#String quartet

[nobeerreviews]

A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.

-- Laurie Colwin

(tomatoes on the streets of Ribeauvillé, France)

[glassesfreekjr]

FOR REAL THIS TIME

The King Salmonid who all Fish Sticks aspire to be. The first Griller to surpass their mortal coils and ascend to a state far more... eldritch. A grotesque autonomous collective and yet a ruler in its own right. The aquatic roi des rats of the whirlpool's roil, whose name shall not be uttered. The worlds worst maypole by far, 0/10.

And yet there are sea creatures far worse, and far scarier, out in the unknown depths... beyond the splendour of the tempest; the sandbank’s luring smile. Encircled by flopping hordes of mindless and amorphous dancers, lulled amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.

Waiting for their moment.

(Rough concept art courtesy of @zenders-art)

[gasparodasalo]

Alexandre Pierre-François Boëly (1785-1858) - String Quartet No. 1 in a-minor, Op. 27, I. Allegro. Performed by Quatuor Mosaïques on period instruments.

[postpunkindustrial]

Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet – Dracula 2xLP

Halloween Season: Vampire Soundtracks

[nofatclips]

The Wolf by Jherek Bischoff with the SCRAPE Quartet, live for Second Inversion

[bioluminescencia]

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons candlelight concert date night

The Chapel at Griffith College Cork

[lesser-known-composers]

Arnold Mendelssohn (1855-1933) - String Quartet No. 3 in B-Flat Major, Op. 83: II. Andante con moto ·

Reinhold Quartett

[higherfriends]

First string quartet out of a series I’m currently writing. Reflecting on life seasons, the nature of existence and love. 🎻🥀

[abitcaughtinthemiddle]

SHUT UP.

You’re telling me that Vitamin String Quartet (who has already had music featured on Bridgerton) has a version of “Yellow”?!?!

If this or another orchestral cover is not in part 2, I’m going to need the most epic edit to this.

[eawai-osc]

You can listen to my previous cover arrangements here: #my covers

[cinnamonbunpuff]

how a song changed my year.

achilles, achilles, achilles come down, won't you get up off, get up off the roof?

it's officially been one year since i first heard this song. it's kinda crazy how much can happen in that time, in reality and in mentality.

i still remember stumbling upon it. i'm sure i've seen it on my recommended in the past but this was the first time i really listened to it. it was late and i was sat on my bed, recovering from a cold. stressed over my barely-started application for some of the UC schools i never saw myself going to. i paused to take a little peruse through youtube, where i saw this performance. based on the song of achilles (a familiar name), and choreographed to achilles come down (an unfamiliar title).

i was drawn immediately in. not just by the smooth flow of the dancers portraying their characters, but by the power of the lyrics and how it affected what i was seeing of achilles, patroclus, and briseis.

and so i decided to look up the actual song and its lyrics, to see what they really were. and they were beautiful.

today of all days, see, how the most dangerous thing is to love,

this song, all seven minutes and two seconds of it, has seen me through so many monumental changes in my life. from growing positively mentally, to graduating high school and starting uni, to familial tensions.

how you will heal and you'll rise above, crowned by an overture bold and beyond,

it's honestly a wonder how i haven't grown bored or tired of it yet. and i think that's because every time i sit and really listen to it, there's always something new i'm discovering or interpreting, whether that be compositionally or lyrically.

to start, it was realising that the only instruments are strings - definitely a cello, and in all most likely a string quartet. as a violinist myself, i love hearing any use of strings in modern songs. having a whole song relying on the softness and dynamics of them though? that's gonna get me every time. how almost the entirety of the song is underlaid with the eighth notes of the cello, and throughout the verses the intermittence of the higher strings.

as i grew familiar with achilles come down, i discovered the power that all the lyrics held. there were a select few that drew my attention, from either how poetic they sounded, to how they seemed to mirror an aspect of my life that i didn't know could be put into words.

loathe the way they light candles in rome, but love the sweet air of the votives,

then there were the sections of spoken french. i thought that the addition of a second language in the song really added to it as a whole, but upon looking up (and attempting to translate what i could), i found that they added another level of melancholy. because what better way is there to make the song more emotional than including snippets of french philosophy about the value of life?

qu'on appelle une raison de vivre, est un même temps une excellent raison de mourir

through this year, i've found myself coming up with scenarios in my head, with this song playing in the background. mostly it's been with characters of my current hyperfixations, but i've found myself in these situations as well. it's definitely a reflection of who i see myself to be, but i hope it's also an envisioning to who i hope to be.

thank you to achilles come down for finding its way into my life. thank you for the past year, and i hope the next is just as exciting.

throw yourself into the unknown, with a pace and fury defiant

[burlveneer-music]

Alfa Mist & Amika Quartet - Recurring (Live At King's Place) - I was already enamored of Alfa Mist's fusion of jazz and hip hop, but adding a string quartet? 🤯

Featuring a handful of brand new, never-before-heard tracks (alongside a number of expansions of previous releases), ‘Recurring’ sees Alfa drawing inspiration from classic live Jazz recordings, capturing a unique moment in time that can never be replicated or replayed. Creating an authentic, unpolished and electric feel, feeding his long-running mission of real-time musical expressions that evolve with each performance. On the genesis of the record, Alfa says: ‘Some of my favourite albums are captured live performances. I came home from a long year of touring and decided to work on some music for Amika Quartet who I've been working with for years on a few different shows and projects. A lot of the music I release is recorded in whole takes, I think there's something nice about doing the best you can with the moments you have. I wanted to take that one step further by recording it as a live show and seeing what happens.'’

[glassesfreekjr]

The King Salmonid who all Fish Sticks aspire to be. The first Griller to surpass their mortal coils and ascend to a state far more... eldritch. A grotesque autonomous collective and yet a ruler in its own right. The aquatic rattenkönig of the whirlpools roil, whose name shall not be uttered. The worlds worst maypole by far, 0/10.

And yet there are creatures far worse, and far hairier, out in the unknown... waiting for their moment.

(Rough sketch courtesy of @zenders-art)

EDIT: The REAL, unabridged version is called "Rattenkönig Roulette" and will be posted tomorrow (+ additional sketches!) at the conclusion of this Splatfest.

[gasparodasalo]

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - String Quartet No. 14 "Death and the Maiden" in d-minor, D. 810, I. Allegro. Performed by Casal Quarett on period instruments.

[postpunkindustrial]

Kronos Quartet - Dracula

Hallownn Season: Vampire Soundtracks

[blackswaneuroparedux]

It must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts.

- Fanny Mendelssohn

The Mendelssohns grew up making music together in Berlin at the beginning of the 19th century. Felix, younger by four years, became one of history's most brilliant composers. Fanny, a strong-willed pianist but worried about her worth as a composer, has been neglected. Still, as Felix's career soared and Fanny struggled to publish her pieces, the two remained close. Early on, Fanny helped Felix with structuring some of his pieces. Later, Felix was supportive of his sister but, like their father, discouraged her from actually publishing her music. Fanny wrote a String Quartet in E-flat major in 1834. Despite this and other than playing and conducting in salon settings, Fanny made just one public appearance, as soloist in her brother's First Piano Concerto at a benefit concert. Very little of her music was published in her lifetime, and much of it today remains privately owned.

Fanny died suddenly of a stroke at age 41, in 1847. She died in Berlin of complications from a stroke suffered while leading a rehearsal of a cantata by her brother Felix, "The First Walpurgis Night."

Felix was crushed. You can hear the pain he poured into the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, completed in September of that year. Felix Mendelssohn's music is always a joy. He was an optimist by nature. But in this quartet you feel immediately that there's something strange. You will be shocked by music with so much power and drama, and violence. Indeed Felix referred to the quartet as his "Requiem for Fanny." He would die two months later, at 38, after a series of strokes. He was buried next to his sister in Berlin in 1847.

Composers can't fully develop their gifts without the freedom of ambition that fuels the required effort. Even Mozart took years to hit his stride. The notion that Fanny Mendelssohn could've become a major composer if she'd been free to pursue that goal isn't far-fetched at all. Indeed it’s tragedy her gifts were never allowed to see the light of day. I like to think Felix probably in part felt the same in not just losing a beloved sister but also a wonderful gifted composer.