I just thought I would add a little activity to this site by posting my latest rendering of an older work, my first (and so far only) string quartet, which I began as a student at Michigan in 1975 and finished, except for minor revisions, in 2020. It's a dissonant, rather Bergian work that drifts in and out of a kind of free atonality, though to my ears there are passing references to key centers everywhere, especially in the Tippett-like 3rd subject and in the newer material (roughly the second half) that was written with the benefit of notation software. It begins and ends in A minor, but very little of the piece is actually in that key, or even in any key. Toward the end the "Tippett" theme is, however, transformed into a lilting, and very diatonic, duet for the violins against a pizzicato accompaniment.
There are no changes to the actual notes since I last posted this work here, but numerous changes to phrasing, articulation, dynamics, and the lengths of fermatas and other pauses as I ported the score from Sibelius to Dorico earlier this month. This is basically the same rendering that I posted recently on a different site (GMG), except for shortening the caesura at letter K from 275% to 200%, which clips off a little less than a second from the rendering.
The score has not been proofread thoroughly; there may still be collisions and extraneous rests left over from Sibelius - the score was exported first to XML and then read by Dorico, which apparently doesn't do any cleanup during the import process - if my impression is correct, you have to edit a measure directly before it will consolidate rests there.
Comments are welcome.
Edit: about two weeks ago I bought a copy of the VSL (Vienna Symphonic Library) Studio Solo Strings library and just finished "porting" this quartet to render in Dorico via that library. I think the sonics are better, and some parts are musically superior as well. I've included links to the new rendering and score below - there are very few changes in the score other than as needed to correct dynamic imbalances and some invisible ones, like the lengths of some of the pauses, but there is a biggie: from letter G to the first beat of m. 106, I had to swap the 2nd violin and viola parts because the VSL library doesn't have legato samples for the F6-E6-Eb6 triplet figure in m. 105. There are some glaring flaws, most notably a "whooping" effect in places where two notes connected by a slur are literally slurred together, but I think the superior sonics and the fact that the four instruments have very different, distinctive timbres in the VSL library more than compensate for those flaws. A comment below mentioned that in places the counterpoint disappears because of parallel motion - but that's allowed in counterpoint, and I think the real problem is that the two instruments have nearly identical timbres in NotePerformer, which was used for the first rendering.
The main changes to the *music* in this version have to do with the lengths of pauses, which I tried to tweak to reduce the "sectional" quality that the work can have if they're too long, as someone rightly pointed out below. Hopefully this version will be a little more convincing - if you can overlook the flaws in the rendering.
String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 1 (VSL Studio Solo Strings)
The files below are the original ones that I posted here before adapting the work to VSL.
String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 1 (NotePerformer)
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this is a compelling work and one which continues to grow on each hearing. It is both serious of purpose and haunting at the same time. The musical language and gestures may have some hallmarks of Berg (or Tippet for that matter - I can't recall his quartets at present) but the mood seems much more like the direct, dark and melancholic late Shostakovich which is anyway an idiom I can more easily identify with -- and one which has influenced some of my own more serious quartets.
Thank you David, for your kind words! The first person to point out a similarity with Berg was my composition teacher at Michigan at the time, William Albright. I had only heard a little of Berg's work at that point, so the similarity was coincidental. But I was very familiar with Tippett starting from 1974, and consciously modeled my third subject after some of Tippett's lyrical string writing during his middle period (the period of the 2nd Symphony and the Piano Concerto), so that influence was quite conscious, even intentional. The only influence from Shostakovich came in the reprise of that theme as a lilting duet. I recall distinctly that I had the sounds of his 14th String Quartet (the slow movement and end of the last) in my head as I was writing it.
I only said the work was "rather Bergian" to give the listener an idea of what to expect: music that is not 12-tone and is certainly not as radical as Webern's, but is still only passingly and fleetingly in any recognisable key, and is quite dissonant in places.
interesting that Tippett was such an influence. A friend when I was young was a huge fan and tried to convert me but I now remember little of his music as I haven't seriously investigated it in decades. Perhaps I'll go back at some point.
I was enthusiastic about Tippett only for a few years, in the mid-70s mostly. Much of it eventually started to strike me as a bit "academic" and stilted. He was a very mainstream composer, of course - unlike Havergal Brian and even Robert Simpson. Today both of those composers, as well as Vagn Holmboe, are my biggest influences.
(I hasten to add: don't get me wrong, one of Tippett's greatest strengths imho was his melodic gift, as in the Fantasia on a theme of Corelli and the Concerto for Double String Orchestra. He was a very talented composer. I just didn't think his forays into harder-edged, more "modern" idioms were very successful or even interesting. But I haven't heard them in decades, as I only had them on LP and sold them to a record store when I moved here. My opinion might be different today.)
I'm not sure I would say "rather" Bergian. I think I hear some Berg in a few places, thinking of his Lyric Suite, more in some textures than melody. I realize this is mostly an early work and you probably aren't thinking of revising it substantially, but there are two things that struck me when listening to it. Firstly, I assume you are using the stock Dorico sounds, which sound rather electronic, especially in the violins. I think NotePerformer would provide you a more realistic rendering, especially if you use the one-player strings, rather than the solo strings, which come out a little coarse. The latest version will also give you some sul ponticello. Musically, I noticed that some of your melodic lines travel in parallel/similar motion, for example bb 123-138, which means that the counterpoint disappears. I can't hear the individual parts. I thought the part at G leading up to it more successful, as well as the section following it, before the solo violin.
On the whole, I would like to hear more "moments" - where you reach extremes of drama, volume and texture. b. 166-to M is a place where you could make the dynamics of the fpp tremolos more extreme, which would make it more effective. The section after that is a little anticlimactic - less interesting. It's a little sectional, and could use some smoother transitions so the new melodic ideas seem more organic and logical. I think taking a look at the piece more architecturally might be of use - what is important here, where is it going. That might make the piece more experiential. I think some of this is down to the playback.
You might hear the difference if you listen to one of the string quartets on my page in the Music section of this site. Old demos weren't worth listening to. My new demos use NotePerformer, specifically the ScoreEngine, using the solo strings from the Spitfire Audio BBCSO Pro sound library. Quartets 1 and 3 were played using Dorico, but performance-wise, there isn't much difference playing from Sibelius or Dorico for these quartets. Both those quartets sound amazingly realistic. Orchestral music with glissandi play better in Sibelius. As far as notation programs go, I'm non-denominational (I use all of them), but NotePerformer makes all of them sound better.
I was a big Tippet fan when I was a student. I especially liked his symphonies, but later, looking at his music, there often seemed to be something that threw me out of the piece, something illogical, or that didn't seem to fit, like the breath sounds of the fourth symphony. I attended premieres of some of his last orchestral works that I particularly enjoyed, like The Rose Lake.
I studied for a short time with a Holmboe student, Per Nørgård (who passed away last week), so I'm quite close to Holmboe's music. I've even engraved some of it for his publisher. Actually, my main teacher in grad school was also a Holmboe student, but I didn't know that at the time.
this is a rather ironic comment about the rendering as it is fact already using NotePerformer and Liz's dissatisfaction with that is leading her to create a new version with the VSL Studio solo strings which I've been helping her with. But no doubt she will see this post and give a full reply! Anyway on NP it looks like you are referring to the playback engine which is a totally different kettle of fish. Few solo string libraries are supported (I should say were supported as it's no longer possible to buy any NPPE engines) unfortunately, though the BBC first chairs (not really designed as quartet strings) are an exception. I can't find your quartets nos 1 and 3 which supposedly use this library anywhere.
Incidentally, on the death of Nørgård, I listened to his 3rd symphony which in many ways is a fascinating piece, particularly in the ecstatic concluding choral section
Really???? Maybe she is using the solo strings instead of the solo section strings. The solo strings sound awful. I submitted a demo of String Quartet No 5 using just NotePerformer (no PE) to a competition, and it sounded great ... and won. The PE version sounds even better. I didn't know they had discontinued the PE. That's too bad. Using it in Dorico is far superior than the supplied sounds, which are very much like what Liz's demo sounded like. Anyway ...
To get to my string quartets (all of them) go to the Music tab above, and you'll have to scroll to the right to find them. They are all there.
I prefer Per's later symphonies, especially 6 and 7. 3 is the first one that I heard, and he lectured about it in our composition class. He was writing the 5th at the time. I set the parts for 5 and 7, as well as a few others. My orchestration of Violin Concerto No 1 (Helle Nacht) is available on BIS. (They forgot to credit me in the score as well as the recording. I did the orchestration and Per approved it, requesting only one small change. He wanted a couple of bars that I put in viola in second violin.) I've arranged or reorchestrated a handful of his pieces for his publisher.
BTW, I'm listening to your Sym No 18 right now. I'll give some comments later.
I plan to come back to more of Per's symphonies when I get back from holiday -- off tomorrow -- but I thought I'd listen to that one as it's his best known. I was aware that you'd done some work for him (you mentioned that already on another thread). Will have another hunt for your quartets as well.
Stephen, thank you for listening and for your comments. David is correct: ALL of the renderings I've posted here so far have used NotePerformer, including the one you listened to. Yes, the solo strings, not by reducing the string sections to a single player with CC "MIDI messages", as Arne calls them. I compared that option with "true solo" and didn't notice much difference, but it could just be my poor ears. I've played back sections of this piece and my Sinfonia Solenne using stock Dorico sounds (and previously, Sibelius we well) and could not stand what I was hearing. Anyway I was about to replace that rendering in the OP with one made (with enormous help from David, thank you!) using the VSL Solo Strings, but maybe I'll just add it to the post, in case anyone in the future wants to compare them.
As for the architecture of the piece, I do think your comments about the work coming across as "sectional" are well taken and have to do mostly with the lengths of the pauses, which are one of the things I've tweaked since the version in the OP. I don't think I have them exactly right just yet - in particular, I think the pause at letter D is still too long, and the one at letter M might still be too. The one at letter P is just about right, i think. The pauses are for dramatic effect - but whether they work or not probably depends on the listener. I'm a little surprised by your comments about the climax not being shaped well and that what comes afterward sounds anticlimactic - I'm not sure whether you're referring there to the reprise of the Allegretto severo (letter K on) or of the "Tippett" theme (from letter M), or of the whole rest of the piece.
The exposition is a little fragmentary, I admit, because all of it was written in 1975 (except for some slight tweaks) when it was supposed to be the ABC part of an ABCA-Coda structure, not the fully-developed sonata form that it turned out to be. I have no reservations about anything after letter G though - my first version fell apart from m. 117 on, so I scrapped the rest of it and instead used material from the first subject group to transition from there to a very concise Agitato section based partly on new material. I have to say I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and while admitting its flaws, I have no inclination to change anything further, except perhaps for "performance" decisions about things like tempi and the lengths of fermatas and pauses. I think the overall narrative of the piece works as it stands, though the listener will have to decide for themselves. My only concern is that some of the double stops, especially for the cello, are likely unplayable by any human cellist.
It wasn't so much anything illogical in Tippett's music that ultimately turned me off, it was the "academic" or perhaps stilted quality of some of his later (i.e., post 1970) music. I don't think I've ever heard his 4th Symphony, but his 3rd didn't impress me as anything but an attempt to be trendy and "modern". I thought he was above all a lyricist, and I still love the Concerto for Double String Orchestra and the Corelli Fantasia, though alas I only had them on LP and no longer possess recordings of them.
BTW it's wonderful to hear from someone who knew Holmboe, even once removed. Very impressive that you studied with Norgard (RIP, yes I read about it on another forum). The only other composer of note that I studied with at Michigan was William Bolcom, who was a very sweet and supportive sort of teacher in my experience - unfortunately I was going through a very fallow period creatively at that time and didn't finish anything under him that I still have, or have any interest in continuing with. He is still alive as far as I know, but he retired from the Michigan faculty a few years ago now. Albright, unfortunately, passed away in the 1980s or '90s, very prematurely - I have very fond memories of the support he gave me with the first version of this piece back in 1975.
I think I wasn't bothered by the ending, except that maybe what I heard as the climax happened too early in the piece. I wasn't really a fan of the insistent cello rhythm that appeared at E and returned briefly at M. It just seemed too predictable to me. I would be interested to hear your updated demo recording to see if that changes any of my thoughts.
Here is my fifth string quartet using the single (section) strings, not solo strings. I remember how to access them in Dorico, but it is easy in Sibelius. I'm out of the country now, and this computer only has Dorico 4 on it, so I can't check it. You can compare it to the one posted on Music section of this site, which is the PE version. Of my quartets, this is the one that sounded best before I started using NPPE, that's probably because it is a little Webern-like at times. The NPPE one sounds much fuller. It's too bad that they discontinued NPPE, but it needed a huge amount of resources to use the BBCSO library, and it still occasionally crashes. I've been told that the SQ3 recording sounds amazing (by a Guggenhiem winner).
I auditioned at Michigan for grad school, but ended up not going there. I think Bassett and Albright interviewed me. That was probably a few years after you graduated. I think that what turned my off Tippett was actually that his operas (late ones) just seemed a little childish. I attended the concert premiere of New Year. He liked gimmicks and even The Rose Lake is a little gimmicky with the spatial placement of 32 roto-toms around the back of the stage. I think I liked his early instrument pieces as well as his latest works, and a few in the middle.
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