Santa?

Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Coots, Gillespie, Arranged by George Andrews
What if Mozart wrote "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
Hampton String Quartet

While reading a history on bluegrass music, I came upon a marvelous thesis: that a style or genre is born not with the creator but with the first occurance of imitation by another composer or player (e.g. the Stanley Brothers imitating Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys). Dialog. How significant it is that a whole disc is based on the premise of arranging popular christmas songs as though they were Mozart string quartets. When Mozart published his six "Haydn Quartets" as a homage to Haydn's first significant forays in the string quartet form, this essential historical dialog that creates the genre had truly begun.

And what a charming job the Hampton String Quartet has done here. Is it Mozart or just a christmas tune? The effect I want to offer is the suprise of hearing how each christmas ditty becomes almost a probing essay. This is the effect of the genre of the string quartet. It may well be the essential feature of the string quartet. Each song becomes its own little fascinating world of complexity. It is quite true to Mozart's style. This selection contains at least one literal quote from a Mozart string quartet: the 1st movement of Mozart's string quartet K. 387 in G major, the first of the Haydn quartets.

Rigby

Elanor Rigby
The Beatles

A classic minature typical of the Beatles music where each song is distinctive and potent enough to create its own rich little world. The string quartet is essential to the mood: a sobering tale elevated to a passional moral outcry, agitated drama, aching sorrow and compassion, humble anonymous lives that become epic tragedy. Notice the key role played by the cello: it is synchronized with a recurring part of the lyric and melody. The notion of a small intimate chorus filling the volumnous universe with reverberating meaning is central to the string quartet.

Swine

Swine
The Juliet Letters
Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet

Elvis Costello is a brilliant musician. His diversity is astonishing while, to me, he maintains a consistent passion, authenticity and brilliant wit. His voice is a well-rewarded aquired taste. His parinig with the Brodsky Quartet is a grand event that is successful from a number of perspectives especially to the string quartet addict.

The Juliet Letters is a series of fictional letters, "sung" by Costello and the quartet. They were inspired by story about a cleric in Italy who took it upon himself to respond to real letters sent by writers around the world hoping to communicate with Shakespeare's Juliet: to emote about any number of issues entangled in the world of unsuccessful love. Original music, lyrics, and a novel ensemble. Once again, the string quartet appears to be the ideal medium for simultaneous intimacy and profundity and a smorgasbord of diverse moods and musical effects.

Swine is noteworthy to me for its brashness and startling energy. Rather than simply a popular song, it feels like a true contemporary string quartet of the utmost classic variety. The quartet maintains the lead in terms of weight and presense but Elvis delivers a brilliant recital within. The final effect feels like the dark cabaret of Brecht and Weil, maybe Dickens, and, well, how about Shakespeare?

By now, the curious power of the string quartet becomes apparent.

Kaizer

Mvt. 2, Poco Adagio. Cantabile.
String Quartet Op. 76 no. 3 "Emperor"
Franz Joseph Haydn
Tokyo String Quartet

The melody that became Deutschland Uber Alles, the German national anthem.

Wulfy's Valtz

Mvt. 3, Menuetto. Allegro.
String Quartet K, 428 in E flat major (Haydn Quartets)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Emerson Quartet

LudWigOut

Mvt. 3, Presto - Piu presto quasi prestissimo
String Quartet no. 10 in E flat, op. 74, "The Harp"
Ludwig Von Beethoven
Guarneri Quartet

A middle movement from a middle quartet. Brisk, serious, a minor key, then suddenly, the trio brings a bright fireworks display based on a seeminly basic exercise in the major scale. Though his music so often initially confronts us as natural to point of feeling basic, intuitive and stunninly familiar, there is certainly nothing basic about it. That is the delight.

Rushin' Psycho

Mvt. 2, Allegro molto
String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 in C minor
Dimitir Shostakovich
Coull String Quartet

Wow.

Adagio

Mvt. 2, Molto Adagio (omitting the Molto allegro finale)
String Quartet, Op, 11
Samuel Barber
Chester String Quartet

Normally heard in an orchestral arrangement named Adagio for Strings. But this mystical masterpiece began life as a string quartet.

Rose

Es is ein Ros entsprungen (Lo er a Rose is Blooming)
Arturo Delmoni and friends

Such a beauful carol. I don't yet know of its history. Surely German.

Cover Art