Thread: String Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 4

Composed in three movements, all subtly related and united by motifs and thematic alteration.

One of my shortest pieces, only about six minutes in total (all three movements) so I'd love to hear any comments on the piece in it's entirety! It is, in fact, through-composed (ish) - but as I've uploaded it as three files, you probably won't get a sense of that.

Sadly not a real quartet playing, but the sounds aren't too terrible!

Simeon Smith, composer, aged 17, London.

Movement 1
http://www.box.net/shared/uyyzjmgra3

Movement 2
http://www.box.net/shared/mqzp5d8bbr

Movement 3
http://www.box.net/shared/zra26m5yi2

i am a fan of string quartet and enjoy your composition here. the last mov is nicely heard and as a whole my impression is spiritful and sounds modern. I knews nothing about composition so really can't comment furthermore. actually can you tell more about your composition techniques applied here?

Highly motivic - use of fugue, counterpoint and canon is vital. Structurally the first and last movements are loose sonata form while the middle movement was rounded binary form.

Thematic development is one of my starting points, motivic fragments both melodic and harmonic are regurgitated throughout, although they are often unrecognizable once altered

Thanks for listening, really glad you enjoyed it, took me a while to play it into the computer!

I took you at your word and downloaded all three movements, putting them into a playlist so I could take in the work as a whole.

I enjoyed it, especially the modern sound. At certain points I hear a certain ambiguity, almost as if some phrases nearly "lose" the sense of a home key, allowing for some very interesting harmonic progressions.

I hope to write music like this someday, but alas, right now I have enough trouble maintaining a sense of unity in a strictly tonal idiom.

By the way, what software are you using?

I use a piano, pen and paper to compose - but to play it in, I used Logic Pro 8.

Glad you enjoyed it, and went to the trouble of enjoying it as I intended :P

The second movement is the one that makes the strongest impression on me initially. There's a clear direction to the music for me in that movement, I think it sustains it's 1.41 quite well. The lyrical flow rises and falls in a quite convincing way, maybe it ends rather suddenly though.

The first movement maybe the ideas aren't so interesting to me. The motif at 2.06 maybe could have been introduced a bit earlier for me as a bit of a contrast. It's soon after 1.40 I get a little tired of the initial idea.

In the third movement 1.23 - 1.31 the music breaks up in an interesting way, the music interests me a bit more. The coda from the trill onwards is quite nice. Overall though I might think this is the weakest of the three imo.

Well, do give it another listen - I don't compose in this style anymore, so it's a unique piece not to be repeated. The first movement is actually a lot cleverer than it sounds (though I say so myself). Hope you enjoyed it anyway!