When I woke up yesterday morning, I had no idea I was going to be playing string quartets that evening, but an email from a friend I hadn't played with in a while started the ball rolling, and we ended up having a quartet session. Since it was Mozart's birthday, we played only Mozart. I'm not sure that's the wisest course: it can easily lead to a case of Stendhal syndrome. But it was definitely fun.
We started with the A major, K464, fifth of the six Mozart dedicated to Haydn. (I find it a little frustrating that these six quartets are usually referred to as a group as the "Haydn" quartets: that's quite confusing! Since they were published together as Opus 10, I'd prefer to use that name, but I doubt I'll be able to get anyone to go along with me.)
Our image of Mozart as a composer is that everything just came to him, fully formed, and all he had to do was write it down. (One of Mozart's autograph scores has the notation, "written while playing skittles".) But that was apparently not true of these quartets; in the dedication to Haydn, Mozart writes "They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavor". And that's evident from the fragment, K464a, which I played last week: it was almost definitely going to be the last movement of the A major quartet, before Mozart thought the better of it. I got the group tonight to read through it after the third movement of this quartet, before moving on to the published finale. And I have to say, in my opinion, Mozart made the right choice. This finale is wonderful, particularly in how a theme that shows up in the middle of the exposition dominates the development, and keeps going right into the recapitulation, adding a whole new layer to what was already a fairly complex texture.
We played three other quartets, the "Hoffmeister" in D major, K499, and then two more from the Opus 10, the E-flat major, K428, and the B-flat major "Hunt", K458. I'm afraid I have to admit that my memory of these is rather jumbled together, but the beginning of the E-flat major sticks out in my mind. First, because it has the entire quartet in unison and octaves, a great effect but one that always strikes fear into my heart, because the slightest intonation problem will stick out like a sore thumb. But also because it's a great example of Mozart's love of chromaticism (including pitches not from the scale of the key the piece is in). After the first octave leap, there is a sequence of nine different pitches. Three-quarters of a tone row! And yet Mozart makes it work, seemingly effortlessly.
I wrote a while ago that only Shostakovich really understood the viola, but I take it back: Mozart gets it, too. Not surprising, because he tended to play viola when he played string quartets. My goodness, Mozart writes some wonderful viola parts, and they almost all lie completely under the hand. Although there are passages that make me suspect that Mozart had particularly large hands. :-)
Two comments about old and new technology. I'm trying out a viola bow that a friend of mine wants to sell, and I'm becoming more and more enamored of it. Things I have trouble with when using my own bow (like avoiding skittering when playing a long, soft note after loud passages) just seem to work with this one. I wonder what properties bows have that make them so different? I work for a company that creates mechanical analysis software; I wonder if anyone has tried to model bows?
This was also the first evening trying out the full set of white LED downlights in my living room. They received praise, for the combination of strong light, good color, and lack of heat (13 watt white LEDs replacing 75 watt halogens!). As an electrical engineer, I'm delighted that we finally have such a good technology for lighting. Now we just have to be patient as the price comes down...
P. S. In case I didn't make it clear, I invite comments and questions on this blog. In particular, I'm not quite sure who my audience is (besides myself :-) so I don't know how much to explain. Let me know!
It turns out that I left "don't allow anonymous comments" on by default. I've changed that, so anyone can comment. Pick "anonymous" if you don't have or don't want to use any of the other options. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteTo combine the Stendhal syndrome, Mozart, bow dynamics and LED lighting in one blog is wonderful, my friend.
ReplyDeleteOn bows modeling, here is an interesting paper on modeling of different strokes: http://articles.ircam.fr/textes/Rasamimanana06a/index.pdf
It is more about what makes a gesture rather than what makes a good bow.
This study is as close as you are going to get to your question of what makes a good bow from a scientific experimental method:
http://articles.ircam.fr/textes/Causse01a/index.pdf
They looked at mechanical issues (i.e. stiffness, tension, weight, density, modal analysis, etc.) and their conclusion was... well that it is a very difficult subject and should be studied some more!!
People have also modeled LED lights. I wonder if their life is as long as advertised. I have found that not to be true with CFLs. Please keep track and let me know.
"it is a very difficult subject and should be studied some more!!"
ReplyDeleteIsn't that always the conclusion of a scientific paper? :-)
The white LED lights have some burn-in problems (one is flashing occasionally), but I'm still happy with them in general. I'll keep track of the lifetime, but I think that it's very likely they'll last as long as advertised. LED technology is quite old, after all, and the white ones aren't that different from the red ones that have been around since the 1960s.
I remember when my friend Kathleen was studying piano sound boards and psycho-acoustics at MIT, trying to understand the relationship between structure and sound. I think this is harder than the average topic because so much of perception is personal and not quantifiable.
ReplyDeleteNot true about the lifetime of LED lights which can be measured and statistically analyzed.
I don't agree with you observation about LEDs being an old technology - at least not for lighting applications.
While the principles are the same, the power density of the white LED lights are much higher than the little red ones. And so the cooling issues are much harder.