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Ernest Bloch's Second String Quartet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Extract

The four string quartets* of Bloch are a convenient medium for assessing both the strength and weakness of his unusual talent, revealing, as they do, an imperfect endowment of those processes of thought and feeling from which, in the right amalgam, a masterpiece of musical expression can emerge. Only the second quartet represents him at his best. It is one of the few works where inspiration and emotion are under the control of the intellect. There are weaknesses in the other quartets largely brought about by preoccupation with cyclic procedures—a notorious and dangerous expedient for a composer unable by nature to accept the traditional usages and disciplines of sonata form.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1959

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References

* The existence of a fifth string quartet has recently been disclosed.