Robert Helps

string quartet 2-1-1

Composer's note, from helpsweb.free.fr
written in 1960, [the Nocturne] belongs to an
esoteric genre of pieces that hardly ever get performed- single movement
pieces for string quartet. I later incorporated the Nocturne into a yet more apt-not-to-be-performed work -a chamber music "happening" entitled Serenade,
a work in three movements, performable as a single work or as separate
works, of which the Nocturne is the middle movement. The first movement
is for violin and piano ("Fantasy"), the third movement for piano,
violin and horn ("Postlude"). The three movement version, commissioned
by the Fromm Music Foundation, was performed several years ago in New
York City and Buffalo by the composer-pianist David Del Tredici and the
Buffalo Contemporary Chamber Players.The Nocturne is very much a
mood piece, the mood being in the tradition of the numerous Mahler and
Bartok "night music" movements which make their appearances in these
composers' string quartets and symphonic works. It is pre dominately a
gentle movement "night music" heard from afar. lt does, however, have
its share of "filigree" passage work and an occasional muted" climax.
The combination of delicacy, even wistfulness, and consistently high
register employed in all four instruments presents, I feel, an
interesting performance challenge.