American String Quartets, 1950-1970: The Music of Cage, Crumb, Hiller, Druckman, Feldman & Others (1995)

Covering the most fertile decades of the avant-garde movement in the United States, American String Quartets, 1950-1970 is a comprehensive survey of the most influential works in this concentrated genre. Broadly divided, these quartets represent either the full-flowering of post-Webern serialism or the more esoteric, philosophical conceptions of the group associated with John Cage. Several rely on tone rows and serial methods, notably the intensely organized quartets of Stefan Wolpe, Jacob Druckman, and Lejaren Hiller's controlled experiment with quarter tones. The works of Cage, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, and Morton Feldman are more freely derived, and their ideas range from the extreme pointillism of Wolff's "Summer" to the proto-ambience of Feldman's "Structures." Somewhat outside the serial/intuitive dichotomy are Leon Kirchner's "String Quartet No. 3" and George Crumb's "Black Angels." Both are augmented with electronic sounds or additional instruments, and the coloristic possibilities of the quartet are expanded in these innovative pieces. The Concord String Quartet made its debut with this recording, and it is wholly persuasive. Although its reading of "Black Angels" was arguably surpassed by the Kronos Quartet, the rest of the performances may be considered definitive.

CD 1

Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972)
Strings Quartet: (17:30)
1. ♪ = 92
2. ♪ = 144

Earle Brown (1926- )
String Quartet (11:51)

John Cage (1912-1992)
String Quartet in Four Parts: (21:44)
1. Quietly Flowing Along
2. Slowly Rocking
3. Nearly Stationary
4. Quodlibet

Leon Kirchner (1919- )
Quartet No. 3 for String Quartet and Electronic Tape (18:01)

Christian Wolff (1934- )
Summer (4:39)

CD 1

George Crumb (1929- )
Black Angels: (22:45)
1. Departure
2. Absence
3. Return

Lejaren Hiller (1924-1994)
String Quartet No. 5: (26:52)
1. Theme I
2. Variations
3. Theme II
4. Variations
5. Theme III
6. Variations
7. Theme IV

Jacob Druckman (1928-1996)
String Quartet No. 2 (18:40)

Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
Structures for String Quartet (5:56)


Concord String Quartet:
Mark Sokol, Violin
Andrew Jennings, violin
John Kochanowski, Viola
Norman Fischer, Cello


VoxBox CDX 5143