String Quartet No. 6 (Hill)

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String Quartet No. 6 in G major "The Kids", Stiles 1.2.3.3 SQ6, [1] by Alfred Hill bears dedication: "for the young fry at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music". It was most likely written for the student string quartet groups at the Conservatorium mentored by the composer. [2] The manuscript is dated 3 September 1927. [3] Its technical demands being limited, it is an accessible for amateurs composition. The quartet is set in earlier style, reminiscent of Haydn, Schubert, and other classical composers. [4] With approximate duration of only 15–16 minutes, this is the shortest of all Hill's quartets.

Contents

Structure

The quartet is in four movements. [5]

I. Allegro (G major)
II. Scherzo. Allegro (E-flat major)
III. Adagio ma non troppo (C minor)
IV. Finale. Allegretto (G major)

Editions

Recordings

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Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Stiles 1.2.1.6 So2, is a sonata for violin and piano by Alfred Hill completed at the beginning of 1906. Its manuscript is at the National Library of Australia. It bears inscription: Island Bay Wellington N.Z. 10th January 1906. The sonata is dedicated to an Australian violinist Cyril Monk, Hill's pupil in theory and composition. Its approximate duration is 16 minutes.

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String Quartet No. 7 in A major, Stiles 1.2.3.3 SQ7, by Australian composer Alfred Hill was commenced in Melbourne and finished in Sydney on 18 November 1934, as stated in the manuscript score preserved in the National Library of Australia. It is thought to be the last of Hill's middle period quartets, with some impressionistic features being transitional to his later compositions. Approximate duration is 20,5 minutes.

String Quartet No. 8 in A major, Stiles 1.2.3.3 SQ8, by Australian composer Alfred Hill was finished half month after his Seventh: the manuscript score and parts, which are preserved in the National Library of Australia, are dated 6 December 1934. While the previous quartet was a somewhat transitive composition from his middle period, with the Eighths one starts counting Hill's late quartets. It is thematically unified and has many impressionistic features. In 1950s Hill arranged it into a string symphony, the first known performance of which was on 27 March 1957. The approximate duration of the quartet is 25–28 minutes.

References

  1. Allan Stiles. A Catalogue of the Music of Alfred Hill
  2. Alfred Hill's second wife, Mirrie Hill, in a 1971 interview mentions "the boys" coming round for quartet practice (Melissa Rogers. Revisiting Alfred Hill (1869–1960): Examining issues of reception and compositional approach , PhD thesis. Sydney: UNSW, 2018)
  3. Library catalogue entry for the manuscript score and parts
  4. Donald Maurice. Booklet notes to Naxos 8.572097
  5. Stiles Music Publications