Alexander Gardner

Intro To Music Literature

4/25/2021

Dr. Lydia Edmonson

Concert Review #2: Elias String Quartet

For this review, I decided I wanted to listen to something different from the previous

concert review paper so that I could really get the chance to use my knowledge of music

literature and not try to repeat the last paper. Since the last paper was written about a piano

concert player, Krill Gerstin, playing different forms of Fantasia, I decided I wanted to listen to a

quartet so that I could review more than one person during the performance. After looking them

over, I made the decision to listen to the Elias String Quartet playing “Schubert's Rosamunde”,

and I get the feeling that I am going to enjoy listening to them perform this piece.

The piece starts off with a very somber vibe to it, almost as if it's the beginning of

something very dramatic and rich in tone. The four string instruments are working very well in

harmony with each other, playing in different times to help further the feeling of the piece. The

tone suddenly gets very suspenseful, almost as if something big is happening in the story being

portrayed within the piece. The tone dips back down and up during the beginning, as if to tell us

that this song is very eventful with itself. There are numerous moments where the tone is very

somber, followed by a big uproar of intensity and emotion. Really what is being portrayed, in my

opinion, is the calm before the storm, and it comes in waves and waves, never coming to a stop,

but also starting back up during a calm moment. The tone shifts partway to the middle of the

piece, with it getting more mysterious and just a bit dark. It then goes back to being the somber

tone that has the dramatic uplifts again. As this part comes to an end, the instrument players
transitions to a new section of the piece. This part starts off almost the same, with a bit of somber

to it but I am getting the sense of something more about to come from this. The song itself hints

at something more coming during the rising drive of the piece. This would definitely be

something I hear when I would be walking down the street if I was in the countryside of Europe.

It resentants with a sense of beauty and a style of something very peaceful as it progresses into

the song. Just like the last part, the players start to transition into a new part of the song, this one

with the tone as the last parts, but also giving something different about it. It's somber, but with a

joyous uplift, not a heavy dramatic uplift. Once again tho, it's definitely something I would listen

to if I was walking in the countryside of Europe. During this moment, there is a brief part where

it does a heavy uplifting feeling like the other parts, and like the other parts, it goes back to being

the joyous, somber tone of the piece.

The tempo of the piece never really got too fast, as it basically only picked up during the

heavy uplifting moments of the piece, but then dropped back down in tempo when it goes back

to the somber tone. I really enjoyed the moments where the tempo sped up and the passion grew,

because it really told the story of calm before the storm and helped nail the driving rhythm

during those moments. The dynamic increase during those moments was a big part, because it

can’t be a driving movement if it's in mezzo-forte, but rather the fortissimo that they played it in

and then the decrescendo back into mezzo-forte for the somber parts. The overall style of the

piece also tells me that this piece was done in a homophonic style, as most of the piece is them

playing over each other, however there are polyphonic moments where they do imitate each

other. I will, however, stick with my instincts and go with a homophonic style due to the

majority of the piece is them playing two different melodies with each other.
 I will admit that this piece is definitely different from the last piece that I reviewed for the

last paper, mostly because the last piece was just a piano player and this was a string quartet. I

would say that I enjoyed listening to the Elias String Quartet over Krill Gerstin, but that may be

because I like the string instruments more than I like the piano. This tune just had more

resenanting connection with me than the other piece did. I really liked the dynamic shifts as well

as the tone changes within the piece. As well as the style of which the music was composed in,

the tone matched that style and helped reflect the style and dynamic shifts. Definitely worth the

listen, as this group did an amazing job performing this piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKnK-wyZslA