String Quartet No. 5
String Quartet No. 5 (‘American’) embraces in sound and spirit the stylistic influences of the American symphonic school that dominate my orchestral scores. A broad and angular ‘American’ melodic theme unifies the entire four-movement composition; the voicing of the contrapuntal lines and resultant harmonies is open, suggesting space and distance. The music is alternately lyrical and playful, sometimes brusque and muscular, at times elegiac, and it is meant to suggest the resilience and brash optimism of the American spirit. Rigorous contrapuntal procedure is paramount in all of my musical compositions, perhaps no more so in the purity of the string quartet medium for which some of the most enduring music of the Western tradition has been composed. String Quartet No. 5 is an in-depth exploration of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in the single ‘American’ melodic theme that is exposed by the first violin at the beginning of the work.’
-Kenneth Fuchs
