String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 37, is a composition for string quartet by Karol Szymanowski. It was the first of the two string quartets composed by Szymanowski. The work is from 1917 during his middle period. [1] [2] It is notable for its "polytonal" third movement, which contains four key signatures in its written four parts: the first violin with 3 sharps, the second violin with 6 sharps, the viola with 3 flats, and the cello with no flats or sharps. [3]
Dedicated to the French musicologist Henry Prunières, the work won the first prize in the Polish Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment's chamber music competition. Its first public performance was in Warsaw on 7 March 1924 played by the Warsaw Philharmonic Quartet. [3] Szymanowski planned on including a fourth movement, a fugal finale, but the idea ultimately got scrapped. [4] A performance usually lasts 17-18 minutes.
String quartets who have recorded the piece include: [5]
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century.
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String Quartet No. 1 "Already it is Dusk" Op. 62, is a composition for string quartet by Henryk Górecki. Written in 1988 after a long period of focus on vocal music, it was first performed by the Kronos Quartet on 21 January 1989 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. All three of Górecki's string quartets were written for the Kronos Quartet. It is published by Boosey & Hawkes and PWM Edition.