Moving Shapes

F.J. Haydn String Quartet in D major, Op 71 No 2 '
Ruth Crawford String Quartet 1931
Elena Ruehr String Quartet No. 12 (world premiere)

Works written for string quartet serve as an ideal setting for innovation and composers use them as laboratories to experiment and create new forms from well established ones.  Franz Joseph Haydn wrote the Opus 71 set of string quartets to play in large concert halls for his second tour of London, public spaces with large audiences that contrast with the more intimate court settings for which he wrote his earlier works while in the service of the Esterhazy court.  Ruth Crawford’s String Quartet 1931, a defining work of American modernism, explored a sound world that influences composers to this day. This program concludes with the world premiere of Elena Ruehr’s String Quartet No. 12, “Moving Shapes”.  Written for the Arneis Quartet in 2024, these five movements were inspired by different kinds of shapes that move: a Fourier Transform, pinwheels, shifting clouds, sunlight reflecting on calm water, and turbulent ocean waves.

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