June 7, 2017

• Quartet Cycle Exploring Unique Approaches to Musical Elements

   

  Michael G. Cunningham: An Arc of Quartets
  Sirius Quartet; Moravian Quartet; Pedroia Quartet;
  New England String Quartet; Millenium Quartet
  Navona Records 6081
  Disc One—Total Time:  54:23
  Disc Two—Total Time:  38:01
  Recording:   ****/****
  Performance: ****/****

  The string quartet has always been the place where a composer can truly develop their style.  It provides an intimate setting and a breadth of opportunity that can address any number of musical elements and techniques as well as a fairly diverse set of formal possibilities.  Michigan-born composer Michael G. Cunningham can be heard exploring this in this new collection of seven quartets.  Cunningham taught at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for three decades and has a variety of works in his catalog.  The quartets here span fifty years of creativity.

  Composed in 1959, Cunningham’s first quartet is a very brief two-movement exploration.  The opening movement is a quick-paced set of variations.  It is followed by a beautifully lyrical “Song and Fantasia”.  This period of music is generally noted as one of experimentation and a further atonal alienation that often can leave listeners rather cold.  Cunningham’s music though tends to continue more along a thread in these early quartets that seems connected more to Bartok, though the harmonic language is quite different.  In his second quartet, with the subtitle “Three Satires”, he explores a host of approaches.  The first movement has a sort of traditional setting of interesting motifs that are tossed about the instruments with some great wit that can be heard, especially as one approaches cadences.  Clusters, a bit of Jazz, and a few South American flavors can be heard in this tightly-knit work.

  The third quartet appeared a decade later (1975) and is reflective of a period where composers continually were stripping away the detritus of large forms and honing in on smaller motivic ideas, or thematic development that was more unified across a work.  One can see this in this more classic four-movement quartet where even tempo indications are removed as a designation for a movement.  Here Cunningham explores the development across time where the opening movement’s material is the core from which springs the remaining movements.  This is a rather intriguing concept that is almost like a unique take on variations.  Each movement explores the original line of each instrument as the piece progresses with the final movement inverting the lines such that what was once the cello line is now at the top.

  The first disc concludes with the fairly intense fourth quartet, with the subtitle “Interlacings”.  Unlike the linear exploration of ideas in the previous quartet, this one, composed in 1985, weaves together the different lines to create ever-increasing dense texture.  Structurally as well, Cunningham frames two more traditional movements, a scherzo and an adagio.

  In his fifth quartet, “Aggregates” (1988), Cunningham moves more perhaps from a contrapuntal exploration, heard in the fourth quartet, to one that will explore denser harmonies.  This work too has an innate intensity that comes from incorporating all 12-tones but without really using a serial compositional approach to their organization.  The emotional direction of the work is communicated with a brief descriptive title for the movement.  Likely a closer set analysis might reveal the way the harmonic results have helped lend a hand in creating some additional shape to this equally intense work.

  “Digital Isorhythm” is the subtitle given to Cunningham’s sixth quartet which he states has some structural elements that are “computer assisted”.  It is part of the process of exploring rhythmic augmentation and diminution, a further breakdown of musical elements into their basic form that is then used to form the basis of the work.  Tension is created between the more natural, intuitive, rhythmic and musical expectations and those arrived at through compositional manipulation suggested by a computer.

  For what is his last quartet (to date), Cunningham returned to the more traditional exploration one might find in an appropriately subtitle, “Back Home.”  Indeed, we have come full circle to a traditional four-movement work with more formal structure against a relaxed, and perhaps more intuitive, musical language.

  The performances here were recorded over the last nine years with five different quartets.  While one might prefer a complete cycle with any single group, these recordings match up fairly well and have been done in such a way that the performers are not quite exploring the works in isolation.  The Sirius Quartet tackles the first two works quite well.  The Moravian Quartet explores pieces that are essentially 30-years apart providing a different perspective perhaps on the shift in style.  The more difficult central quartets were recorded with one ensemble which allowed no doubt proper time to really tackle the difficulties posed by this more modern music.   Cunningham’s music is enthralling.  One can hear the way his own compositional interests evolve across these works that explore the various techniques both of the genre, and theoretical constructs to experiment with along the way.  Each work holds up quite well and this makes the set an important addition to the repertoire.  More interesting for those exploring the composer’s music is to hold up these more personal expressions against his other larger-scale work, some of which has begun appearing on disc.  Highly Recommended.

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