Classical Music | Music for Quartet

Recorded on 11/21/2009, uploaded on 11/21/2009

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String Quartet in g minor, Op. 10                      Claude Debussy

Animé et très décidé -- Assez vif et bien rythmé -- Andantino, doucement expressif -- Très modéré: Très mouvementé

The period around 1890 was a crucial time in Debussy's life.  The composer had just returned from Paris after a two-year residency in Italy with the Prix de Rome, and he was eager to rid himself of the restraints of academia.  One of the first works with which he struck a new artistic direction was his string quartet in g minor, Op. 10.   This work-along with Debussy's now-iconic Afternoon of a Fawn which was written about the same time as the quartet-established Debussy as a leading voice in the so-called Impressionistic style of music, although the composer disliked this moniker. Regardless of how it is labeled, the quartet uses varied tonal effects, soulful beauty, and a freedom from strict form and structure, to create an excellent musical counterpart to the Impressionist paintings and Symbolist poetry of the time.

The opening notes of the first movement are of great importance in the quartet as a whole; they make up the melodic germ from which the entire work unfolds.  Rhythmically complex and melodically convoluted, this initial motive zigzags back and forth within a small range, using a three-note filigree ornament as its central characteristic.   The second, third and fourth movements all derive their melodies from the first theme, with augmentations of certain intervals, transformations of meter, and the use of a wide variety of string techniques.

Completed in 1893, the quartet was dedicated to the Ysaye Quartet who gave the work's premier in Paris in December of that year.      Avalon String Quartet