MOOOC T1 Lesson 8: String Quartet

the production of this video was made possible by donors to the orchestration online patreon initiative please consider adding your support to the creation of free educational Internet Resources by visiting our patreon page linked [Music] [Applause] [Music] below [Music] hello and welcome to the final lesson of the massive open online orchestration course term one I'm your instructor Thomas Goss it's been a privilege to walk you through this series of gradual steps in increasing your Mastery of scoring in which each step could easily add to the development of your individuality as an artist with significant compositional efforts some of my students in this course have grown from exploring their influence to shaping their own directions others have confidently stepped forward to create fresh lasting pieces of music Each of which could contribute to the repertoire of musicians whom they'll meet and befriend if they just take that further step to reach out to [Music] them to be completely honest about it it's only that sort of reflection and effort that really prepares you for a great self-defining artistic challenge like the string quartet scoring two violins together with Viola and cello seems like a very simple progression forward from the string Trio we studied in lesson six and yet adding that one extra violin opens worlds of possibilities all you have to do is look at the huge output from composers throughout history in this genre schuber composed 15 string quartets Beethoven composed 18 twice as many quartets as Symphonies Mozart composed 23 and his best friend Heiden 68 their contemporary bakari composed around 90 string quartets and even more string quintets by adding a cello many other composers of the Classical period also made quartet scoring a specialty which cemented the form's reputation as a necessary part of any serious composer's repertoire the result is that nearly every composer of significance in the general Cannon has composed at least one string quartet if not half a dozen in nearly every case their quartets aren't just obligations that they had to undertake but rather a series of self-defining moments in which we can really see the identity of each composer often in its most mature and quintessential form in the case of Bart talk debc schernberg and Ral these moments aren't just self-defining but revolutionary and spur the next generation of composers to a level of extreme experimentation in shaping their identities if you really want to know what an artist is all about then score read their string quartets it's as easy as that you'll see their levels of discipline craft imagination and individuality as clear as can be and even perhaps their pivotal roles in the evolution of concert music the mirror to this Mighty stream of efforts is the String Quartet as an ensemble some quartets enjoy a reputation that Rivals that of virtuoso soloists like the Emerson or the Tokyo or the Kronos quartet there are so many established quartets that they have rankings almost like Symphony orch orestas with worldclass ensembles then National then local Conservatory students and Orchestra members often ban together to form quartets treasuring the sense of ongoing musical conversation and friendship and challenge inherent in performing the [Music] repertoire for a developing composer all of this musical infrastructure of existing repertoire and performers presents its own kind of challenge in the face of hundreds of established string quartets already composed being played by hundreds of established string quartet ensembles what chance do your efforts have the answer is plenty if you just go about it the right way every lesson I've taught so far about forming working relationships with musicians applies here if you've had your unaccompanied Works read by solo performers then you've already contacted three of the four players necessary for a reading of your works you may even have had all three players come together to read your string Trio asking a fourth player to get involved is not that much greater of an effort on the other hand any one of the original Three musicians may already play in their own quartet and might want to try out your score that's how it starts you're developing not only as a writer of music but also as an artist who gets things done with their art often through other artists if you put those two paths together then no one can deny you the right to call yourself a composer so let's back back up that effort with the craft of scoring studying how the Masters achieved that level in their works and seeing how we can apply those approaches to our own [Music] music when we studied string Trio scoring back in lesson six I covered the basic roles of the three individual instruments of the violin family the violin the viola and the cello those roles are actually inherent in most scoring approaches for those instruments in any standard Ensemble from string Trio to string orchestra the cello usually covers the Baseline the violin tends to lead and the viola provides a middle voice so why do we need an additional [Applause] violin I touched on this briefly back then but since we have a lot more time now let's re-examine the scoring approaches of lesson six in the context of an additional voice starting with the overall tambal character of the quartet as you'll hear if you compare string trios back to back with quartets adding a second violin tends to balance the Ensemble quite nicely the two darker huskier lower strings now team up with two brighter higher pitched companions this means that four-part harmonies are much more natural in character with more Independence in each [Music] line This Natural Balance has strong implications for both close and open scoring in close middle register harmonies the sound of the second violin's lower strings will tend to brighten the texture and keep the attack from sounding too naturally Gruff this applies whether the passage is energetic or soulfully [Music] [Applause] lyrical when the two voices are closely scored but clustered around much higher pitches the second violin will once again balance the tamber and moderate the lower strings tendency towards a chesty tone their yearning quality will still be there but it won't overwhelm the more naturally placed pitches of the first vand part so [Music] [Applause] [Music] much open scoring can now be much wider and richer in tone with the lower strings more secure in their fundamental registers and the second violin sitting in strategic positions between them and the first this more Optimum spacing also implies a more casual sense of Independence for each role here's where a well-written string quartet can feel as psychologically fulfilling as a piece for orchestra a somewhat symphonic approach can emerge when voices have more Elbow Room in which to [Music] contribute this would be a perfect time for you to go back to the orchestration 101 the string section course on Mac proo video or ask video and have a look at chapter 24 the second violin orchestral role this material is also duplicated in tip 82 of my 100 orchestration tips book though that's essentially a look at the orchestral second violin group everything there applies equally well to string quartet scoring let's recast that information in the context of the relationships between the second violin and each of the other members of the quartet starting with its close bond with the first violin I see the second violin as a rock upon which the first can soar to Greater Heights both expressively and literally in terms of pitch the first and second often team up to harmonize the [Music] melody [Music] [Applause] [Music] because of the their tambal unity and higher range the first and second are also somewhat more effective in playing octave Melodies than other combinations all the same the expert orchestrator will be mindful of the differences in register between the two violins and how to use them to their best Advantage Even In This Very obvious and inevitable approach one thing I want to stress here is that in any competent string quartet Ensemble the first and second violinists will tend to be nearly equal in ability never write boring needlessly cautious parts for your second violinist on the assumption that they'll need to be baby through your piece unless you actually know this will be the case with a specific group of players that doesn't mean you should go too far in the other direction with overly complex second violin scoring compared to the first violin part though you should give your second violin a something to do you shouldn't overdo it the best quartet scoring strikes a Natural Balance with first and second Parts interacting conversationally at times musical support doesn't have to be [Music] subservient while all of this naturally helps out the first violinist the violist also benefits greatly from the addition of the second violinist just as the first gains a solid partner for their leadership role the violist picks up an ally in its support duties if an accompaniment requires a fuller more intricate scoring approach then the second violin and Viola can team up quite nicely the two voices in close proximity tend to moderate one another blending together the Viola's huskier tone with the violin's brighter sound on Lower [Music] strings [Music] the second violin also helps the viola in taking over a lot of its accompaniment approaches like fig figuration this not only allows the viola to team up with the cello it also supports first violin with a more closely related sound these two factors can work very well together emphatic Motion in the base part and clear strongly integrated leadership from the violins the second violin's relationship to the cello is more incidental and not too different from the first violin's relationship in Trio scoring in passages where the viola takes the lead the second violin may be the more natural supporting partner with the cello than the first just as in Trio scoring the violin part will tend to the lower strings so as to stay out of the Viola's [Music] way there is one way in which the role of the second violin can have an indirect yet very liberating influence on the cello with two supporting voices the cello can now team up more convincingly with the first violin in ingeniously lyrical ways this can represent the outer voices working together melodically with the inner voices in an accompaniment [Music] style or Viola can act as face and second violin accompaniment with the tenor registered cello duetting the first violin in Counterpoint octaves or [Music] harmonies with three voices teaming up in support roles the fourth voice of the quartet can really soar generally speaking this tends to be the first violin and as we you've touched on heiden's early string quartets are scored this way for long passages the second violin tends to lead the accompaniment providing the top note of a Harmony or setting the tone for the energy of a rhythmic [Music] passage the second violin becomes the middle voice when one of the lower strings crosses upward to take the lead this works great for Viola but it's generally the cello that gets the Lion's Share of voice Crossing solos all the same the other strings get pushed into a very narrow overall range if they're to support from beneath the cello the viola can't provide base accompaniment lower than an octave below middle CA and the violins will tend to stick to their lowest strings even if the cello part is very high this means that while the accompaniment will be generous in tone it won't be very deep [Music] of course we shouldn't forget that each of these voices can stay in their natural range and solo quite effectively with the other quartet members supporting from above or around them in Pitch nor should we disregard the second violin as a resource for taking the lead as well with the first violin support in alongside the other players this switching of positions can result from the natural outcome of a contrapuntal line or a conversational approach or it can be a welcome chance to give the quartet's leader a rest and hear what the other violinist has to say [Music] artistically in lesson six we looked at the ways in which the masters of the classical era use the optimum registers of violin Viola and cello as default VA ranges from which to expand or contrast their parts the addition of the second violin doesn't really change the equation for the lower strings you'll see them scored most often in their home Cliffs of Bas for cello and Alto for viola and their parts will tend towards their C G and D strings much of the time but there's really no rule of thumb for the natural placement of the violins a very balanced strategy is to treat the second violin like the viola and cello and score mostly across its lowest three strings as well the g d and a strings this inhabits the range of the treble cleff just as well as the alto and base for the lower members of the violin family and also assumes that the first violin parts will mostly occupy the A and E strings and indeed there's a lot of scoring that takes this for granted with no ill [Music] effect [Music] but in the wide scheme of things composers tend to send their players all over the map especially they're two violinists the string quartet is enormously flexible because its instruments are enormously flexible what's more with generations of composers pouring all their Ingenuity into the form each successive generation has had to rise to the challenge and interpret their own unique voices and cultural Direction in string quartet scoring not to mention some of their most personal and private thoughts from time to time we tend to look at the development of concert music through Piano Works or through large- scale orchestral masterpieces like Symphonies and operas I'd like to make a strong argument for string quartet repertoire as being just as powerful in historical terms if not even more revealing you can see composers experimenting stretching the possibilities and even starting conversations with other composers one such musical dialogue is actually at the root of the string quartet's Origins heyen is generally credited with establishing the form as we know it today from earlier models the progress that he made in over 5 dozen quartet essentially covers the development of the classical style from its carefully crafted architecture to its stor and Dong and then to the dawn of the 19th century that looked forward to more expressive and individual Parts all of his final group of quartets are superb and well worth [Music] studying [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as heiden's quartets were published they spurred the younger Mozart to respond with his own efforts eventually the two composers met and became friends sharing their love of quartet writing and even playing them together Mozart presented heyen with a set of six quartets surely one of the most astounding musical gestures ever made from one composer to another in which the possibilities of quartet composition were stretched far beyond the imagination of the time [Music] all [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] [Music] we look back on these works now and recognize Mozart's later string quartets for the masterpieces that they are but at the time very few competent professional musicians could play them and even fewer amateurs so they remained largely unappreciated until after Mozart's death but a growing faction of early 19th century musical connoisseurs supported efforts to perform them and to further the evolution of the string quartet by commissioning young composers of Genius one such connoisseur was the baron razumovsky who commissioned Beethoven to compose a set of three quartets using Russian themes these razumovsky quartets weren't so easily dismissed but their immense intellectual and emotional scope left many listeners of the time puzzled rather than [Music] uplifted [Music] [Applause] [Music] just as heyen had for the previous generation Beethoven captured the stylistic evolution of his time in the direction he was forcing it his early quartets proved a match for heyen and Mozart establishing him as their equal at the start of his career in Vienna his middle quartets as we've seen really raised the bar for his contemporaries his final quartets were every bit as Titanic in scope as his last Symphonies Beethoven's intense Mastery of form tended to force the composers who followed in his footsteps to strike out in their own directions and one of these was shuar his solution was to compose long passages of music with carefully crafted emotional developments rather than Beethoven's elevated sense of form in doing so he helped to lay the groundwork for the coming Romantic Era as well as firmly defining his own unique [Music] voice [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] every [Music] that piece we just studied was known as the death and the Maiden quartet after the song of the same name by Schubert it's one of his most personal Works in fact possibly one of the most revealing musical works of any composer's inner thoughts and turmoils Beethoven's last quartets also Express deep inner meanings with such models it's little wonder that the Romantic composers saw the form as a canvas for self-expression one such composer was Felix Mendelson who excelled at quartet composition all his quartets are worth studying but my favorite is his last quartet written in the memory of his sister Fanny Mendelson was also an accomplished composer of great talent but as a woman it wasn't considered proper for her to pursue a career in the Arts nevertheless the creative and emotional bond between the brother and sister was very deep in a sense Fanny was like Felix's other self and he recognized her passing as a premonition of his own which followed within a few months before he died though he was able to commemorate his connection to her and to Muse upon his own creative lifespan the results are a strong rebuke for anyone who thinks Mendelson was a [Music] lightweight [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] h [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] h [Music] in the face of that level of craft and expression the extreme perfectionist brahs waited half a lifetime to commit his own efforts at string quartet writing to paper almost as long as his first First Symphony like nearly everything else he did in his mature period his quartets are masterpieces of form on the level of Beethoven and yet intensely personal meditations that approach Schubert in their emotional depth despite standing on the shoulders of giants brumms manages to get past them to his own voice and contributes mightily to the genre in his own right [Music] as the Romantic Period came to focus more and more on personal expression those perspectives became more and more focused on national identity some of this was light-hearted in nature as with brahms's Hungarian dances or Titanic like vogner's tonic operas in a more practical sense though once you got past all the obligatory boosterism composers were simply responding to the common music that they'd heard from birth and elevating its unique qualities with their heightened craft and training one standout example is boran's second string quartet expressing an idealized quality of Russian folk music in every bar alongside an undeniable charm though borine only composed two quartets they're so potent that a string quartet Ensemble adopted his name the second quartet is so elegantly scored that I've been able to use many excerpts from it so far in this lesson simply to illustrate different essential scoring approaches [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] check composers were among the first to embrace nationalism in music and there are some Stellar 19th century examples from talents such as yanich and smna but the real virtuoso here in terms of string quartet composing was djac who channeled the music of the village the salon and the cafe into the evolving Heritage of concert music he was also fascinated with the folk music of other cultures most concert music listeners are well aware of his New World Symphony but perhaps even more intensely cross-cultural was his American quartet with compelling references to African-American spirituals and perhaps even Native American songs that he'd heard during his residency in the United States this has led to a bit of a musicological guessing game of which tune or combination of tunes inspired what themes but beyond all that djac manages to evoke a certain American character along with his own impressions as a European [Music] visitor [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the end of the century certain preconceptions in concert music were becoming so entrenched that they represented a real challenge to a composer who wanted to develop a strong sense of individuality personal emotion in music was expected to be tragic or patriotic or daringly heroic there was a real taste for the bombastic and overblown in operas and most of it was influenced by the heavy hand of Vagner in the other direction Symphonies and chamber music were becoming ever more academic in structure even though the forms of the classical era had been thoroughly explored for decades it took real Vision to break through these creative walls and wc had that Vision influenced by nationalism he sought for a more idealized French voice in his composing with a lighter hand that abandoned bombastic emotionalism but was no less sincere or intellectual at the same time he borrowed heavily from what was called oriental cultures from East Asia Java and the Russian composers of the mighty handful who are not that well known in Western Europe at the end of the 19th century there's a heavy Russian influence in his string quartet alongside many of his characteristic decn touches it's not quite impressionism yet but it strongly leads in that [Music] direction [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] by the time rll composed his string quartet a decade later WC had firmly established a new direction for French music for who would listen and yet you can still hear that same heavy influence of Russian music and Rell scoring he was also fascinated by rimsky corov mski and borine and that music was slowly making inroads with Parisian audiences at the time though nothing compared to when Stravinsky would arrive with the balet Roose in a few years in comparing the two quartets I'd say that WC's is certainly more groundbreaking but Revels is more firmly modern and perhaps more in touch with a mature Style the parts are extremely demanding for quartet performers but Revel makes the tricky phrasing and extended techniques very much worth the effort with truly Transcendent scoring I won't go on too much more as I've covered this quartet already in my list of recommended score reading but it's safe to say that this quartet has a scoring lesson on every page if not every [Music] [Applause] bar [Music] [Applause] [Music] meanwhile in Central Europe other composers were struggling with some of the same restrictive issues that WC had faced composers like shimanovsky Kodi and BTO faed the coming Century by absorbing their National Heritage and slowly evolving it through modernism BTO is particularly important in this regard as he left an enormous impression on concert and film music composers of the 20th century for our purposes he's one of the finest string quartet composers of all time and just like Beethoven and heyen you can track the evolution of that era through his works I'll start you off with his first quartet which along with his second are probably his most approachable chamber works it's for you to explore the rest of his six quartets to your own needs and taste as a developing composer but I only stress that you absorb them more carefully and deliberately so that their lessons will be better absorbed there's a universe of meaning in these [Music] works [Music] the [Music] [Music] p [Music] that was a lot of string quartet history to get through and I left out so many great quartets like Mendelson's amazing deep first quartet or Beethoven's incredible final quartet and his grossa fuga Yan's intimate letters quartet is one of the most personal intimate pieces of music ever written and then there are the Geniuses of the 20th century that shouldn't be neglected like the very prolific sh stovich and moo I've always had a liking for havas's string quartets especially his third Reflections on my childhood there are also a lot of quartets that simply aren't my cup of tea sometimes from composers whose other quartets I find quite fascinating even inspirational as you apply yourself to the scores on my reading list and then this enormous world of string quartet scoring across three centuries always maintain your sense of why their scoring approaches work how they are crafted and how certain effects are being being achieved examine the structure of close and open scoring and how contrasts of register affect the texture of the music how can you deepen and intensify the musical meaning and emotion of a passage with those approaches or through isolating certain voices even crossing their positions how might variation and contrasts of tone production enliven your score what string effects might change the whole mood and direction of a phrase the possibilities are so Limitless that I can honestly say right here and now that despite despite the enormous scope of existing scores the string quartet form has been barely explored yes if you compose a quartet then you'll have an uphill battle getting an established quartet Ensemble to perform it it's the same situation as approaching an orchestra with a new symphony by an untested name in concert music and yet it's so much easier by comparison to get a string quartet performed by dedicated musicians if you just reach out to them as I've outlined in previous lessons and related videos so your final assignment is to read the scores I've listed in the curriculum review the relevant chapters in 100 orchestration tips or orchestration 101 the string section and then score your own work for string quartet this time around I have a specific form that I want you to follow there needs to be something about your piece that explores alternative approaches to scoring it can't be the same all the way through that's too easy and no great challenge to your craft or your imagination here are some possible options a series of short variations on a them theme in which each variation really does do something significantly different in approach mood Tempo and so on or a set of two to three Miniatures each illustrating a specific impression or emotional response or a single movement that truly does develop through a series of narrative moments whose descriptive power is based on a variety of approaches in short I want you to do things with your scoring that go beyond a creative safety zone and use craft to open new doors of possibility for you as an artist and yet please consider the needs of your musicians and the limits of time to practice and make your scoring playable and compelling especially if there are solid plans for a reading All That I Can Say in conclusion to this whole course is that each one of the chamber music forms we've studied so far aren't just instructive ways for you to improve your string instrument scoring they're also cultures of solo and Ensemble musicians each with a history and a repertoire that needs to be carried on by capable dedicated composers that's how these genres stay alive with living contributors and performers and in the process of composing new works and getting them performed you grow and mature as an artist through communication with your performers and the accumulation of insight and craft with each new work with that comes the Mastery of string scoring you'll need to rely on in our next massive open online orchestration course term two string orchestra scoring I hope to see you there with a stack of your own chamber music scores and even some program notes from a chamber concert or two so respect your own need to create give your musicians your very best effort and go compose something that not only says who you are but what you are becoming artistically always grow with each new effort so that the composer that you become is someone whom you never expected thanks so much for taking this course and I'll see you soon with more resources to improve you as an [Music] [Applause] orchestrator [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] and

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Keywords: orchestration, open course, massive open online course, thomas goss, orchestration online, MOOOC, patreon, string instruments, scoring, score, composer, conductor, education, term 1, lecture, MOOC, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, string trio, Dvorak, string quartet, Debussy, Ravel, Bartók, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Borodin

Id: 2MzmbX8FBiI

Length: 63min 37sec (3817 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 01 2017