String Quartet no. 3 (2017)
I. Adagio-Allegro appassionato
II. Menuetto (Allegro Moderato)-Trio
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro molto
My third string quartet is long, passionate, and complex in structure, composed in the tradition of Beethoven’s late quartets. The first movement bends and stretches classical sonata form into something freer and more various, but still motivically unified. It begins in the “wrong” key, avoids a convincing cadence until the end of the exposition, and foreshadows one of the secondary theme in the introduction so that first becomes second, and second, first.
The second movement is a minuet and trio. The minuet, with its pizzicatos and syncopations, has a subdued melancholy echoing Brahms, while the rough-mannered, cheerful trio, with its use of drones, recalls Haydn’s “folk music” affect.
The Adagio movement is a free hybrid of sonata-rondo and theme and variation forms. The main theme is clear variation of the tender, slow theme that began the first movement, while the fugato that follows is based on the austere transition to the Allegro.
The finale is a sprightly, puckish Rondo in G minor.
String Quartet no 3 in G minor