Arnold Rosner-Chamber Music Volume II

This Albany disc presents 3 of Rosner's String Quartets (some of the most beautiful and exciting quartets in the repertoire imo..) and the Duet for Violas. Rosner's String Quartet No. 2, from 1963,
was written when the composer was only 17 years old. Remarkable to me considering the quality
and assured craftsmanship. Please enjoy

To download the music @ 320kbps instead of 256 kbps, go here:
http://nocturna-artificialia.blogspot.com/2014/08/arnold-rosner-2-discs-re-up-320-kbps.html

From Rosner's album notes:

When writing my Quartet No. 2, at the age of 17, it was my definite intention to achieve a structural and polyphonic sophistication my chamber music had lacked heretofore. Almost all the thematic material in the one-movement design derives from the opening cello melody and its counter-subjects in the first bars of fugato.

Most will hear an unofficial four-movement sequence as the piece proceeds. In the first part the tempo gradually quickens, and the character changes from pensive to angular. The second part is modal in style and "religioso" in attitude; it has its own ternary shape with a lighter middle part. The third part is in a faster 6/8 meter with rondo scheme. It starts in a scherzando mood but thickness and intensity build along the way. This rushes into the fourth part, starting very loudly and then receding eerily. Some of the music from the first part is restated and there is a solemn chordal conclusion.

Some alert listeners will note that the first countersubject against the main theme (bars 58) resembles a figure in the Dies Irae of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. This melody gets some prominent harmonized treatment in the second part of the quartet and is really just a downward minor scale with a slight rhythmic shift. In any case, I am not guilty! This quartet was finished in April, 1963, and, while it may be a classic now, the War Requiem had not at that time been heard in the Western hemisphere.

While virtually all my music may be thought of as neo-Romantic in character, if not always in syntax, the Quartet No. 3 of 1965 may represent the clearest such example. Accordingly there is considerable expressive range, both within each movement and overall, as well as an unabashed willingness to write melodies that are songful and intense.

While there is no true "slow movement", the character quickens as the music progresses from the brooding of the first movement to the exuberance of the third. If this sounds overly predictable, one should note that the middle parts of each movement provide some balancing contradictions. In particular, the second movement has outer sections in a fairly light 6/8, but a middle section in a heavier, rustic irregular count (9/8=2+2+2+3) which may suggest dance rhythms in ethnic music from such places as Yugoslavia or Brazil. The middle section of the third movement is actually the slowest music in the whole work; the middle section of the first is among the fastest. I suppose honesty requires that I report the first movement is in a bona fide sonata form, replete with "official" pitch-center relationships. I don't know is this is worthy of praise or blame.

When I revised this quartet in 1992, it was shortened by some six minutes; but at 24 minutes, it still ranks as my longest. Otherwise, the revision mainly involved some internal counter-melodies and changes in phrasing, though the 9/8 middle section of the second movement is entirely new.

My String Quartet No. 5 is, at the time of this writing, my last work in the genre. It was written in 1977. In it I strove for an atmosphere concurrently mysterious and warm, essentially tranquil but not without some challenges and climaxes. If this suggests the state of mind one reaches in meditation or certain dreams, or perhaps that lightness some individuals describe after heart-stoppages and resuscitations, I may have achieved my aim.

The structure is a one-movement introduction and moto perpetuo. The first part alternates modal melodies over drones, with stylized passages of three-voice harmony. (The aficionado of early music will detect a resemblance to organum or clausula.) The second part keeps the players very active with shimmering, quasi-coloristic passage work, which, as busy as it is, should never sound hectic or harsh. However interesting such purely textural music may be, I never resort (as my minimalist colleagues do) to allowing it to retain the main spotlight; in String Quartet No. 5 and other such works, the patterns serve as a screen of accompaniment for more truly melodic and chordal material.

When my String Quartet No. 4 was performed and recorded by the Alorian Quartet at Oberlin College in 1991, invaluable assistance was provided by Jeff Irvine and Lynne Ramsey, who are husband and wife as well as violists. As a token of appreciation, I wrote my Duet for Violas. Not knowing their tastes, I decided to write in a style similar to that of the quartet they had come to know. Accordingly, the music is contrapuntal and fairly severe. The work lasts some eight minutes in a slow-fast sequence. Listeners who know my music may find it hard to believe that the Duet begins with a 12-note permutation, or row, but I assume they will be relieved to know that nothing in the continuation and development resembles serial treatment.

The genesis of the wonderful relationship between the Ad Hoc String Quartet and my music was the performance of the Duet at the International Viola Congress in Evanston, Illinois, in June 1993. The program editor was none other than violinist Paul Vanderwerf, who came across my entry, sought out more information and ultimately telephoned me to ask if my string quartet music might be available to his ensemble. The rest, as the saying goes, is history...

Notes © 1996 by Arnold Rosner

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