge of stagnation.
Despite Grieg's loathing for "that
damned Leipzig conservatory, where I
learned absolutely nothing," he felt the need
to write a substantial, "respectable" work that
would prove (if only to himself) his musical
maturity, self-discipline and mastery of
materials: the hallmarks of a conservatory
education. He chose the string quartet as his
medium, one of the most conventional and
tradition-bound genres, and began work on
it in the summer of 1877.
The task was all the more daunting, as
Grieg was not himself a string player, and
his prior experience with chamber composi­
tion was limited to two violin sonatas and
some abandoned sketches from his Leipzig
years. (In later years he wrote a third violin
sonata and a cello sonata.) Apart from
these chamber pieces, his only full-length
works were an early piano sonata, an
unpublished symphony, and the famous
Piano Concerto. He seems, then, to have set
himself a particularly challenging task, and
was aware of the effort it would involve. As
he began work on the quartet, he confided
to a close friend, "I will accomplish some­
thing big, whatever the price." He finished
the quartet a year later, claiming it was "not
for the shallow public" and indicating he
hoped it would mark a new direction for
his music.
The quartet opens with a motto theme
borrowed from one of Grieg's own songs,
"The Minstrel's Song," played in a bold, uni­
son statement by the whole group. A restless
figure then launches the first theme group
in this sonata-allegro movement. By having
all the instruments periodically play double
stops (two strings at the same time), Grieg
effectively turns the quartet into a chamber
orchestra, which he can then contrast with
the smaller, more intimate passages of the
movement. The second theme, in the relative
major key of B-flat, is related to the opening
motto theme, and bears some resemblance
to passages from the composer's Piano
Concerto in its tunefuleness and melodic
contour. The remainder of the sonata-allegro
movement follows traditional procedures of
development and recapitulation.
The second-movement, "Romanze,"
alternates a lilting B-flat melody with an
"allegro agitato" in the parallel minor key
that includes hints of the work's opening
motto. In the third movement, the rhythmic
vitality and earthy vigor demonstrate Grieg's
continuing fascination with Norwegian folk
culture and music, even as he strove to write
a "serious" piece untainted by nationalist
popularity. Again, a varied version of the
motto begins the movement, leading into
an earnest folk-dance that, while spirited,
is somewhat humorless. Occasional light-
hearted interludes provide some respite,
but they are only brief.
The original motto, treated contrapun-
tally, opens the final movement, before shift­
ing into a lively "presto al saltarello" based
on the sixteenth-century Italian dance. Near
the end of the work, Grieg includes hints of
various themes from earlier movements as
a unifying device, and the motto returns
one final time in the coda.
Program notes by Luke Howard.
Founded in 1964, the Guarneri
String Quartet is an amazing
achievement of four diverse person­
alities, all original members, and
is the longest continuing artistic
collaboration of any quartet in the world.
They have circled the globe countless times,
together, playing the world's most prestigious-
halls in North and South America, Mexico,
Europe, the Far East, and Australia. In their