String Quartet No. 1 (Kodály)
The String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 is one of two string quartets by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály .
Origin, structure and style
Although the work has a very low number of opuses, Kodály had long since made a name for himself as a skilled composer before the quartet premiered in 1910. Earlier works had already been performed with success. Since 1907 the young musician has also been a lecturer at the Franz Liszt Music Academy , where he had previously studied. Around the same time he began to study the music of the impressionist Claude Debussy intensively , including his early string quartet . Based on the concept of maintaining the classical form of the string quartet as the basic structure, but adding unconventional and modern components to it, Kodály created a work with an original tonal language. The sentences are:
- Andante poco rubato - Allegro
- Lento assai - Tranquillo
- Presto
- Allegro
The work is classically designed in four movements. A sonata movement is followed by a slow one, the Scherzo then leads on to the finale, which consists of virtuoso and lively variations of the preceding movements. A late romantic , very melodic, moderately modern style prevails , in which the boundaries of tonality are occasionally broken through by unconventional voice guidance and bitonal elements. Motifs from Hungarian folk music that were to become characteristic of Kodály are processed as well as “genre recitations”, such as the echo of a funeral march in the second movement.
Performance and reception
The work celebrated its premiere in March 1910 during a concert festival in Budapest, at which Béla Bartók's first string quartet was also premiered. The works of the two composers, who were close friends throughout their lives, were both enthusiastically received and quickly recognized internationally. They are considered to be the double birth of modern Hungarian chamber music. However, Bartók's chamber music output was soon to surpass Kodály's by far. While Bartók's six string quartets are among the most important of the modern era , Kodály composed only one more (op. 10), which found comparatively little circulation. Both of Kodály's quartets are still performed and recorded on various occasions.
literature
- Beat Föllmi (Ed.): The string quartet in the first half of the 20th century , Verlag Hans Schneider , Tutzing 2004
- Friedhelm Krummacher : History of the String Quartet , Volume 3, Laaber-Verlag , Regensburg 2005
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Winterhager: The first string quartet by Zoltán Kodály , in: Beat Föllmi (Ed.): The string quartet in the first half of the 20th century , Verlag Hans Schneider , Tutzing 2004
- ↑ Friedhelm Krummacher: History of the String Quartet , Volume 3, Laaber-Verlag , Regensburg 2005, pp. 84 ff.