My father spent a good deal of his time recording 20th century music onto reel-to-reels from Radio 3 during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. From these I was able to pick up much of the knowledge I gleaned about modern music, for which this was one of the few things I am eternally grateful to him. Before moving here in 2004 I made the most of the fact that his by then very old tape recorder was still just about performing to transfer what for me were the most valuable recordings onto audio cassettes, from which I now offer youtubes of two works broadcast in 1967 under the programme title The British String Quartet: Cyril Scott's Second String Quartet of 1951 - not 1960, as I had previously thought - and Alexander Goehr's Second String Quartet of 1967. I am particularly fortunate in that Goehr's own introduction to his work is included as a preamble in my tape. I always think of this quartet as Schoenberg's Fifth, since its idiom is most closely foreshadowed in Schoenberg's Fourth Quartet, and the extraordinary, late String Trio - for me one of my favourite works of his. It is one Goehr piece I can never have enough of.
The Scott is a fascinating example of his late work. He once asked Debussy if he found similarities between their music - to which Debussy is said to have replied in the negative; nevertheless he did at some point write to the effect that whereas he (Debussy) felt himself played out in the sense of having nothing further to contribute to music's evolution, Scott was the one who represented the future. Scott had devised a harmonic method of composing based on a chord similar to the "mystic chord" of Scriabin during the First World War period, which he pretty much stuck to for the remainder of his life, leading his music into expressive regions ever more remote from conventional tonality, while often resulting in a strange meandering sense of directionlessness which might be accounted for by his esoteric beliefs. The Second Quartet is more focussed than other works of this period, while bearing all the abovementioned harmonic hallmarks, and idiomatically betrays similarities to Vaughan Williams not otherwise apparent in his music, particularly in the slow second movement. The whole work holds an air of mystery that I find utterly bewitching.
The Goehr comes first.
The Scott is a fascinating example of his late work. He once asked Debussy if he found similarities between their music - to which Debussy is said to have replied in the negative; nevertheless he did at some point write to the effect that whereas he (Debussy) felt himself played out in the sense of having nothing further to contribute to music's evolution, Scott was the one who represented the future. Scott had devised a harmonic method of composing based on a chord similar to the "mystic chord" of Scriabin during the First World War period, which he pretty much stuck to for the remainder of his life, leading his music into expressive regions ever more remote from conventional tonality, while often resulting in a strange meandering sense of directionlessness which might be accounted for by his esoteric beliefs. The Second Quartet is more focussed than other works of this period, while bearing all the abovementioned harmonic hallmarks, and idiomatically betrays similarities to Vaughan Williams not otherwise apparent in his music, particularly in the slow second movement. The whole work holds an air of mystery that I find utterly bewitching.
The Goehr comes first.
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