String Quartet No. 9 (Simpson)

The String Quartet No. 9 by Robert Simpson was composed in 1982 in response to a request by the Delme String Quartet for a work to mark the dual occasion of the 20th anniversary of their quartet and the 250th anniversary of the birth of Haydn. Robert Simpson dedicated his String Quartet No. 9 ‘In affection and admiration’Fact|date=July 2008 to the players, marking the dual occasion by making the work a very large set of variations on a Haydn theme.

This quartet is an hour long work comprising of the theme from the minuet of Haydn’s 47th Symphony and 32 variations on the theme, followed by a large-scale fugue, also based on the theme. The theme used for the quartet is a palindrome, and each of Simpson’s 32 variations on it are also palindromic. No previous composer has ever undertaken such a task of palindromic writing on such a scale before, and furthermore it is one of the longest unbroken spans of string quartet writing ever composed.

The first three variations are drawn from an earlier set of variations written in a work from 1948, Variations on a Haydn Theme, for solo piano. The first fourteen variations of this quartet can be seen as a kind of “first movement”, being vigorous and predominantly fast in tempo, moving towards the climax (variation 14).

Variations 15 and 16 are much longer than most of the previous variations and together form a sort of “slow movement” of around six-minutes in length. These two variations are deeply reflective and form a canonic pair. They, like variations 13 and 14, are musical Siamese twins, and overlap each other, sharing internal organs. Where one might say that Haydn held a mirror vertically at the end of the first half of his minute, Simpson places an additional mirror horizontally through the music, producing an unusual re-assortment of parts in variation 16.

Variations 17 to 20 form a kind of scherzo, beginning softly (like flickering moths) and gradually gaining in volume. Another slow and reflective variation, no. 21, appears. Following variation 21 are the variations that make up another vigorous allegro, nos. 22 – 25. In Variation 25, another emotional climax is reached. The following two variations, nos. 26 and 27, are sunny and warmly reflective, reminding one of the wide range of human emotions encompassed by the quartet. The following two variations, nos. 28 and 29, return to the vigour of nos. 22 – 25, the severity and intensity increased. Variation 29 ends abruptly, giving way to the final ‘part’ of the work.

Variations 30 – 32 are very slow and rather solemn, leading into the enormous fugal finale. The finale begins sadly, being one of the most directly communicative emotional passages in any of Simpson’s string quartets, yet still hinting a sense of optimism. The fugue gradually gains in momentum until enormous vigour and intensity is reached, the instruments being pulled to a close by the first violin’s insistence on the open G string – acting like a vortex of a whirlpool, irresistibly drawing all the other instruments from the musical maelstrom into itself.

A typical performance of this work lasts approximately 55 to 60 minutes.

Discography

Currently, the only commercially available CD is a Hyperion Records release performed by the Delme Quartet . [Andrew Jacksons, " [http://members.aol.com/dmlovelock/simpson_recordings.htm Recordings and Reviews of Simpson's Works] . Accessed 5 July 2008]

References