Composer: Brian Boydell (b. 1917 - d. 2000)
Performance date: 30/06/2006
Venue: Bantry Library
Composition Year: 1957
Duration: 00:14:02
Recording Engineer: Anton Timoney, RTÉ lyric fm
Instrumentation: 2vn, va, vc
Instrumentation Category:String Quartet
Artists:
Carducci Quartet (Matthew Denton, Michelle Fleming [violins], Eoin Schmidt-Martin [viola], Emma Denton [cello]) -
[quartet]
The
first movement, which is mainly fairly slow, opens with a very quiet motif, in
which the harmonies, with their bare fourths and fifths, owe something to the
flavour of certain types of medieval music. This motif, in less developed form,
was used earlier in the composer’s Divertimento for Three Music-Makers, and in
this quartet, the latent possibilities of this idea are greatly expanded and
developed.
The quiet opening gradually assumes a more passionate expression, and is then
interrupted by a more restless section, with repeated notes. Further
development of the first idea follows this, and the movement ends very quietly,
as it began.
The second movement is mainly a violent presto, with constantly changing metre,
driving restlessly towards a climax. This main section is preceded by an
Allegro Introduction, which appears as a key-stone after a quieter middle
section, and also as a conclusion to the movement. The middle section still
contains the irregular rhythms which pervade the movement, but is less
impetuous and more melodic (displaying a ‘spikey’ tune with a nervous
hesitation which is treated canonically).
Whereas the first movement is mainly lyrical in character, the only lyricism in
the finale is one short passage in the middle section.
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