Martin Yates – ‘Frisco Bay Music (String Quartet) – Parts Digital Download

A contemporary work in one movement that was begun in 1939 when the composer was in his fourth and last year at the Royal College of Music. It was completed in New York, receiving its first performance on the 21st April 1940 by the Galimir Quartet in a series of concerts promoted by the New York Public Library.

A solid, serious work for aspiring string quartets or established groups, this piece was the subject of a master class from the Wihan Quartet from the Czech Republic. The quartet, inspired by Janáček's Intimate Letters quartet, was similarly inspired by letters from a woman to her lover. It is scored in three contrasting movements consisting of a gestural first movement, a slow arch form second movement and a fiery syncopated 5/4 finale.

This quartet was written in 1954 when the composer, Carlo Martelli, was a 19 year old student at the Royal College of Music. This publication is of a recent revision of the work. There are three distinct sets of ideas in the first movement which are freely developed, although vestiges of sonata form can be discerned. The second movement is a scherzo and trio, which is joined without a break to the slow third movement - an interesting feature of this conjunction, is that at the close of the slow movement ideas from the trio and then the scherzo return to round things off. The last movement is a succession of free variations on a theme in which the interval of a fourth predominates. For conservatories and professionals.

The Pavão Quartet recorded this work in August 2012 on the CD Carlo Martelli, released in October 2013 by Discadia Records, DISCA 002. Included on the same CD, and also published by Broadbent & Dunn, are Martelli’s String Quartet No. 1, Prelude and Fugue for String Sextet Terzetto for Two Violins and Viola.

Three Snippets for String Quartet is a short entertaining work and concert stocking-filler - lasting only 6½ minutes. Originally written for saxophone quartet, the three movements are: Flourish, a march-like fanfare with a suggestion of toy soldiers, a deeply-felt Love Song as an unexpectedly emotional core, and Dislocated Rag to finish with a smile - ragtime with recurring 7/8 bars thrown in to trip up the dancers! Dislocated Rag is based on the composer's music for the 1984 mystery film The Case of Marcel Duchamp about the famous French Dadaist artist.