The String Quartet

A LIFE Institute CourseSession Four

Bob Fabianhttp://LIFEcourses.ca/Quartet

Today's Composers

● Sister & Brother– Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel 1805-1847

– Felix Mendelssohn (Bartholdy) 1809-1847

● Husband & Wife– Robert Schumann 1810-1856

– Clara Wieck Schumann 1819-1896

● Plus … – Anton Bruckner 1824-1896

Events: 1840 - 1850

● 1842 – New York Philharmonic & Vienna Philharmonic founded

● 1842 – British Massacred in Afghanistan● 1843 – Oregon Trail Opened● 1844 – First inter-city telegraph● 1846 – England (Canada) & US settle western

boundary● 1848 – Revolutions in France & Austria● 1849 – Gold discovered in California

Moses Mendelssohn 1729-1786

● Grandfather of Fanny & Felix● Son of Mendel (Mendel's Son)

● An impoverished scribe, a writer of torah scrolls

● 1763 won the Berlin Academy prize ● Essay on the application of mathematics to

metaphysics

● 1767 Phaedo or On the Immortality of Souls● Kant said of his words

● “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

● 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

● 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● 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

● Early, leading conductor who performed works from the past (as well as contemporary works)

● Viewed as a “conservative” composer and musician● Founded the Leipzig Conservatoire● Joined Handel & Haydn as leading “English”

composer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP_Q0B9d32I

Quartet Op. 80 No. 6

● Last string quartet, last major work● Composed after the death of Fanny● Viewed as “powerful and eloquent”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uncG48_L7mE

Quartet in Eflat major

● Was only allowed to be an amateur composer, but still ...

Quatuor Ebène 2012https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biWrI7O0s1U

Robert Schumann 1810-1856

● Last son of August Schumann, a bookseller, publisher and novelist

● Started piano lessons at age 7● By his teens was also a published author● Father insisted he study law

● “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

● 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, 1947https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhWdp1r63TY

Clara Wieck Schumann

● Nine years younger than Robert● 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 interviewStudying with Clara Schumann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0H0P6094-8

Piano Trio in G minor

Galos Piano TrioSt Martin in the Fields 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5dBOpy0_zg

Anton Bruckner 1824-1896

● 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 dramahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy8-X60Oz9E

Bruckner's 1862 String Quartet

Filarmonica QuartetChamber Hall of Novosibirsk Philharmonic, 2013https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKy7jfCQXb0

Next Week

● Brahms and the flowering of the German Romantic musical tradition

● Life-long friend of Clara Schumann

● Growth of “national” music – Russian, Czech, Hungarian, et al

● Focus on Smetana - “father of Czech music”

● Max Reger – transition to 20th century● And an interesting composer

Ending Bon-Bon ...

Radio String Quartet Vienna 2014https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdd2koQcDR0