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The String Quartet
A LIFE Institute Course
Session Four
Bob Fabian
http://LIFEcourses.ca/Quartet
Today's Composers
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Sister & Brother
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Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel 1805-1847
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Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy) 1809-1847
Husband & Wife
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Robert Schumann 1810-1856
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Clara Wieck Schumann 1819-1896
Plus …
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Anton Bruckner 1824-1896
Events: 1840 - 1850
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1842 – New York Philharmonic & Vienna
Philharmonic founded
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1842 – British Massacred in Afghanistan
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1843 – Oregon Trail Opened
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1844 – First inter-city telegraph
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1846 – England (Canada) & US settle western
boundary
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1848 – Revolutions in France & Austria
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1849 – Gold discovered in California
Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786
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Grandfather of Fanny & Felix
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Son of Mendel (Mendel's Son)
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An impoverished scribe, a writer of torah scrolls
1763 won the Berlin Academy prize
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Essay on the application of mathematics to
metaphysics
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1767 Phaedo or On the Immortality of Souls
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Kant said of his words
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“The proclamation of a great reform, which,
however, will be slow in manifestation and in
progress, and which will affect not only your people
but others as well.”
Mendelssohn & Co. 1795-1939
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1795: Founded by Joseph Mendelssohn, son of
Moses Mendelssohn
1804: His brother, Abraham (Fanny & Felix's
father), joined the firm
Leading European bank until divested by the
Nazis in 1939
Fanny & Felix
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Fanny was the older, more musically talented, sister,
… but she was female
Felix was born in 1809 in Hamburg, an independent
city-state
Family moved to Berlin in 1811
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The bank helped break Napoleon's Continental System blockade
and retribution was feared
Felix began piano lessons at age 6, started composing
for family musical evenings at 9
Fanny & Felix raised without religion, baptized by
Reformed Minister in 1816; added Bartholdy to name
Mendelssohn & Bach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfNjEykmWAA
Pioneered Historical Performance
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Early, leading conductor who performed works from
the past (as well as contemporary works)
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Viewed as a “conservative” composer and musician
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Founded the Leipzig Conservatoire
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Joined Handel & Haydn as leading “English”
composer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP_Q0B9d32I
Quartet Op. 80 No. 6
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Last string quartet, last major work
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Composed after the death of Fanny
Viewed as “powerful and eloquent”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uncG48_L7mE
Quartet in Eflat major
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Was only allowed to be an amateur composer,
but still ...
Quatuor Ebène 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biWrI7O0s1U
Robert Schumann 1810-1856
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Last son of August Schumann, a bookseller, publisher
and novelist
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Started piano lessons at age 7
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By his teens was also a published author
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Father insisted he study law
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“My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it
Music and Law.”
Studied with Friederich Wieck, injured his hand, future
was as composer (and critic), not pianist
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Met the very young Clara Wieck
Robert Schumann biography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_4eve-9lKY
Amaryllis Quartett (Madrid)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEgWmZhO8Q0
The Great Love Story
Metro Godwyn Mayer, 1947
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhWdp1r63TY
Clara Wieck Schumann
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Nine years younger than Robert
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Her father did not approve, court battle required to marry Robert
Was a respected and financially successful pianist –
supported the family
Brahms became a life-long friend
Robert died in 1856, Clara continued to perform and
teach until her death in 1896
Adelina de Lara (1872-1961) radio interview
Studying with Clara Schumann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0H0P6094-8
Piano Trio in G minor
Galos Piano Trio
St Martin in the Fields 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5dBOpy0_zg
Anton Bruckner 1824-1896
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Bruckner's grandfather and father were
schoolmasters in Ansfelden (near Linz)
At 13, Bruckner's father died, he want to
Sankt Florian to be a choirboy
Early life as schoolmaster's assistant,
developed skill as organist
By 1868, became teacher of music at
the Vienna Conservatory
Reappraisal: praise as a pioneering
composer
Shy, uncertain of himself, never married
Ken Russell's TV Dramatization
1989 TV drama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy8-X60Oz9E
Bruckner's 1862 String Quartet
Filarmonica Quartet
Chamber Hall of Novosibirsk Philharmonic, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKy7jfCQXb0
Next Week
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Brahms and the flowering of the German
Romantic musical tradition
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Growth of “national” music – Russian, Czech,
Hungarian, et al
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Life-long friend of Clara Schumann
Focus on Smetana - “father of Czech music”
Max Reger – transition to 20th century
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And an interesting composer
Ending Bon-Bon ...
Radio String Quartet Vienna 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdd2koQcDR0