Phantasy Quartet
Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten (1915-1976) was a prominent 20th century English composer, conductor, and pianist. His best-known works include his War Requiem, his opera Peter Grimes, and The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Britten was one of the most famous English composers of the 1900’s along with Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge (Britten’s teacher), and Michael Tippett.

Britten’s Op.2 Quartet, known more familiarly as his “Phantasy Quartet” is a quartet for violin, viola, cello, and oboe. This unique instrumentation was based on a similar quartet by Mozart, in which the oboe played a soloistic role in the ensemble. The quartet was first performed in a BBC Broadcast in 1933. Britten was eighteen when he composed the piece.

The Phantasy Quartet is a single fifteen-minute movement in arch form. Arch form is a musical form based around a symmetrical organization of musical sections. The piece will end as it begins, often with three sections- an A, B, and C section, which are organized in an A-B-C-B-A order to create a sense of stasis and symmetry. While the music progresses to new material, it will eventually rewind through the process until the opening becomes the ending.

The quartet opens with a march, starting with a muted cello emerging from silence, the viola, violin, and oboe follow in sequence. The march theme morphs into the theme of the following fast section (the B in our “ABCBCA”). The center of this form is a slower pastoral section in which the strings introduce a theme, then the oboe follows. True to form, after our central “C” section is followed by a return to the fast “B” section, and finally the march. Each instrument returns into the silence they emerged from in order—oboe, violin, viola, and finally cello.

This piece has always reminded me of taking a walk on a cold winter day. You set off thinking of where you’ll go, what route you’ll take, what you’ll see along the way. Eventually your mind wanders. You start thinking about anything and everything—problems you need to solve, things that happened in the past, or maybe a tune that’s been stuck in your head. You start to notice things around you. Maybe you notice a flock of geese, you see a stranger walking a dog, or maybe you find a really cool stick. Now it’s time to turn back. You return to your thoughts. They may be the same ones you were contemplating, or new ones informed by what you’ve just seen. Eventually you return home. Technically nothing has changed. You return home from your walk as the same person, to the same situation you left. However, you may feel like something about you has changed on another level.

Parrish Blue
Daniel Krenz

Written for my wife, this is one movement from my first string quartet. The title is a reference to the 20th century artist Maxfield Parrish who was known for his bold colors and evocative paintings. During his lifetime Parrish was one of the most successful artists, his painting “Daybreak” sold more prints than any other during the 20th century. His fame has faded a bit, unlike my love for Grace which has only increased.

- Daniel Krenz

Burn it Down
Rachel Smith

“Burn it Down” was written for Maria Gramelspacher in 2022 (revised in 2024). The goal was to create a piece that was both accessible on solo bass and also an outlet to express feelings of rage and frustration. I pulled from various different metal bands such as Primus, Rage Against the Machine, Iron Maiden, and Dream Theater to inspire the musical materials.

"you've got to burn
straight up and down
and then maybe sidewise
for a while
and have your guts
scrambled by a
bully
and the demonic
ladies,
you've got to run
along the edge of
madness
teetering,
you've got to starve
like a winter
alleycat,
you've go to live
with the imbecility
of at least a dozen
cities,
then maybe
maybe
maybe
you might know
where you are
for a tiny
blinking
moment."
— Charles Bukowski (Bone Palace Ballet)

Serenade for Strings
Josef Suk

Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk (1874-1935) was born in Křečovice, Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic). Suk was born into a musical family and studied violin, organ, and piano from a young age. His most prominent teacher was the renowned Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who would later become his father-in-law.  Suk was well recognized as both a composer and as the second violinist in the Czech Quartet.

Suk’s intimate knowledge of string chamber music particularly shines in his Serenade for Strings in E Flat Major. The Serenade was written while Suk was studying with Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory. A particular criticism that Dvořák had for his pupil’s work was a notable dour and melancholic tone prominent in most of his works. He assigned Suk to write something in a major key with a more optimistic feel. The Serenade was Suk’s response to this challenge. The first premiere was a partial premiere of only two movements in Tábor, 1983. The full premiere didn’t occur until 1895 in Prague. Suk’s more optimistic experiment was a proven success, even gaining recognition from legendary composer Johannes Brahms.

This opening movement (Andante con moto) is in sonata form (an opening theme, secondary theme, development of the themes—an exploration of what can be done with them, and recapitulation of the two themes). It also has the stylistic hallmarks of the era—sweeping lyrical melodies, rich harmonies, and lush orchestration. You would not be the first to find a similarity between Suk’s first movement and the opening movement to Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings. The pulsing motor in the inner voices and the sweeping lyrical melodies are remarkably similar.

The second movement (Allegro ma non troppo e grazioso) is definitely a reflection of Suk’s aim for a more light-hearted effect. The familiar folk-centric writing of Czech composers of the time is notable here. We begin the movement with a lively waltz feel. The second section of this movement is evocative of a Ländler, a Germanic folk dance in triple meter (think Sound of Music’s “Lonely Goatherd”).

The third movement (Adagio) is Suk at his most sentimental during the serenade. While the movement still adheres to the criteria of the challenge by sill being in a major key, the opening cello solo and lyrical melodies found in this movement create an emotionally charged experience in which the listener can hear Suk’s compositional voice loud and clear.

The fourth movement (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo presto) features more melodic material in the lower strings than in previous movements, interlocking violin parts, and particularly challenging string writing. With the virtuosic string parts Suk wrote in this final movement, it is clear to the listener of his prowess as a violinist.