String Quartet (Elgar)
Encyclopedia
The String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, was one of three major chamber music works composed by Sir Edward Elgar
in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor
, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor
, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor
, Op. 85 of 1919, these were to be his last major works prior to his death in 1934.
, who described it as "captured sunshine". It contains a quotation
from his Chanson de Matin
. It was played at Lady Elgar's funeral in 1920, by Albert Sammons
, W. H Reed
, Lionel Tertis
and Felix Salmond
.
This movement also contains a feature that Elgar, near the end of his life, in conversation with Arthur Troyte Griffiths, claimed to be "something that has never been done before". When asked what he meant, Elgar merely replied: "Nothing you would understand, merely an arrangement of notes". Musicologists have mulled over this claim ever since, without coming to a general consensus as to what it refers to.
8, but destroyed it. He made several other attempts, which all came to nothing. For example, he put aside work on a quartet to work on his First Symphony
.
This quartet originated from a 1900 request by Carl Fuchs, cellist of the Brodsky Quartet
and professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music
. In February of 1900 Hans Richter
conducted a performance of the Enigma Variations
in Manchester. Afterwards, Richter introduced Elgar to Adolph Brodsky
, leader of the quartet, and Fuchs. Fuchs asked Elgar to compose a quartet for them.
In 1917, Elgar was ill and depressed by war-time
London
. Lady Elgar found "Brinkwells", a cottage surrounded by woods near Fittleworth
in Sussex
, in which he could work in seclusion away from the cares of the world. He began work on the String Quartet on 25 March 1918, while recovering in a nursing home after having his tonsils removed. He finished only the first subject of the first movement at that time. Then he turned his focus to the Violin Sonata in E minor
, completing it on 15 September. He then immediately set to work on the Piano Quintet in A minor
. He interrupted work on that piece on 8 October to return to the String Quartet; he completed the middle movement on 26 November, and the final movement on 11 December (26 December according to Northrop Moore). He completed the Piano Quintet in January 1919.
Elgar was assisted in the violin writing, as he had been in the writing of the Violin Concerto in B minor
in 1909-10, by his great friend W. H. "Billy" Reed
.
, in honour of the promise Elgar had made years earlier to write a work for them. However, the members of the Brodsky Quartet were now around 70 years of age. The quartet's public premiere was given by Albert Sammons
and W. H. Reed
, violins; Raymond Jeremy, viola; and Felix Salmond
, cello. The group was billed as the "British String Quartet". (Some sources say the London String Quartet
gave the premiere, but Albert Sammons was the only member common to both groups.) The premiere was given on 21 May 1919, at the Wigmore Hall
, London
, the Piano Quintet in A minor also receiving its premiere on this occasion. There had also been a private premiere on 26 April.
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor
Violin Sonata (Elgar)
Sir Edward Elgar wrote his Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, in 1918, at the same time as he wrote his String Quartet in E minor and his Piano Quintet in A minor...
, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor
Piano Quintet (Elgar)
The Quintet in A minor for Piano and String Quartet, Op. 84 is a chamber work by Edward Elgar.He worked on the Quintet and two other major chamber pieces in the summer of 1918 while staying at Brinkwells near Fittleworth in Sussex. W. H...
, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor
Cello Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, by which time his music had gone out of fashion with the concert-going public...
, Op. 85 of 1919, these were to be his last major works prior to his death in 1934.
Structure
The String Quartet lasts for around 25 minutes and is in three movements:- Allegro moderato, 12/8
- Piacevole (poco andante), 3/8
- Allegro molto, 4/4
2nd movement
The middle movement was a favourite of Elgar's wife Lady ElgarCaroline Alice Elgar
Caroline Alice, Lady Elgar was an English author of verse and prose fiction, who married the composer Edward Elgar.- Family :...
, who described it as "captured sunshine". It contains a quotation
Musical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
from his Chanson de Matin
Chanson de Matin
Chanson de Matin, Op. 15, No. 2, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar for violin and piano, and later orchestrated by the composer. Its first publication was in 1899, though it is thought that it was almost certainly written in 1889 or 1890....
. It was played at Lady Elgar's funeral in 1920, by Albert Sammons
Albert Sammons
Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar...
, W. H Reed
William Henry Reed
William Henry "Billy" Reed was an English violinist, teacher, minor composer, conductor and biographer of Sir Edward Elgar...
, Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis
Lionel Tertis, CBE was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
and Felix Salmond
Felix Salmond
Felix Adrian Norman Salmond was an English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in both England and the United States of America.-Early life and career:...
.
This movement also contains a feature that Elgar, near the end of his life, in conversation with Arthur Troyte Griffiths, claimed to be "something that has never been done before". When asked what he meant, Elgar merely replied: "Nothing you would understand, merely an arrangement of notes". Musicologists have mulled over this claim ever since, without coming to a general consensus as to what it refers to.
Background
Elgar had written a string quartet much earlier in his career, to which he assigned the opus numberOpus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
8, but destroyed it. He made several other attempts, which all came to nothing. For example, he put aside work on a quartet to work on his First Symphony
Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)
Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55 is one of his two completed symphonies. The first performance was given by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester, England, on 3 December 1908. It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than...
.
This quartet originated from a 1900 request by Carl Fuchs, cellist of the Brodsky Quartet
Brodsky Quartet (Adolph Brodsky Manchester)
The Brodsky Quartet was the second String quartet established and led by violinist Adolph Brodsky.It was established on 1895 in Manchester, after Brodsky left New York and came to the English city to teach at the Royal Manchester College of Music, and direct the Hallé Orchestra.Brodsky played...
and professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music
Royal Manchester College of Music
The Royal Manchester College of Music was founded in 1893 by Sir Charles Hallé who assumed the role as Principal. For a long period of time Hallé had argued for Manchester's need for a conservatoire to properly train the local talent. The Ducie Street building, just off Oxford Road, was purchased...
. In February of 1900 Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
conducted a performance of the Enigma Variations
Enigma Variations
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
in Manchester. Afterwards, Richter introduced Elgar to Adolph Brodsky
Adolph Brodsky
Adolph Davidovich Brodsky was a Russian violinist.He enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a performer and teacher, starting early in Vienna, going on to Moscow, Leipzig, and New York City and finally Manchester. During its course he met and worked with composers such as Tchaikovsky and...
, leader of the quartet, and Fuchs. Fuchs asked Elgar to compose a quartet for them.
In 1917, Elgar was ill and depressed by war-time
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Lady Elgar found "Brinkwells", a cottage surrounded by woods near Fittleworth
Fittleworth
Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located seven kilometres west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles south east from Petworth. The village has an Anglican church, a primary school and one pub, the Swan...
in Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, in which he could work in seclusion away from the cares of the world. He began work on the String Quartet on 25 March 1918, while recovering in a nursing home after having his tonsils removed. He finished only the first subject of the first movement at that time. Then he turned his focus to the Violin Sonata in E minor
Violin Sonata (Elgar)
Sir Edward Elgar wrote his Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, in 1918, at the same time as he wrote his String Quartet in E minor and his Piano Quintet in A minor...
, completing it on 15 September. He then immediately set to work on the Piano Quintet in A minor
Piano Quintet (Elgar)
The Quintet in A minor for Piano and String Quartet, Op. 84 is a chamber work by Edward Elgar.He worked on the Quintet and two other major chamber pieces in the summer of 1918 while staying at Brinkwells near Fittleworth in Sussex. W. H...
. He interrupted work on that piece on 8 October to return to the String Quartet; he completed the middle movement on 26 November, and the final movement on 11 December (26 December according to Northrop Moore). He completed the Piano Quintet in January 1919.
Elgar was assisted in the violin writing, as he had been in the writing of the Violin Concerto in B minor
Violin Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is one of his longest orchestral compositions, and the last of his works to gain immediate popular success....
in 1909-10, by his great friend W. H. "Billy" Reed
William Henry Reed
William Henry "Billy" Reed was an English violinist, teacher, minor composer, conductor and biographer of Sir Edward Elgar...
.
Premiere
The String Quartet in E minor was dedicated to the Brodsky Quartet, led by Adolph BrodskyAdolph Brodsky
Adolph Davidovich Brodsky was a Russian violinist.He enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a performer and teacher, starting early in Vienna, going on to Moscow, Leipzig, and New York City and finally Manchester. During its course he met and worked with composers such as Tchaikovsky and...
, in honour of the promise Elgar had made years earlier to write a work for them. However, the members of the Brodsky Quartet were now around 70 years of age. The quartet's public premiere was given by Albert Sammons
Albert Sammons
Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar...
and W. H. Reed
William Henry Reed
William Henry "Billy" Reed was an English violinist, teacher, minor composer, conductor and biographer of Sir Edward Elgar...
, violins; Raymond Jeremy, viola; and Felix Salmond
Felix Salmond
Felix Adrian Norman Salmond was an English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in both England and the United States of America.-Early life and career:...
, cello. The group was billed as the "British String Quartet". (Some sources say the London String Quartet
London Quartet
The London String Quartet was a string quartet founded in London in 1908 which remained one of the leading English chamber groups into the 1930s, and made several well-known recordings.-Personnel:The personnel of the London String Quartet was:1st Violin:...
gave the premiere, but Albert Sammons was the only member common to both groups.) The premiere was given on 21 May 1919, at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the Piano Quintet in A minor also receiving its premiere on this occasion. There had also been a private premiere on 26 April.