The Three Pieces were originally published without titles, but Stravinsky later orchestrated them, adding titles and a fourth piece to create his Four Etudes for Orchestra. The Three Pieces thereby acquired the titles Danse, Excentrique, and Cantique.
The first piece is distinguished by its novel texture: each of the four strings pursues a short, distinctly individual part and sonority with a single-minded obstinacy as if completely unaware of the other parts. Oddly static, the timing relationships between the parts constantly shift so that the music is always different without really going anywhere. A Russian folk melody amidst the color and clamor of simultaneous but independent characters recalls Petrushka at the Shrovetide fair.
As its title would imply, the second piece is indeed eccentric. Droll, mercurial, ultra-modern, it features the most idiosyncratic writing of the three pieces, remarkably capturing the adventurous use of color and scoring found throughout Stravinsky’s orchestral writing.
The final piece, Cantique, finds Stravinsky writing the polar opposite of his own first piece in the set. Here, the four instruments blend into a unified homophony as a solemn chorus in the undifferentiated anonymity of liturgy. Somber, even dour, the piece represents a most uncharacteristic finale for a quartet, but a wonderful contrast in this set of three character studies.Notes from earsense.org
The Formosa Quartet Jasmine Lin, Violin Wayne Lee, Violin Che-Yen Chen, Viola Dmitry Kouzov, Cello (guest cellist)
Classical Music | Music for Quartet
Igor Stravinsky
Three Pieces for String Quartet Play
Recorded on 01/22/2014, uploaded on 07/09/2014
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
I. Danse
II. Eccentrique
III. Cantique
The Three Pieces were originally published without titles, but Stravinsky later orchestrated them, adding titles and a fourth piece to create his Four Etudes for Orchestra. The Three Pieces thereby acquired the titles Danse, Excentrique, and Cantique.
The first piece is distinguished by its novel texture: each of the four strings pursues a short, distinctly individual part and sonority with a single-minded obstinacy as if completely unaware of the other parts. Oddly static, the timing relationships between the parts constantly shift so that the music is always different without really going anywhere. A Russian folk melody amidst the color and clamor of simultaneous but independent characters recalls Petrushka at the Shrovetide fair.
As its title would imply, the second piece is indeed eccentric. Droll, mercurial, ultra-modern, it features the most idiosyncratic writing of the three pieces, remarkably capturing the adventurous use of color and scoring found throughout Stravinsky’s orchestral writing.
The final piece, Cantique, finds Stravinsky writing the polar opposite of his own first piece in the set. Here, the four instruments blend into a unified homophony as a solemn chorus in the undifferentiated anonymity of liturgy. Somber, even dour, the piece represents a most uncharacteristic finale for a quartet, but a wonderful contrast in this set of three character studies. Notes from earsense.org
The Formosa Quartet
Jasmine Lin, Violin
Wayne Lee, Violin
Che-Yen Chen, Viola
Dmitry Kouzov, Cello (guest cellist)
More music by Igor Stravinsky
Danse Russe, from Petrushka
Apollo
Rite of Spring
Firebird Suite (arr. Agosti)
Danse Russe and The Shrovetide Fair, from Petrushka
Berceuse, from "The Firebird"
Five Easy Pieces
Petrushka (four tableaux)
Suite from Firebird
The Shrovetide Fair from Petrouchka
Performances by same musician(s)
String Quartet in D Minor, "Death and the Maiden," D. 810
String Quartet No. 2 in a minor, Op. 17
String Quartet No. 12 in c minor, D. 703 “Quartettsatz”
String Quartet No. 5 in B-flat Major, Op. 92
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