The Purest Genre

String Quartets by Schubert, Dvořák and Debussy

Antoni Pizà―Musicology Professor at The City University of New York

Although it may sound cliché, there is no doubt that the string quartet made up of two violins, a viola (a similar instrument, but slightly larger and tuned differently) and, finally, a cello as a bass-baritone is usually considered the most excellent, pure and exemplary musical genre. Why is that? One can speculate, but many composers are comfortable within these instrumental group restrictions. It is as if the creator had to give their best to restrict exactly the compositional options. The restrictions are obvious: Just four instruments – three really because one, the violin, is repeated, and not an entire orchestra instrumental range. The quartet, therefore, makes the best out of its timbral “poverty”, limited to the strings and nothing else. Faced with this obstacle, the composer sees their challenge as massive: To cook a great lunch with very few ingredients, the strings. However, Schubert, Dvořák and Beethoven―the composers we will listen to this evening―manage this challenge really well. Therefore, their compositions included in this programme have proved to be the musical repertoire benchmarks.

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) wrote his String Quartet in E flat major, No. 10 (D 87), op. 125 No. 1, still a teenager. This work is sometimes called the “Haushaltung” or “home” quartet because it was apparently first performed in 1813 with his own family members at the composer’s home. Therefore, if you like, it is a relatively simple work, designed for amateurs and not great virtuous. In addition, it is intended to be performed in a small room and an informal, relaxed atmosphere among friends.

The following work in the programme, the String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, op. 51, “Slavic Quartet” by Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), was also premièred at a private house in 1879. In this case, at the great violinist Joseph Joachim’s residence in Berlin―by the way, a friend and patron of the composer from Pollença Miquel Caplloch. Dvořák is usually associated with nationalist musical movements, i.e. the artistic tendency to include specific elements of each country (indigenous tunes and dances) in “classical” musical genres (such as the sonata, the symphony, etc.). Dvořák, in fact, is usually regarded as one of the Czech musical nationalism creators. However, in this quartet, like in many other works, the composer extends the borders to the entire “Slavic” world. For instance, the work’s second movement includes a dumka―a Ukrainian-origin melody characterised by the alternation of contrasting musical ideas. Furthermore, the final movement includes a skocna―a Czech folk rhythm.

Finally, to complete the programme, the String Quartet in G minor, op. 10, CD 91, L. 85 by 31-year-old Claude Debussy (1862-1918), composed in 1893, presents an entirely new type of music defying all harmony laws and the traditional form, opening up to the 20th-century music soundscapes. The work combines César Franck’s influence, such as the cyclical form (a musical motif repeats throughout the piece) and the Javanese gamelan’s exotic sounds. Consequently, elements such as colour and texture are more important than the notes themselves. What was solid and permanent is replaced for ephemera, by smoke – if to say, evoking Mallarmé’s symbolist poetry and Monet’s paintings’ universe. The music goes its own way, drifting through dreamlike landscapes, free from the diatonic scale, harmonic function and tonal system’s gravitational pull taught in conservatories.

The first movement beginning’s sharp musical motif serves as the entire quartet’s backbone and will be heard in multiple iterations afterwards. We will hear abundant pizzicatos in the second movement while that same motif becomes a fugue in the fourth. For all these reasons, this composition is already a masterpiece who, at 31, already knew his impressionism had transformed music history through the purest genre: the string quartet.