String Quartet No. 2 (Haas)

Pavel Haas composed his second string quartet, Op. 7, titled "From the Monkey Mountains" (Czech: "Z opičích hor"), in 1925, three years after he finished his studies of composition at the Leoš Janáček´s masterclass.

Background

The title of the quartet is somewhat provocative in the Czech language, the "Monkey Mountains" used to be a nickname of the Vysočina Region (Moravian Highlands), a popular touristic area in that time. The composition was premièred in Brno on 16 March, 1926, by Moravian Quartet. The first performance was not well received, Haas used in the last movement the percussions in the combination with other unusual elements, and using this daring experiment wasn´t very successful. The ensemble continued to play only the quartet version.cite album-notes |title=Leoš Janáček: Intimate Letters, Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 2 |albumlink= |bandname=Pavel Haas Quartet |year=2006 |notestitle= |url= |first=Jiří |last=Beneš |authorlink= |coauthors=(transl. Whang, Ted) |pages=p. 5-6 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU 3877-2 |location=Prague |mbid= ]

Structure

The composition consists of four movements:
*1. Landscape ("Krajina") - Andante
*2. Coach, Coachman and Horse ("Kočár, kočí a kůň") - Andante
*3. The Moon and I... ("Měsíc a já...") - Largo e misterioso
*4. Wild Night ("Divá noc") - Vivace e con fuoco

The titles of the four parts give the impression of atmospheric scenes from a summer recreation.cite album-notes |title=Leoš Janáček: Intimate Letters, Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 2 |albumlink= |bandname=Pavel Haas Quartet |year=2006 |notestitle= |url= |first=Jiří |last=Beneš |authorlink= |coauthors=(transl. Whang, Ted) |pages=p. 5-6 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU 3877-2 |location=Prague |mbid= ] The first part opens with a calm atmosphere, and gradually develops into the monumental movement with a rich onomatopoeic structure. The opening theme and tempo of the second movement is very similar to the first one, it works with the three subjects identified in the title. The part "Moon and I..." is the most personal movement of the compositioncite album-notes |title=Leoš Janáček: Intimate Letters, Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 2 |albumlink= |bandname=Pavel Haas Quartet |year=2006 |notestitle= |url= |first=Jiří |last=Beneš |authorlink= |coauthors=(transl. Whang, Ted) |pages=p. 5-6 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU 3877-2 |location=Prague |mbid= ] , with the festive culmination and return to the calm "landscape" of the first movement. The closing part uses folk melodies mixed with jazz elements and with unusual applying of the percussion instruments.cite album-notes |title=Leoš Janáček: Intimate Letters, Pavel Haas: String Quartet No. 2 |albumlink= |bandname=Pavel Haas Quartet |year=2006 |notestitle= |url= |first=Jiří |last=Beneš |authorlink= |coauthors=(transl. Whang, Ted) |pages=p. 5-6 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU 3877-2 |location=Prague |mbid= ]

The approximate duration of the work is 32 minutes.

References

External links

[http://www.radio.cz/en/article/89289 Info on Czech Radio]