Be.Four.Quartet

A couple of years ago Dave Davey and Annick Ansselin suggested and commissioned this unusual idea to me, to write a quartet based on 4 B’s-the great composers of the past whose names started with “B”: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Borodin. I pondered over this challenge over a few months and kept listening to these composers’ music, not just string quartets but many diverse works, in order to make a plan of how to go about it. In every piece I was searching for inspiration that would guide me towards my own composition.

While it was clear to me that the quoted motives should be recognisable I also felt that ultimately the whole quartet would have to sound like my piece and have unity. A little bit like with my earlier work “Re-Inventions” (based on Bach’s “Two-Part Inventions”), while working with original material of the B composer I also wanted to add my own original material to go alongside it.

Slowly the work started to form in my head and sometimes I was drawn to more than one motive of a composer and ultimately it felt like I needed one last movement, a fifth, to unite all four in one final movement, which is essentially a medley of their most famous tunes.

The quartet is in 5 movements:
I: Risoluto (resolute) - Based on Beethoven.
This movement starts similarly to quartet opus 127 first movement, but in a much darker key. Instead of original E flat major, my piece starts in C sharp minor and has quavers in Viola while the rest of the quartet have longer notes. Soon after, this material morphs into a quote from Beethoven’s famous Waldstein Sonata which becomes the pillar of this movement. I grew up listening to this piece, always marvelling at its drama, determination, passion and inventiveness. The drive of it is what fascinated me for this quartet and I added a tango- like syncopated motive later on in the movement. The strings have a real workout in this first movement and set the tone of strength for the whole piece.

II: Pensieroso (thoughtful) - Based on Bach.
This movement starts with the lonely “walking bass” in the Cello, with first Violin, then the rest of the quartet, entering with short Bach-like melodic cells. It starts as a moderately slow movement. But it gets energetic when Bach’s D minor Double Concerto is quoted.

III: Dolce (sweetly) - Based on Borodin.
After solid first two movements I felt it needed something a little less defined, more blurry, interwoven notes, atmospheric texture with some tremoli, and bouncing bows. Starting very quietly, a repeated figure begins preparing a famous Borodin Nocturne Melody from his second string quartet. It becomes the main material for this movement. Of course, my treatment of this melody is very different to the original, but the melody is clearly stated. I also use material from the other movement of the quartet later in the cello part.

IV: Con Amore (with love) - Based on Brahms.
This movement starts with harmonics in 5/4 in first violin, while the chords in the rest of the quartet grow into a broad melody, of which Brahms always had plenty, but here is my take on such a lyrical melody. After a short section of repeated chords Brahms’ famous horn solo from C minor 1st Symphony, 4th Movement is quoted in Viola and then moves to the first Violin.

V: Gigue of the Bees
This movement starts with a figure inspired by the sounds that the bees make. And their stings! It is a medley of all the 4 composers, it has Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Bach’s Oboe/Violin double concerto in C minor (in D minor here), Brahms’ Hungarian Dance, Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” from his opera “Prince Igor”. It is strung together by a recurring dance-like motive. Overall this movement is hoping to bring joy and sense of fun and the hypothetical idea what might happen if all these composers got together to have a jam session.

Elena Kats-Chernin, September 2024