Hausmann Quartet Concert Review

Aiwei Zhang

MUS-105-05

Professor Todd Caschetta

Concert Report

The Hausmann Quartet performed 3 compositions written by 3 different composers in this concert. The first one is Conlon Nancarrow’s String Quartet No.1 (1945).  Conlon Nancarrow (1912 –1997) was an American-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. Nancarrow is best remembered for his studies for player piano, being one of the first composers to use auto-playing musical instruments, realizing their potential to play far beyond human performance ability. He composed approximately fifty Studies for player piano, some of the most remarkable music of the 20th century.

The title of this composition shows us that it’s a string quartet, so it contains two violins, one viola and one cello playing.  This composition includes three movements. The first movement is allegro molto, which means it’s very fast. At the very beginning, short and high-pitched spilled out rapidly, gave us an intense feeling. As it went on, it sounded very disorganized and unsystematic, there is no fixed pattern, which made me feel strange even a bit nervous, but it’s still interesting enough, like there’s something intense going on. The second movement is andante moderato, so it went moderate slowly, totally different from the first movement. Most of the time, there is only one violin playing with viola and cello, the long and low- pitched notes made the tone sad and melancholy. Then, even the only violin went away, only the low and deep timbre of viola and cello expressing the gloomy emotion. The last movement became fast and brisk again. I noticed that the cello plucking played an important role in the composition, especially in the very last movement. This plucking strongly increased the intense atmosphere, even gave me a horrifying feeling. As it approached to the end, it moved faster and faster, until came to the climax. This composition is quite complex and has no fixed tune, so it’s interesting to listen to.

The second piece is Caroline Shaw’s Entr'acte for string quartet. Caroline Adelaide Shaw (born 1982) is a New York City-based violinist, singer, and composer. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her a cappella piece Partita for 8 Voices. Entr’acte was written in 2011 inspired by Haydn’s Op. 77 No. 2. It is structured like a minuet and trio, riffing on that classical form but taking it a little further. As Shaw wrote, “I love the way some music (like the minuets of Op. 77) suddenly takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass, in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolor transition.”

This composition started with a soft and beautiful melody, went on with a wave-like contour. It’s conjunct and has a narrow range. The melodious and dulcet music indulged me into the graceful and pleasant atmosphere. Then they stopped bowing the instruments, all began to pluck the strings. It was jaunty and lilting in a vivid way, made me feel bright and breezy. It had a descending contour. As it went down until completely silent, then they started bowing again, changed to a low and sad tune, which was extremely melancholy and woeful. Then the plucking came again, but they plucked much harder, gave us a stronger and firmer feeling. After the plucking, it changed to fast and high-pitched notes, the tone became vivace, I could feel the hopefulness it expressed. There was a part that they slightly bow the stings, made it sound like there’s someone sighing. This part is really quaint and special, strongly drew my attention and interests. Towards the end, only cello was playing, there’s a lot of cadence. The end was very soft and peaceful. This composition is beautiful, subtle and well-organized, melodious yet exquisite, I have never lost interests, simply indulged in the graceful vibe.