CSM 10: Petra String Quartet
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Item Open Access Richard Meale: String Quartet No 2 (1980) - Cantilena Pacifica(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Richard Meale; Cobbin, Peter"In 1979, when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra gave the first pe1formance of Richard Meale's Viridian, it was clear that a change had taken place in the composer's musical expression. It was the first premrere of a new work by Meale since 1975, and few were prepared for its luxuriant tonal harmonies and seductive orchestration. The only clue to Meale's changing compositional attitudes during this fom year hiatus came in an article Meale published in the Dunstan Government's short-lived cultural magazine, Vantage. Meale's article gives an insight into his strengthening appreciation of the diversity of human experience, the importance of emotion and individuality, and the natural forces of growth and verdure. These are feelings to which Meale gives direct musical expression in Viridian. In retrospect, Viridian must also be seen as a continuation and consolidation of the musrcal concerns of the earlier works Evocations and Very High Kings, with their colouristic and sensually evocative explorations. Viridian, however, marks the beginning of a new phase of compositional confidence and liberalism in Meale's work. The String Quartet No. 2 provides an even more startling expression of these qualities. The quartet goes further in repudiating the stylistic and academic hegemony of international Modernism, and contrasts sharply with the composer's String Quartet No. 1 of 1975. In the later quartet, Meale chose to avoid the 'artificial' string techniques and sounds, the spatiotemporal notation, the aleatoric tropes, the sparseness and rhythmlessness of the first quartet in favour of a more traditionally based method and expression. As a consequence, the musical development of the String Quartet No. 2 is generated from melody, regular rhythm and tonality, all represented with the relatively greater immediacy of traditional notation. Meale' s choice of these means was prescribed by the emotional motivations which underpin the composition. As well as its expression of the sense of pleasurable vitality which extends from the same musical concerns as Viridian, the second quartet also responds to the composer's grief at the early death of a close friend. Meale's response, however, locates the more positive or hopeful sentiments in this experience, becoming a contemplation of peace and tranquillity, rather than a mourning. Where the first quartet is a work of isolation, especially symbolised in the independence and randomness of the instrumental parts in the second movement (subtitled 'far away'), the second quartet is an act of embracement. Immediacy and nostalgia are the characteristics which distinguish the peaceful sentiments of the second quartet's final movement from that of the first. With the shocking •anachronism' of the second quartet Meale, ever the extremist, was served notice by the overseers of Modernism's hegemony that he had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability. Such remarks had been directed at Meale before, of course, but now the attack came trom the Modernist establishment, whic had presumed Meale to be one of its chief guardians. A composer colleague ventured to suggest that Meale had gone 'too far' this time, and others decried what they saw as Meale's 'softening'! What began as a personal imperative of finding the most appropriate means with which to achieve the expression he sought, became a rejection of 'the tyranny of such "progressive" postulates as "Works like this or that cannot be written, composed, etc., these days"' (as Ferenc Feher describes it). Meale became a composer at the vanguard. of 'post-Modernism'. In subsequent years Meale has maintained and developed this attitude of compositional liberalism. It has permitted an expanded repertoire of compositional language and means for the expression of an expanded range of emotional and dramatic representations. The surpassing of Modernist dogmas enabled Meale to approach the string quartet form again, with refreshment, and subsequently to undertake his first opera, Voss. With the commencement ofMeale's career as a composer of opera, his compositional achievement strikes out into new directions." -- James KoehneItem Open Access Richard Meale: String Quartet No 2 (1980) - Cantilena Triste(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Richard Meale; Cobbin, Peter"In 1979, when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra gave the first pe1formance of Richard Meale's Viridian, it was clear that a change had taken place in the composer's musical expression. It was the first premrere of a new work by Meale since 1975, and few were prepared for its luxuriant tonal harmonies and seductive orchestration. The only clue to Meale's changing compositional attitudes during this fom year hiatus came in an article Meale published in the Dunstan Government's short-lived cultural magazine, Vantage. Meale's article gives an insight into his strengthening appreciation of the diversity of human experience, the importance of emotion and individuality, and the natural forces of growth and verdure. These are feelings to which Meale gives direct musical expression in Viridian. In retrospect, Viridian must also be seen as a continuation and consolidation of the musrcal concerns of the earlier works Evocations and Very High Kings, with their colouristic and sensually evocative explorations. Viridian, however, marks the beginning of a new phase of compositional confidence and liberalism in Meale's work. The String Quartet No. 2 provides an even more startling expression of these qualities. The quartet goes further in repudiating the stylistic and academic hegemony of international Modernism, and contrasts sharply with the composer's String Quartet No. 1 of 1975. In the later quartet, Meale chose to avoid the 'artificial' string techniques and sounds, the spatiotemporal notation, the aleatoric tropes, the sparseness and rhythmlessness of the first quartet in favour of a more traditionally based method and expression. As a consequence, the musical development of the String Quartet No. 2 is generated from melody, regular rhythm and tonality, all represented with the relatively greater immediacy of traditional notation. Meale' s choice of these means was prescribed by the emotional motivations which underpin the composition. As well as its expression of the sense of pleasurable vitality which extends from the same musical concerns as Viridian, the second quartet also responds to the composer's grief at the early death of a close friend. Meale's response, however, locates the more positive or hopeful sentiments in this experience, becoming a contemplation of peace and tranquillity, rather than a mourning. Where the first quartet is a work of isolation, especially symbolised in the independence and randomness of the instrumental parts in the second movement (subtitled 'far away'), the second quartet is an act of embracement. Immediacy and nostalgia are the characteristics which distinguish the peaceful sentiments of the second quartet's final movement from that of the first. With the shocking •anachronism' of the second quartet Meale, ever the extremist, was served notice by the overseers of Modernism's hegemony that he had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability. Such remarks had been directed at Meale before, of course, but now the attack came trom the Modernist establishment, whic had presumed Meale to be one of its chief guardians. A composer colleague ventured to suggest that Meale had gone 'too far' this time, and others decried what they saw as Meale's 'softening'! What began as a personal imperative of finding the most appropriate means with which to achieve the expression he sought, became a rejection of 'the tyranny of such "progressive" postulates as "Works like this or that cannot be written, composed, etc., these days"' (as Ferenc Feher describes it). Meale became a composer at the vanguard. of 'post-Modernism'. In subsequent years Meale has maintained and developed this attitude of compositional liberalism. It has permitted an expanded repertoire of compositional language and means for the expression of an expanded range of emotional and dramatic representations. The surpassing of Modernist dogmas enabled Meale to approach the string quartet form again, with refreshment, and subsequently to undertake his first opera, Voss. With the commencement ofMeale's career as a composer of opera, his compositional achievement strikes out into new directions." -- James KoehneItem Open Access Richard Meale: String Quartet No 2 (1980) - Scherzo Ruvido(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Richard Meale; Cobbin, Peter"In 1979, when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra gave the first pe1formance of Richard Meale's Viridian, it was clear that a change had taken place in the composer's musical expression. It was the first premrere of a new work by Meale since 1975, and few were prepared for its luxuriant tonal harmonies and seductive orchestration. The only clue to Meale's changing compositional attitudes during this fom year hiatus came in an article Meale published in the Dunstan Government's short-lived cultural magazine, Vantage. Meale's article gives an insight into his strengthening appreciation of the diversity of human experience, the importance of emotion and individuality, and the natural forces of growth and verdure. These are feelings to which Meale gives direct musical expression in Viridian. In retrospect, Viridian must also be seen as a continuation and consolidation of the musrcal concerns of the earlier works Evocations and Very High Kings, with their colouristic and sensually evocative explorations. Viridian, however, marks the beginning of a new phase of compositional confidence and liberalism in Meale's work. The String Quartet No. 2 provides an even more startling expression of these qualities. The quartet goes further in repudiating the stylistic and academic hegemony of international Modernism, and contrasts sharply with the composer's String Quartet No. 1 of 1975. In the later quartet, Meale chose to avoid the 'artificial' string techniques and sounds, the spatiotemporal notation, the aleatoric tropes, the sparseness and rhythmlessness of the first quartet in favour of a more traditionally based method and expression. As a consequence, the musical development of the String Quartet No. 2 is generated from melody, regular rhythm and tonality, all represented with the relatively greater immediacy of traditional notation. Meale' s choice of these means was prescribed by the emotional motivations which underpin the composition. As well as its expression of the sense of pleasurable vitality which extends from the same musical concerns as Viridian, the second quartet also responds to the composer's grief at the early death of a close friend. Meale's response, however, locates the more positive or hopeful sentiments in this experience, becoming a contemplation of peace and tranquillity, rather than a mourning. Where the first quartet is a work of isolation, especially symbolised in the independence and randomness of the instrumental parts in the second movement (subtitled 'far away'), the second quartet is an act of embracement. Immediacy and nostalgia are the characteristics which distinguish the peaceful sentiments of the second quartet's final movement from that of the first. With the shocking •anachronism' of the second quartet Meale, ever the extremist, was served notice by the overseers of Modernism's hegemony that he had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability. Such remarks had been directed at Meale before, of course, but now the attack came trom the Modernist establishment, whic had presumed Meale to be one of its chief guardians. A composer colleague ventured to suggest that Meale had gone 'too far' this time, and others decried what they saw as Meale's 'softening'! What began as a personal imperative of finding the most appropriate means with which to achieve the expression he sought, became a rejection of 'the tyranny of such "progressive" postulates as "Works like this or that cannot be written, composed, etc., these days"' (as Ferenc Feher describes it). Meale became a composer at the vanguard. of 'post-Modernism'. In subsequent years Meale has maintained and developed this attitude of compositional liberalism. It has permitted an expanded repertoire of compositional language and means for the expression of an expanded range of emotional and dramatic representations. The surpassing of Modernist dogmas enabled Meale to approach the string quartet form again, with refreshment, and subsequently to undertake his first opera, Voss. With the commencement ofMeale's career as a composer of opera, his compositional achievement strikes out into new directions." -- James KoehneItem Open Access Nigel Butterly: String Quartet No 3 (1980) - Espressivo e rubato(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Nigel Butterley; Davies, JohnButterley's String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by Musica Viva and written between June 1979 and January 1980. Many have noticed a mellowing in the works of this period and a return to techniques associated with Butterley's earliest influences, Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Hindemith. In an interview shortly after it was completed the composer remarked: My style has gone on its own panicular line rather than changing. The sorts of melodic shapes, harmonies and the texture in my music were all there before. Some aspects are emphasised now more than they were then, the gentler aspects, and the rich harmonies rather than the more harsh harmonies. ... There are two aspects to writing any sort of music: ... your craft ... and your imagination. Some pieces are written with the skills you have learnt while other pieces are motivated by something inside you. I'm now more interested in only writing pieces which are motivated by a strong desire to write this piece of music. In the third quartet this requirement for p rsonal int nsity recalls in some ways the style of Tippett with whomButterley once planned to study. The expressive development o a dialogue. based on freely elaborated motivic shapes all defined early in the piece recalls the more cogent side of English pastoralism. The work is in three parts, the outer sections sharing a rhapsodically contrapuntal texture, both elaborating the same motivic material while the central section mixes three contrasting passages using a more straightforward technique of juxtaposition. - The opening viola solo of the first section contains most of the motivic material which is to form the topic of conversation for the whole movement (see Figure 43). Of all these motives perhaps the two which most strongly command the listener's attention are the tum (b) and the quintuplet figure (e). In fact, although both retain the characteristic shape of the opening to some degree they are based on the same pitch material in inversion (see Figure 44), both being characterised by strongly diatonic bias which contrasts with the surrounding chromatic material. In fact there is another cross reference within this opening theme. The tum figure (a) which is heard first in clear diatonic form is also embedded in a more chromatic variant immediately afterwards and the interplay between the chromatic and diatonic versions becomes part of the musical dialogue (see Figure 45). To this material a fourth figure is added at the bottom of the first page of the score, a descending line mixing thirds and stepwise movement (see Figure 46). The motivic dialogue is restrained and expressive and the thickness of the counterpoint which sometimes results from a rhapsodic development in four parts is controlled by restrained instrumentation and by the use of pseudo-contrapuntal heterophony in which one part freely decorates another (see Figure 47). The movement ends with a homophonic, chorale-like passage. Heterophony, often involving some rhythmic complexity, is also a feature of the Tempo I material of the second movement giving a light, ethereal quality to the interplay of the two upper strings, whose flight is finally anchored harmonically by the entry of the lower strings (see Figure 48). This texture is played off against two others, one exploiting irregular homophonic groups of even semiquavers played leggiero (Tempo II) and irregular chordal jabs (Tempo III, 1 Giocoso). In the final movement, which recalls material from both the others and which follows the first in its overall ·tructure, the role of the opening viola of the first movement is to some extent taken over by the cello who begins by freely recalling the motives of the viola under textures and harmonies from the second movement (see Figure 49). This final return to the opening material finds new ways of presenting these motives such as in the rather striking quasi-imitative passage where the instruments pair off to present a two part contrapuntal elaboration, each part in 'double strength' (see Figure 50). As in some passages from the song cycle Sometimes with One I Love (1976) the use of overtly tonal techniques such as octave doublings has a rather striking effect, implying a more positive and confident assertion of tonal thinking than is implied by the more oblique tonality suggested in the rest of the piece. And as in that work its function is to bring the musical discourse to some kind of fulfilment. By the time the chorale returns at the end, this time in the upper register, the opening turn motive has estab ·lished itself firmly in the-teKture-and the quarte ends with a mirror reversal of the chords which ended the first movement (see Figure 51) giving the A major 6/3 chord the final say." -- Peter McCallumItem Open Access Nigel Butterly: String Quartet No 3 (1980) - Laggiero Sal Tasto; a punta d'arco(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Nigel Butterley; Davies, JohnButterley's String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by Musica Viva and written between June 1979 and January 1980. Many have noticed a mellowing in the works of this period and a return to techniques associated with Butterley's earliest influences, Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Hindemith. In an interview shortly after it was completed the composer remarked: My style has gone on its own panicular line rather than changing. The sorts of melodic shapes, harmonies and the texture in my music were all there before. Some aspects are emphasised now more than they were then, the gentler aspects, and the rich harmonies rather than the more harsh harmonies. ... There are two aspects to writing any sort of music: ... your craft ... and your imagination. Some pieces are written with the skills you have learnt while other pieces are motivated by something inside you. I'm now more interested in only writing pieces which are motivated by a strong desire to write this piece of music. In the third quartet this requirement for p rsonal int nsity recalls in some ways the style of Tippett with whomButterley once planned to study. The expressive development o a dialogue. based on freely elaborated motivic shapes all defined early in the piece recalls the more cogent side of English pastoralism. The work is in three parts, the outer sections sharing a rhapsodically contrapuntal texture, both elaborating the same motivic material while the central section mixes three contrasting passages using a more straightforward technique of juxtaposition. - The opening viola solo of the first section contains most of the motivic material which is to form the topic of conversation for the whole movement (see Figure 43). Of all these motives perhaps the two which most strongly command the listener's attention are the tum (b) and the quintuplet figure (e). In fact, although both retain the characteristic shape of the opening to some degree they are based on the same pitch material in inversion (see Figure 44), both being characterised by strongly diatonic bias which contrasts with the surrounding chromatic material. In fact there is another cross reference within this opening theme. The tum figure (a) which is heard first in clear diatonic form is also embedded in a more chromatic variant immediately afterwards and the interplay between the chromatic and diatonic versions becomes part of the musical dialogue (see Figure 45). To this material a fourth figure is added at the bottom of the first page of the score, a descending line mixing thirds and stepwise movement (see Figure 46). The motivic dialogue is restrained and expressive and the thickness of the counterpoint which sometimes results from a rhapsodic development in four parts is controlled by restrained instrumentation and by the use of pseudo-contrapuntal heterophony in which one part freely decorates another (see Figure 47). The movement ends with a homophonic, chorale-like passage. Heterophony, often involving some rhythmic complexity, is also a feature of the Tempo I material of the second movement giving a light, ethereal quality to the interplay of the two upper strings, whose flight is finally anchored harmonically by the entry of the lower strings (see Figure 48). This texture is played off against two others, one exploiting irregular homophonic groups of even semiquavers played leggiero (Tempo II) and irregular chordal jabs (Tempo III, 1 Giocoso). In the final movement, which recalls material from both the others and which follows the first in its overall ·tructure, the role of the opening viola of the first movement is to some extent taken over by the cello who begins by freely recalling the motives of the viola under textures and harmonies from the second movement (see Figure 49). This final return to the opening material finds new ways of presenting these motives such as in the rather striking quasi-imitative passage where the instruments pair off to present a two part contrapuntal elaboration, each part in 'double strength' (see Figure 50). As in some passages from the song cycle Sometimes with One I Love (1976) the use of overtly tonal techniques such as octave doublings has a rather striking effect, implying a more positive and confident assertion of tonal thinking than is implied by the more oblique tonality suggested in the rest of the piece. And as in that work its function is to bring the musical discourse to some kind of fulfilment. By the time the chorale returns at the end, this time in the upper register, the opening turn motive has estab ·lished itself firmly in the-teKture-and the quarte ends with a mirror reversal of the chords which ended the first movement (see Figure 51) giving the A major 6/3 chord the final say." -- Peter McCallumItem Open Access John Exton: String Quartet V (1972)(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1972) Composer: John Exton; Davies, John"John Exton's String Quartet V was first performed by the Oriel String Quartet at the Festival of Perth in 1973. The structure and indeed the placing of each event in the quartet were determined by use of the / Ching, a book which has impressed itself on the minds of Western listeners chiefly through the 'chance' music of John Cage. To embrace an Eastern aesthetic concept so foreign and often confounding to Western thought seems at first surprising for an English composer who has always claimed to be 'entirely European by musical taste, education and inclination'. However, unlike Cage's, Exton's use of the/ Ching has not been to exploit random operations or to introduce an aesthetic of chance into the musical argument. Rather the composer &ees the / Ching as a book of connections, providing a huge structural framework which contains an almost infinite number of possible relationships. Thus what for Cage is random is for Exton an attempt to tap into a small part of a kind of hyperstructure whose potential connections are too complex and whose possible scope is too vast to be assimilated or projected in one reading or in one musical work. Each work which bases its structure on the book becomes a reflection of a small part of the totality which it represents. As the composer has written, 'while every event in the Quartet Vis located by reference to the/ Ching, the music is endowed with a formal structure - and this not by "chance" but quite literally, through the design of the book itself. Chance in the Cagean sense p ays almost no part in the piece except at the very local level. Rhythmic values and the exact alignment of notes are mdicated by approximate placings on the stave rather than by exact rhythmic relationships, the actual realisation of which is entrusted to ·the co-operative interpretation of the performers'. The function of the / Ching has been rather to remove the durations from the control of metre, and to provide a floating, unpredictable quality to the· rhetoric which together with the simplicity of the. textural material encourages ·static' and contemplative listening tempered only by the sensuousness of the harmony. The piece alternately exploits two contrasting textures, the first of which consists of short repeated notes, usually articulating a single pitch or an interval in a fashion which grows and diminishes in intensity (see Figure 52). Contrasted to this (and in fact growing out of it) is the second texture which consists of sustained chords, the timbre of which is slowly mutated as the piece progresses by slight changes of bowing technique - sul tasto, sul ponticello with and without mute, etc. The chordal texture usually articulates more complex pitch structures, often moving up and down chordal blocks in which the register of each note is fixed (see Figure 53). As the piece progresses these two textures start to 'infect' each other: On the one hand,-the sustained notes of the chords are punctuated by the short staccato elements of the repeated note texture. Conversely, the sustained chords are focused on to the single note material. of the repeated note texture as in the final bars where all instruments converge on the B flat below middle C. The single movement divides into two large formal sections both of which exploit similar material, the beginning of the second section being marked by the introduction of quarter tone inflections into the repeated note texture. The use of the / Ching has produced one unexpected result, which the composer has mentioned with obvious delight. Although the durations throughout the piece are variable and left to the discretion of the players, the score has been divided, for convenience, into sixty-four units of duration which, while unperceivable by the listener, correspond to elongated bars. The point of golden section of these sixty-four sections is 39.5 which corresponds remarkably closely to the end of the first section at unit 40. Although not quite a 'chance event' of L'le order of L'le notorious army of typewriter bashing monkeys producing the complete works of Shakespeare through random key pushing, it does raise the question of just how random the chance operations of the/ Ching actually are." -- Peter McCallumItem Open Access Richard Meale: String Quartet No 2 (1980) - Scherzo Quasi Una Toccata(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Richard Meale; Cobbin, Peter"In 1979, when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra gave the first pe1formance of Richard Meale's Viridian, it was clear that a change had taken place in the composer's musical expression. It was the first premrere of a new work by Meale since 1975, and few were prepared for its luxuriant tonal harmonies and seductive orchestration. The only clue to Meale's changing compositional attitudes during this fom year hiatus came in an article Meale published in the Dunstan Government's short-lived cultural magazine, Vantage. Meale's article gives an insight into his strengthening appreciation of the diversity of human experience, the importance of emotion and individuality, and the natural forces of growth and verdure. These are feelings to which Meale gives direct musical expression in Viridian. In retrospect, Viridian must also be seen as a continuation and consolidation of the musrcal concerns of the earlier works Evocations and Very High Kings, with their colouristic and sensually evocative explorations. Viridian, however, marks the beginning of a new phase of compositional confidence and liberalism in Meale's work. The String Quartet No. 2 provides an even more startling expression of these qualities. The quartet goes further in repudiating the stylistic and academic hegemony of international Modernism, and contrasts sharply with the composer's String Quartet No. 1 of 1975. In the later quartet, Meale chose to avoid the 'artificial' string techniques and sounds, the spatiotemporal notation, the aleatoric tropes, the sparseness and rhythmlessness of the first quartet in favour of a more traditionally based method and expression. As a consequence, the musical development of the String Quartet No. 2 is generated from melody, regular rhythm and tonality, all represented with the relatively greater immediacy of traditional notation. Meale' s choice of these means was prescribed by the emotional motivations which underpin the composition. As well as its expression of the sense of pleasurable vitality which extends from the same musical concerns as Viridian, the second quartet also responds to the composer's grief at the early death of a close friend. Meale's response, however, locates the more positive or hopeful sentiments in this experience, becoming a contemplation of peace and tranquillity, rather than a mourning. Where the first quartet is a work of isolation, especially symbolised in the independence and randomness of the instrumental parts in the second movement (subtitled 'far away'), the second quartet is an act of embracement. Immediacy and nostalgia are the characteristics which distinguish the peaceful sentiments of the second quartet's final movement from that of the first. With the shocking •anachronism' of the second quartet Meale, ever the extremist, was served notice by the overseers of Modernism's hegemony that he had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability. Such remarks had been directed at Meale before, of course, but now the attack came trom the Modernist establishment, whic had presumed Meale to be one of its chief guardians. A composer colleague ventured to suggest that Meale had gone 'too far' this time, and others decried what they saw as Meale's 'softening'! What began as a personal imperative of finding the most appropriate means with which to achieve the expression he sought, became a rejection of 'the tyranny of such "progressive" postulates as "Works like this or that cannot be written, composed, etc., these days"' (as Ferenc Feher describes it). Meale became a composer at the vanguard. of 'post-Modernism'. In subsequent years Meale has maintained and developed this attitude of compositional liberalism. It has permitted an expanded repertoire of compositional language and means for the expression of an expanded range of emotional and dramatic representations. The surpassing of Modernist dogmas enabled Meale to approach the string quartet form again, with refreshment, and subsequently to undertake his first opera, Voss. With the commencement ofMeale's career as a composer of opera, his compositional achievement strikes out into new directions." -- James KoehneItem Open Access Richard Meale: String Quartet No 2 (1980) - Tempo Comodo(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Richard Meale; Cobbin, Peter"In 1979, when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra gave the first pe1formance of Richard Meale's Viridian, it was clear that a change had taken place in the composer's musical expression. It was the first premrere of a new work by Meale since 1975, and few were prepared for its luxuriant tonal harmonies and seductive orchestration. The only clue to Meale's changing compositional attitudes during this fom year hiatus came in an article Meale published in the Dunstan Government's short-lived cultural magazine, Vantage. Meale's article gives an insight into his strengthening appreciation of the diversity of human experience, the importance of emotion and individuality, and the natural forces of growth and verdure. These are feelings to which Meale gives direct musical expression in Viridian. In retrospect, Viridian must also be seen as a continuation and consolidation of the musrcal concerns of the earlier works Evocations and Very High Kings, with their colouristic and sensually evocative explorations. Viridian, however, marks the beginning of a new phase of compositional confidence and liberalism in Meale's work. The String Quartet No. 2 provides an even more startling expression of these qualities. The quartet goes further in repudiating the stylistic and academic hegemony of international Modernism, and contrasts sharply with the composer's String Quartet No. 1 of 1975. In the later quartet, Meale chose to avoid the 'artificial' string techniques and sounds, the spatiotemporal notation, the aleatoric tropes, the sparseness and rhythmlessness of the first quartet in favour of a more traditionally based method and expression. As a consequence, the musical development of the String Quartet No. 2 is generated from melody, regular rhythm and tonality, all represented with the relatively greater immediacy of traditional notation. Meale' s choice of these means was prescribed by the emotional motivations which underpin the composition. As well as its expression of the sense of pleasurable vitality which extends from the same musical concerns as Viridian, the second quartet also responds to the composer's grief at the early death of a close friend. Meale's response, however, locates the more positive or hopeful sentiments in this experience, becoming a contemplation of peace and tranquillity, rather than a mourning. Where the first quartet is a work of isolation, especially symbolised in the independence and randomness of the instrumental parts in the second movement (subtitled 'far away'), the second quartet is an act of embracement. Immediacy and nostalgia are the characteristics which distinguish the peaceful sentiments of the second quartet's final movement from that of the first. With the shocking •anachronism' of the second quartet Meale, ever the extremist, was served notice by the overseers of Modernism's hegemony that he had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability. Such remarks had been directed at Meale before, of course, but now the attack came trom the Modernist establishment, whic had presumed Meale to be one of its chief guardians. A composer colleague ventured to suggest that Meale had gone 'too far' this time, and others decried what they saw as Meale's 'softening'! What began as a personal imperative of finding the most appropriate means with which to achieve the expression he sought, became a rejection of 'the tyranny of such "progressive" postulates as "Works like this or that cannot be written, composed, etc., these days"' (as Ferenc Feher describes it). Meale became a composer at the vanguard. of 'post-Modernism'. In subsequent years Meale has maintained and developed this attitude of compositional liberalism. It has permitted an expanded repertoire of compositional language and means for the expression of an expanded range of emotional and dramatic representations. The surpassing of Modernist dogmas enabled Meale to approach the string quartet form again, with refreshment, and subsequently to undertake his first opera, Voss. With the commencement ofMeale's career as a composer of opera, his compositional achievement strikes out into new directions." -- James KoehneItem Open Access Nigel Butterly: String Quartet No 3 (1980) - Espressivo(Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, 1980) Composer: Nigel Butterley; Davies, JohnButterley's String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by Musica Viva and written between June 1979 and January 1980. Many have noticed a mellowing in the works of this period and a return to techniques associated with Butterley's earliest influences, Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Hindemith. In an interview shortly after it was completed the composer remarked: My style has gone on its own panicular line rather than changing. The sorts of melodic shapes, harmonies and the texture in my music were all there before. Some aspects are emphasised now more than they were then, the gentler aspects, and the rich harmonies rather than the more harsh harmonies. ... There are two aspects to writing any sort of music: ... your craft ... and your imagination. Some pieces are written with the skills you have learnt while other pieces are motivated by something inside you. I'm now more interested in only writing pieces which are motivated by a strong desire to write this piece of music. In the third quartet this requirement for p rsonal int nsity recalls in some ways the style of Tippett with whomButterley once planned to study. The expressive development o a dialogue. based on freely elaborated motivic shapes all defined early in the piece recalls the more cogent side of English pastoralism. The work is in three parts, the outer sections sharing a rhapsodically contrapuntal texture, both elaborating the same motivic material while the central section mixes three contrasting passages using a more straightforward technique of juxtaposition. - The opening viola solo of the first section contains most of the motivic material which is to form the topic of conversation for the whole movement (see Figure 43). Of all these motives perhaps the two which most strongly command the listener's attention are the tum (b) and the quintuplet figure (e). In fact, although both retain the characteristic shape of the opening to some degree they are based on the same pitch material in inversion (see Figure 44), both being characterised by strongly diatonic bias which contrasts with the surrounding chromatic material. In fact there is another cross reference within this opening theme. The tum figure (a) which is heard first in clear diatonic form is also embedded in a more chromatic variant immediately afterwards and the interplay between the chromatic and diatonic versions becomes part of the musical dialogue (see Figure 45). To this material a fourth figure is added at the bottom of the first page of the score, a descending line mixing thirds and stepwise movement (see Figure 46). The motivic dialogue is restrained and expressive and the thickness of the counterpoint which sometimes results from a rhapsodic development in four parts is controlled by restrained instrumentation and by the use of pseudo-contrapuntal heterophony in which one part freely decorates another (see Figure 47). The movement ends with a homophonic, chorale-like passage. Heterophony, often involving some rhythmic complexity, is also a feature of the Tempo I material of the second movement giving a light, ethereal quality to the interplay of the two upper strings, whose flight is finally anchored harmonically by the entry of the lower strings (see Figure 48). This texture is played off against two others, one exploiting irregular homophonic groups of even semiquavers played leggiero (Tempo II) and irregular chordal jabs (Tempo III, 1 Giocoso). In the final movement, which recalls material from both the others and which follows the first in its overall ·tructure, the role of the opening viola of the first movement is to some extent taken over by the cello who begins by freely recalling the motives of the viola under textures and harmonies from the second movement (see Figure 49). This final return to the opening material finds new ways of presenting these motives such as in the rather striking quasi-imitative passage where the instruments pair off to present a two part contrapuntal elaboration, each part in 'double strength' (see Figure 50). As in some passages from the song cycle Sometimes with One I Love (1976) the use of overtly tonal techniques such as octave doublings has a rather striking effect, implying a more positive and confident assertion of tonal thinking than is implied by the more oblique tonality suggested in the rest of the piece. And as in that work its function is to bring the musical discourse to some kind of fulfilment. By the time the chorale returns at the end, this time in the upper register, the opening turn motive has estab ·lished itself firmly in the-teKture-and the quarte ends with a mirror reversal of the chords which ended the first movement (see Figure 51) giving the A major 6/3 chord the final say." -- Peter McCallum