Music Critique Quartet Opus 110 No 8 in C minor & Quartet Opus 74 No 1 in C major.

Essay by dogfaceCollege, UndergraduateA-, July 2003

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

Downloaded 32 times

The St. Lucia String Quartet played at the drama building, I was there not because I had to but because I wanted to. The lights focusing on the musicians forced the audience to focus on the music and the program offered two interesting and diverse piece's of music that created two very different atmospheres.

The first piece of music that was played was the Quartet Opus 74 No 1 in C major, composed by Joseph Hayden in 1793. Sally-Ann Djachencko and Philip Nixon played Violins first seat and second seat respectively while Yuri Djachencko played Viola and Amy Tucker played Cello. This piece followed the strict structure of a Quartet, having four movements, Allegro moderato, Andantio grazioso, Menuet & Trio and Finale respectively. This piece was pleasant to listen to and evoked a classical mood to the room. The harmony was consistent and the tone colour was very balanced through most of the piece.

The melody was very lyrical and sounded nice as it was passed around each of the instruments. Repetition was used frequently, the melody would be played and then played again in a different key. The music, although lovely, did not seem to offer one much thought. It was there simply to be pleasant and the mind would wonder back to what would it have been like to hear this piece in the time that it was written.

The second piece of music was Quartet Opus 110 No 8 in C minor, written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1960. In this piece Philip Nixon and Sally-Ann Djachencko played Violins first seat and second seat respectively. Being a contemporary piece of music we see chances in the structure of the way the music is composed. Instead of the standard four movements that we see in the Hayden piece, Shostakovich...