String Quartet in G minor (Debussy)

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The String Quartet in G minor (Op. 10) is the only string quartet by Claude Debussy .

Origin and structure

Debussy composed the work in 1893 at the age of 31. At that time he was already a well-respected composer in France, especially after winning the prestigious Prix ​​de Rome in 1884. However, his own musical language, which was characteristic of him later, only developed at the time when the string quartet was composed, the one year later the Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune , considered one of his major works, followed.

With his composition, Debussy for the first time noticeably detached himself from the compositional guidelines of the Viennese classical music that shaped the genre of the string quartet , without giving up entirely. Various musical influences of the curious Debussy can also be traced in the work on the basis of his autobiographical information, such as his interest in contemporary Russian and German compositions, Javanese gamelan music, pentatonic and other musical influences outside his direct environment.

In striving for a symbiosis of different musical styles, he was inspired, among others, by Edvard Grieg , in particular his string quartet , the cyclical concept of his work with a motif that recurs in all movements is reminiscent of the music of César Franck . The quartet is conceived in a classic four-movement manner, but the arrangement of movements two and three (Scherzo and a slow Andantino) is unusual. The sentence names are:

  • Animé et très décidé
  • Assez vif et bien rythmé
  • Andantino, doucement expressif
  • Très modéré - Très mouvementé et avec passion

The work was premiered on December 29, 1893 in Paris by the Ysaÿe Quartet .

reception

The quartet received a mixed reception by the contemporary audience and was sometimes sharply attacked by traditionalist critics. Today it is considered a milestone in Debussy’s oeuvre and influenced later compositions in this genre as well, including the string quartets by Béla Bartók , Zoltán Kodály and Maurice Ravel .

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literature