STRING QUARTET No 2
2009 (rev. 2011)
2017 Edition
Full Score
Commissioned for Musica Viva Australia by Kim Williams
Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd
Sydney, NSW
Wise
Paul Stanhope
STRING QUARTET No 2
I Prelude II Flight
III Dirge (Variations)
IV Scherzo
duration circa 21 minutes
StringQuartetNo.2wascommissionedforMusicaVivaAustraliabyKimWilliams
The first performance was by the Pavel Haas String Quartet in Armidale Town Hall, Armidale NSW on Wednesday 21 July 2010.
H → = Hauptstimme (main voice)
N → = Nebenstimme (secondary voice)
If this work is to be performed publicly as a live concert, permission must be secured from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Locked Bag 5000 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
Tel: +61 2 9935 7900
Email: apra@apra.com.au
If this work is to be streamed, synchronised or performed publicly as an opera, ballet or theatrical dramaticomusical performance, a grand rights and/or synchronisation licence must be secured from Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd.
Tel: +61 2 8252 6200
Email: classical@wisemusic.com
Copyright © 2025 by G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW, a division of Wise Music Group International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorised reproduction of any part of this publication by any means including photocopying is an infringement of copyright.
In writing this quartet for its premiere season with the Pavel Haas String Quartet, I initially started to reflect on the fate of the Czech composer, who met a tragically early end in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz. Subsequently this led me to contemplate those individuals who managed to flee from the persecution and tyranny of war-torn Europe in the mid Twentieth Century and make a new life for themselves in Australia – many of whom have made extraordinary contributions to their new country; people such as the scientist Sir Gustav Nossal whose family fled Austria after the Nazi occupation, or Richard Goldner who established what has now become Musica Viva. My second string quartet examines aspects of the relationship between old Europe and the new world and ideas of finding one’s authentic self in a new cultural context.
The references in this piece to the great tradition of string quartet writing – itself emblematic of old Europe – should be obvious: the use of a slow introduction (a la Haydn), a set of variations and a Scherzo. There are also some quasi-programmatic elements to the piece, with the second movement ‘Flight’ suggesting an urgent escape from dangerous surroundings, the funereal third movement (which marks the tragic and untimely passing of Pavel Haas) and a brighter finale that emerges from darkness and looks forward to the creative possibilities of integrating tradition within a new context.
The four conjoined movements of this piece can be described as follows:
1. Prelude, a short introductory slow movement [Poco Adagio] that introduces material (rising and falling tones separated by semitones) which is found throughout the work. We also hear a tremolo figure of a minor third and a sighing, descending glissando. These motifs refer to folk and traditional music from Eastern Europe and perhaps even from the middle-East.
2. Flight – the title refers to the idea of fleeing or escaping rather than the more peaceful image of soaring through the air. This movement, marked Allegro Furioso is urgent and energetic in character. The opening figure is based on an inverted form of the motif heard in the first movement. Its insistent, tightly-controlled motivic cells propel the movement headlong with a great sense of momentum and exigency until it finally succumbs to a panicked morass of semitone clusters.
3. Dirge (Variations) - this movement is characterized by slow and sombre material introduced first by solo cello, then one by one the other instruments are added. The word ‘dirge’ not only refers to a piece of music associated with a funeral or solemn
occasion but also has the association of slow and perhaps, heavy music. I have tried to play with these perceptions in this movement with an increasingly playful set of variations over a theme that seems to be not completely remembered – as if it were a distant and faulty recollection. Each of the variations finishes higher (usually a 5th) than the previous one begins which has the effect of the music rising from the very low range of the viola and cello up to a point where all the material is played in the upper reaches of the instruments, using high harmonics. And just like a tightly wound mechanism, the music then unravels more quickly in a downward, spiralling harmonic progression. Here the material becomes more elastic and exuberant until the instruments, one by one, take their leave until only the cello remains.
4. Scherzo - so called because of its (mostly) light-hearted character. It begins with the introduction of a veiled (and considerably adapted) traditional Hebrew melody in the first violin, against more nebulous, shimmering textural effects from the other instruments. Cross-rhythmic pizzicato ostinatos in groups of 7's against 5's are then introduced. This movement, which begins with folk-fiddle-like strains, ends exuberantly after a series of rhythmically driven episodes. The main thematic material is stated in an ecstatic burst employing bright string voicings, suggesting unbridled optimism.
© Paul Stanhope