String teachers have long turned to the First Album series to fulfill the need for fun, educational first-year solo and ensemble music. Familiar classics and original works are presented, each in elementary first position. All material has been carefully edited and bowed.
First Quartet Album - easy arrangements of 20 classics by Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart and more
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The composition cost him his sleep. In October 1842, when Schumann had finished his piano quintet in a short period of time, he was physically and emotionally drained. The work in no way reflects this, quite the contrary. “Full of strength and freshness” said Clara Schumann of the new composition, as well as “extremely brilliant and effective.” Even Richard Wagner added his voice to the great wave of admiration. Thus op. 44 soon became one of Schumann's most successful compositions, which today is still a jewel in chamber music literature. If the quartet reminds one of a piano concerto with orchestra in string quartet format at times, this is explained by the fact that it was intended for Clara's repertoire. The work was also dedicated to this brilliant pianist.
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Parts only for: 2 violins, viola and cello.
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Johannes Brahms's Piano Quintet is not only one of the mightiest works in its genre but a climax in his chamber music oevre. This new volume adopts the definitive text from the New Complete Edition of Brahms's Works.
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After a twelve-year interval, Dvorák once again turned his attention to the string quartet in summer 1893. He had been musical director in New York since autumn 1892 and spent the summer in Spillville (Iowa) where a group of Czech immigrants had settled, thus making him feel at home. The beautiful natural surroundings led him to write this unconventional string quartet in the tradition of Beethoven's “Pastoral” - even down to the imitation of birdcalls. Since the first performances, certain rhythmic and melodic characteristics have been traced back to the influences of the folk music of Native Americans and African Americans, which led to the soon popular work being called the “American Quartet”. For the first time since 1955, the quartet is once again being published in an Urtext edition.
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“Masterly and full of new ideas”: thus the Swedish ambassadorial secretary Silverstolpe when he first heard these pieces in 1797. Haydn's friend, the music historian Charles Burney, reported in 1799 that he had “never taken greater pleasure in instrumental music.” Our new edition of these six works, including the famous “Emperor Quartet,” follows the text of the complete edition prepared by the Haydn Institute in Cologne. Both the study edition (HN 9214) and the set of parts (HN 214) have highly informative notes on the source materials and alternative readings. Fold-out pages in the parts allow for optimum page turns.
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Franz Schubert composed the song “Death and the Maiden” in 1817, and in 1824 used that melody in the theme-and-variations second movement of his String Quartet in D minor D. 810. The song's popularity in the second half of the 19th century was responsible for the string quartet becoming known by the title “Death and the Maiden.” Like all of Schubert's mature chamber music works, it captivates with its technical perfection and high intellectual demands. Very prominent here is Schubert's desire to motivically link the movements together. Oddly enough, the work was neither performed nor published during his lifetime; the incomplete autograph score and the posthumous first edition of 1831 have thus served as the sources for our edition.
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The five string quartets in this volume are generally designated as Beethoven's “middle quartets,” even though stylistically they do not all build a closed unit. More than three years lie between the inception of the three quartets op. 59 (1806) and the quartet op. 74 (1809/10). In the quartets op. 59, Beethoven sprinkled several Russian folksong themes – an homage to Prince Razumovsky, who had commissioned the works.This is why the pieces are often called the “Russian Quartets.” The next quartet, op. 74 in E flat major, was also given a nickname: thanks to extended pizzicato passages in the first movement, it is frequently called the “Harp Quartet.” The F minor Quartet op. 95, in turn, bears the autograph title “Quartett serioso.” All five quartets are mature masterworks which demand high interpretative and technical mastery.
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The string quartet is generally considered as the chamber-music genre of the classical era: invented by Haydn, elaborated by Haydn and Mozart, and brought to its compositional peak by Beethoven. All later quartet composers had to measure themselves against the works of these three masters. This applies first and foremost to Mendelssohn, who has always been called a “classical romantic.” His Quartet in A minor op. 13 in particular is said to have strong Beethovenian stylistic traits. It was composed in late summer and fall 1827, shortly after Beethoven's late quartets appeared in print, works that Mendelssohn was no doubt familiar with. The Quartet in E flat major op. 12 was written two years later, during Mendelssohn's first tour of England. A textually identical score of the two quartets is published in Henle's Study Score series (HN 9270).
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The study edition complements the parts of the String Quartets op. 20 that have already been published in Henle Urtext (HN 208); a new preface by Christin Heitmann provides illuminating background information. Haydn did not assign the nickname “Sun Quartets”: it alludes to an edition of the time, in which the title page was decorated with a rising sun. The Quartets op. 20 are the last series in a group of earlier string quartets, but are clearly ahead of their time. The demanding fugues which close three of the six quartets are a particular structural feature.
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