View source for String Quartets 1–3

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = String Quartets 1-3
| type       = studio
| artist     = [[Michael Nyman]] and [[Balanescu Quartet]]
| cover      = Nymanstringquartets1-3.jpg
| alt        =
| caption    = art by Paul Richards<br />clockwise from top left: Balanescu, Musker, Hinnigan, Carney
| released   = June 14, 1991
| recorded   = November 1990, [[Church Studios]], [[Crouch End]] using [[B & W Loudspeakers]]
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = [[Contemporary classical music]], [[Chamber music]], [[string quartet]], [[minimalist music]]
| length     = 63:17
| label      = [[Argo Records|Argo]]
| producer   = [[Andrew Cornall]]
| chronology = Michael Nyman
| prev_title = [[La Sept (album)|La Sept]]
| prev_year  = 1989
| next_title = [[Prospero's Books]]
| next_year  = 1991
| misc       = {{Extra chronology
 | artist     = Balanescu Quartet
 | type       = Studio
 | prev_title =
 | prev_year  =
 | title      = String Quartets 1-3
 | year       = 1991
 | next_title = Byrne/Lurie/Moran/Torke
 | next_year  = 1992
}}
{{Extra album cover
 | header  = 1991 Alternative Cover
 | type    = Studio
 | cover   = Altsq1-3.jpg
 | border  =
 | alt     =
 | caption =
}}
  {{Extra album cover
 | header  = 2002 Decca Reissue
 | type    = Studio
 | cover   = NymanBritishComposers.jpg
 | border  =
 | alt     =
 | caption =
}}
}}
'''''String Quartets 1–3''''' is a 1991 album by the [[Balanescu Quartet]] ([[Alexander Balanescu]], [[Jonathan Carney]], [[Kate Musker]], and Tony Hinnigan) and the fifteenth release by [[Michael Nyman]].  It is the second album of his music (after ''[[Out of the Ruins]]'') on which he did not perform or conduct, though he does provide [[liner note]]s.  ''String Quartet No. 3'' is built out of ''Out of the Ruins'' and became a fixture in numerous Nyman film scores in the 1990s.

The album was issued by [[Argo Records]] with two different covers.  [[Decca Records]] reissued the album in the UK on July 8, 2002, as part of the British Music Collection, giving it yet a third cover.

Nyman's four string quartets are the subject of chapter 7 in Pwyll ap Siôn's ''The Music of Michael Nyman:  Texts, Contexts, and Intertexts''.<ref>[[Aldershot]], Hants: [[Ashgate Publishing]], 2007</ref>

The album is the first of several recordings of the Nyman string quartets.  [[The Lyric Quartet]] would also record String Quartets 2 and 3, and sections of ''[[The Suit and the Photograph#String Quartet No. 4|String Quartet No. 4]]'' on ''[[String Quartets 2, 3 & 4/If & Why]]'' (2002).  The Nyman Quartet (Musker and Hinnigan with violinists [[Gabrielle Lester]] and Catherine Thompson), according to the liner notes of ''[[Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit]]'' (2006), is set to record all four some time in the future.

The album was reissued by [[MN Records]] with a new cover and liner notes in November 2012.  This edition is subtitled "Chamber Music Vol. II".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Nyman-Quartets-Nos-1-3-Balanescu-Quartet/dp/B0094BDP5I/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1369241932&sr=8-22&keywords=michael+nyman|title = String Quartets Nos 1-3|website = Amazon}}</ref>  It is not the aforementioned rerecording.

==String Quartet No. 1==
The ''String Quartet No. 1'' (1985) was commissioned by the [[Arditti Quartet]].  Nyman had attended a performance of [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s ''[[Grosse Fuge]]'' by the group, and found it the most theatrical performance on a string quartet he had ever witnessed, performed as though Beethoven had been trying to break through the limitations of the string quartet to create an orchestral sound.  The quartet was originally intended to be a "compendium" of string quartet literature, but he decided that two pieces from different eras were enough of a contrast.  It is built out of three distinct and diverse pre-existing music sources:  [[John Bull (composer)|John Bull]]'s ''[[Walsingham Variations]]'', [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s ''[[String quartets (Schoenberg)#String Quartet No. 2|String Quartet No. 2]]'', and [[Alex North]]'s "[[Unchained Melody]]".  The use of Bull is an homage to his professor, [[Thurston Dart]], who presented Nyman with the ''[[Musica Britannica]]'' edition of Bull's keyboard works as a graduation gift.  "[[Walsingham (song)|Walsingham]]" was a popular song in Bull's time, and Nyman's use of "Unchained Melody" (originally written for a [[1955 in film|1955]] [[prison]] film titled ''[[Unchained (film)|Unchained]]'' and famously [[cover version|covered]] by [[The Righteous Brothers]], and the favorite song of Nyman's wife, Aet) is a contemporary equivalent.  As noted by Pwyll Ap Siôn,<ref>p. 165</ref> "Unchained Melody" is musically related to "Walsingham", as its opening three-note pattern of C-D-E is a slight variation of the melody of "Walsingham".  "Unchained Melody" enters in figure H (measure 274) over a bass line of variation 9 of "Walsingham" that previously appeared in figure E.

Schoenberg's ''String Quartet No. 2'' is notable in two ways: first, it broke with convention by adding a part for a [[soprano]] vocalist, and second, it broke away from the [[tonal language]] standard and paved the way for [[modernist music]].  Nyman incorporates the Schoenberg material beginning in figure B, and it does not return until figure I.  The material Nyman uses is an eight-note (two-measure) phrase for the [[cello]] transcribed by Nyman for first [[violin]].  Siôn notes<ref>p. 166</ref> that Nyman compresses the nearly two-octave phrase into one octave.  When it returns in figure I, Nyman has added [[tremolo]], as well as [[syncopation]] more characteristic of his own style.

==String Quartet No. 2==
''String Quartet No. 2'' (1988) was commissioned for a dance work called ''Miniatures'', [[choreographed]] and performed by [[Shobana Jeyasingh]], who dictated the rhythmic structure of the piece, based on the [[South India]]n [[Bharata Natyam]] tradition.  Melodically and harmonically, it is Western classical music, while structurally it is [[Carnatic music|Karnatak]] music.  The Balanescu Quartet performed this work with the original dance as well as adding it to their concert repertoire.  ''Miniatures'' was renamed ''Configurations'' when Jeyasingh added two additional dancers to the choreography.

Each of the six movements are in different rhythms:  the first movement is 4-beat, the second 5-beat, the third 6-beat, the fourth 7-beat, and the fifth, 9-beat (2+3+2+2).  The sixth and final movement is in multiple cycles of the preceding beat patterns.

==String Quartet No. 3==
''String Quartet No. 3'' (1990), commissioned by Alexander Balanescu, is based on [[Romania]]n folk music, along with material from his [[choral]] work ''[[Out of the Ruins]]'', via a process Nyman describes as "translation."  It affected much of Nyman's composition throughout the 1990s—riffs, in particular, a seven-note [[musical scale|scalar]] [[ostinato]], from it appear in ''[[À la folie]]'', ''[[Carrington (film)|Carrington]]'' (in which it was used as a [[temp track]] and ultimately was transformed into a theme for [[Lytton Strachey]]), ''[[Practical Magic]]'' (not used in the finished film), ''[[The End of the Affair (1999 film)|The End of the Affair]]'', and ''[[The Claim (2000 film)|The Claim]]''.  The translation is not as simple as it may sound, as Pwyll ap Siôn notes,<ref>p.173</ref> the first violin has new melodic material higher than the highest notes of the [[soprano]] melody, which is largely for the second violin.  In addition, he elides caesuras and makes use of the stringed instruments' ability to sustain far longer than a human voice.  Among the passages new to the string quartet are measures 17–24, 125–126, and a cello part beginning at measure 63.

Some cause of the variation is that the quartet is a celebration of the fall of [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]], whereas ''Out of the Ruins'' is an expression of the hopelessness after an earthquake.  Siôn<ref>pp. 174-175</ref> describes numerous places where the accents and descriptors of the work indicate a very different feeling and approach to the music, with the quartet being much more aggravated, while the choral work reflects sorrow without indignation.

Like the first String Quartet, the piece is a reflection of Nyman's postgraduate work with Thurston Dart, who sent him to Romania in 1965 to gather folk music.  The Romanian folk melodies that have been added to ''Out of the Ruins'' were all gathered on that trip.

==Track listing==
'''''String Quartet No. 2'''''
#I
#II
#III
#IV
#V
#VI<br />'''''String Quartet No. 3'''''
#beginning
#fig. D<br />'''''String Quartet No. 1'''''
#beginning
#fig. B
#C
#D
#E
#F
#G
#H
#I
#J
#K
#L

==Personnel==
*[[Michael Nyman]], [[composer]] and [[liner notes]]
*[[Balanescu Quartet]]:
*[[Alexander Balanescu]]: [[violin]] I
*[[Jonathan Carney]]: violin II
*[[Kate Musker]]: [[viola]]
*Anthony Hinnigan: [[cello]]
*Producer: [[Andrew Cornall]]
*Engineer: [[John Dunkerley]]
*Tape editor: [[Simon Bertram]]
*Publisher: [[Kelly Music]]
*Series design:  [[Joe Ewar]]t at [[Assorted Images]]
*Art direction: [[Ann Bradbeer]]
*Cover art: [[Charcoal Drawing]]s of the Balanescu Quartet by [[Paul Richards (artist)|Paul Richards]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.michaelnyman.com/disco/19 String Quartets 1-3] on MichaelNyman.com including the complete liner notes.

{{Michael Nyman}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:String Quartets 1-3}}
[[Category:1991 albums]]
[[Category:Michael Nyman albums]]