String Quartet No. 3
Work Overview
Instrumentation: violin, viola, cello
Commission: 11th Banff International String Quartet Competition. Co-commissioned by The Banff Centre and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Premiere: August 26 to September 1, 2013, Banff, AB, Canada
Duration: approx. 10 minutes
Program Note
This work revolves around a chant that is first realized in full about a minute into the piece. Evoking non-Western song, the chant is announced by the entire quartet, highly ornamented, powerful, and tuned to suggest the microtonal tendencies found in many non-Western scales. My recent reflections on faith and spirituality come to life in this quartet as a world of varied prayers, sometimes turbulent, sometimes passionate, sung to oneself or among a crowd.
Hushed, ambiguous chords start the piece and then crescendo and surge into fast wispy harmonics. The harmonics gradually morph and descend into immense arpeggiated chords euphorically hailing the arrival of the main melody. The chant undergoes a series of transformations, from heterophonic passages in which the quartet acts as four disparate voices, at times wailing and intense; through trilled versions of the melody with virtuosic accompaniments; and finally into a chaconne, a four note repeated harmonic figure that allows for fluid, quasi-improvisational, anguished renditions of the chant. The chaconne is repeatedly interrupted, at first nostalgically, then more and more abruptly, by material that recalls former passages. The work ends quietly with harmonics and a sense of uncertainty lingering in the air.
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Upcoming Performances of this Work
Past Performances of this Work
Includes an online performance of String Quartet No. 3 by Vivian Fung.
Their program includes Beethoven’s Op. 18, No. 4, Vivian Fung’s Quartet No. 3, and Quartet in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” by Schubert.
Jasper String Quartet will perform a program featuring Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18; String Quartet No. 3
String Quartet No. 3 by Canadian composer Vivian Fung, and Schubert’s much-loved Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden.
They will perform a program featuring Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18; String Quartet No. 3 by Canadian composer Vivian Fung
The Dover String Quartet with William Short, bassoon, and special guest Dorion Sagan, scientist and sleight of hand artist.
The Dover String Quartet with William Short, bassoon, and special guest Dorion Sagan, scientist and sleight of hand artist.
They will be performing Fung’s String Quartet No. 3 with the Jeffery Concerts in Ontario.
They will be performing Fung’s String Quartet No. 3 with Friends of Chamber Music in Troy at the Ernest Livingstone Memorial Concert.
Met Museum Presents Season Opening Celebration and Residency Launch in the Astor Court
The Dover Quartet, first place overall winners of the BISQC 2013 and named one of the Top 10 Classical Music Triumphs of 2013 by CBC Music.
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