Ferneyhough

[vinteuil]

One only hopes the thief ended up a better person in consequence of experiencing it.

... tho' sadly we know good music doesn't necessarily make bad people good. We have all the oft-repeated examples of extermination camp commanders enjoying their Schubert...


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[Serial_Apologist]

... tho' sadly we know good music doesn't necessarily make bad people good. We have all the oft-repeated examples of extermination camp commanders enjoying their Schubert...


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Quite true...

[Joseph K]

Ferneyhough's sixth string quartet, these past few days and today. I've decided to 'learn' this piece so to speak just through listening - since his music in general befits that kind of approach, providing of course, that one is sufficiently intrigued from first listening, which of course I was (and am). It befits it because it is ostensibly devoid of the repetitions one's used to from most of Western music, most music in fact. But there is actually repetition and there are what I like to think as structural markers. The sound world of this piece, while often erupting in classic Ferneyhoughian paroxysms, is generally quite delicate, filigree and extremely subtle, it very much draws you into what each instrument is doing, their behaviour, it helps a great deal to 'zoom' in on various bits of the texture, which sometimes reveals their unexpected lyricism. In other terms of expression I guess you could say it was generally quite rarefied and kind of dark, although often playful and mercurial; passages of icy harmonics give way to fiery exuberance. Texturally it overall tends towards the polyphonic, although there are notable moments (and one very notable moment in particular) where the instruments or at least some of them coalesce. I recall reading that the augmented triad, often microtonally adjusted, has structural significance in this piece - and while evidently one perceives a consistent harmonic language, pitch is but one of the parameters that provide that significance, and often it will seem like pitch is 'squashed' through unfamiliar microtonal sonorities, or extended playing techniques, which throws into relief these and other timbres' ability to create connections and form meaning across this work in addition to pitch. Anyway, I think there is a slight hint of recapitulation at the end where a filigree-type of figure for the violins leads into low cello chords familiar from the opening - it feels significant because the beginning was the last time the cello played that way.

I look forward to listening to it tomorrow, again.

[Mandryka]

As far as I know only the Arditti quartet have performed it on record, and they did it twice. The one from Doneraueschinger in 2010 is significantly slower and to my mind, gives an interestingly different glimpse on the music. I’ll report that for me, it was one of those pieces which I instantly felt was very much worth exploring - the only other pieces where I remember a similar response are op 131 and Hamlet.

The cello in the opening which you mention is very familiar to me, I think the cello music in the quartet is really nice. It is, I should say, particularly good and clear in the second, studio, recording. And I too have noticed things returning at the end - though I can’t be sure!

[Joseph K]

As far as I know only the Arditti quartet have performed it on record, and they did it twice. The one from Doneraueschinger in 2010 is significantly slower and to my mind, gives an interestingly different glimpse on the music. I’ll report that for me, it was one of those pieces which I instantly felt was very much worth exploring - the only other pieces where I remember a similar response are op 131 and Hamlet.

The cello in the opening which you mention is very familiar to me, I think the cello music in the quartet is really nice. It is, I should say, particularly good and clear in the second, studio, recording. And I too have noticed things returning at the end - though I can’t be sure!

Ahh perhaps that's why Lois Fitch says in her book on Ferneyhough that it's a work of nearly 40 minutes or something - but even so, that's still a considerable discrepancy to my mind. Is the Donaueschinger version still available somewhere?

[Mandryka]

Ahh perhaps that's why Lois Fitch says in her book on Ferneyhough that it's a work of nearly 40 minutes or something - but even so, that's still a considerable discrepancy to my mind. Is the Donaueschinger version still available somewhere?

https://www.discogs.com/release/4111453-Various-Donaueschinger-Musiktage-2010

(On spotify -- abiout 3 minutes longer, different balance and I think a different feel -- obvs you may disagree with that! One thing I have found about all the Ferneyhough quartets -- they really repay repeated listening.)

[Joseph K]

https://www.discogs.com/release/4111...Musiktage-2010

(On spotify)

Thanks.

Ok - it says on discogs that that version is 23:48, which is pretty much the same duration as the later studio one - then again it says Irvine himself is on viola, so that's odd.

[Joseph K]

(On spotify -- abiout 3 minutes longer, different balance and I think a different feel -- obvs you may disagree with that! One thing I have found about all the Ferneyhough quartets -- they really repay repeated listening.)

Ah yes, I've found it -

And repeated listening - yes definitely.

[Mandryka]

Thanks.

Ok - it says on discogs that that version is 23:48, which is pretty much the same duration as the later studio one - then again it says Irvine himself is on viola, so that's odd.

Yes -- my bad. Don't know how that happened!

[Joseph K]

I just listened to and watched the video of the premiere posted above. Actually, it's not really that much different in duration to the later studio recording. I would be hard pressed to articulate the differences between the premiere live recording and the studio one - perhaps some greater sense of structure and drama in the latter, though that could just be me imagining it. In any case it was nice to be able to see a performance. Also: it's a real shame that the score-following video of this got deleted, along with a load of other score-following videos of contemporary/relatively recent music from youtube. Oh yes and one more thing: on a previous post in this thread I refer to a cello 'chord' when in fact it's just a cello in its low register - upper partials or some other acoustic effect, or just shoddy ears - you decide...

[RichardB]

Also: it's a real shame that the score-following video of this got deleted, along with a load of other score-following videos of contemporary/relatively recent music from youtube.

I think it might well reappear soon. My own (ex-)publisher has recently made a deal with the Score Follower people to allow one of the scores they publish to continue to be used as long as a few systems in the score are blurred out, so that the whole score can't be reconstructed from the video. So it's been taken down temporarily while this is being done. Maybe Brian's publisher has agreed to a similar scheme.

[Joseph K]

I think it might well reappear soon. My own (ex-)publisher has recently made a deal with the Score Follower people to allow one of the scores they publish to continue to be used as long as a few systems in the score are blurred out, so that the whole score can't be reconstructed from the video. So it's been taken down temporarily while this is being done. Maybe Brian's publisher has agreed to a similar scheme.

Ah ok - here's hoping.

[Mandryka]

I want to understand better what’s happening in the 24 sonatas for string quartet - does anyone know anything which discusses each sonata? One of the books of Ferneyhough maybe. Or the back of an old LP.

Some of them catch my ear and seem really innovative - θ for example - but I bet there’s loads I’m missing.

[Joseph K]

I want to understand better what’s happening in the 24 sonatas for string quartet - does anyone know anything which discusses each sonata? One of the books of Ferneyhough maybe. Or the back of an old LP.

Some of them catch my ear and seem really innovative - θ for example - but I bet there’s loads I’m missing.

From glancing at Lois Fitch's book on BF, all I really found was references made to an article by Stéphane Goldet about the Sonatas and the second quartet.

I'm currently listening to the sonatas. I wonder, Mandryka, do you keep an eye on your CD player or whatever to see at what point a particular sonata ends and another begins? Just curious...

[Mandryka]

I’m trying to Bryn, because I want to see whether each sonata is a distinct study of some idea. But there does seem to be a bigger structure - for example I noticed now the end of κ seems to reflect the start of λ. But I could be imagining things!