Repertoire
Bach’s last work, the Art of the Fugue (or Die Kunst der Fuge) specified no instrumentation. It has been performed in many ways: with recorders, as a string quartet, by harpsichord alone, as a trio with banjo & mandolin & double bass. Particularly successful is the version for violin, viola, viola da gamba and cello—the Galax Quartet.
Sample Program I
J.S. Bach’s Art of the Fugue
On the Galax Quartet and New Music
The repertoire for this ensemble—two violins, viola da gamba and cello—originates in the 18th century. Essentially, our repertoire begins with Carl Friedrich Abel, viola da gamba virtuoso and one of the first composers to write for the medium of the string quartet. Two of his quartets from 1769 were arranged shortly thereafter for violin, viola, viola da gamba and cello. And there is a report of Abel’s practice of playing the viola part of his string quartets on his viola da gamba. In point of fact, the repertoire for this ensemble from this time period is rather small with the consequence that the repertoire of the Galax Quartet must, to some extent, be created by modern composers. A list of five sample programs encompassing both new and old music follows.
In 2008 the Galax Quartet in collaboration with the contralto Karen Clark commissioned several composers—including Allaudin Mathieu, Fred Frith and Robert Morris—to create song cycles using the poetry of the Pulitzer prize winning poet Gary Snyder. This is an ongoing project, with new pieces being created and premiered in concerts nationwide. The latest addition to the project is the Chinese/Canadian composer Ka Nin Chan’s Journeys.
Sample Program II
Far Out Friends
• “Ma” — based on the poem by Gary Snyder, music by Roy Whelden
• “Thou mighty God” — John Dowland
• “In darkness let me dwell” — John Dowland
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•Various songs from Han Shan’s Cold Mountain Poems, music by Whelden
• “Flow my teares” — John Dowland
• Plus several instrumental consorts of Dowland
"Ms Clark sang the song very expressively, with adroit use of crescendo and decrescendo over the words, “Flow my teares, fall from your springs, exiled for ever, let me mourne…” She often used her voice like a viol, a delicate vibrato now and then appearing as an ornament, or to bring out the emotions of the words."
North Bay Classical Music (www.nbcm.org)
Many of Bach’s work showed a unusual devotion to economy and concentration, but none as much as the Goldberg Variations—thirty variations on a single theme; or the Art of the Fugue—a thorough exploration of the fugal potential of a single subject; or the Musical Offering— exhibiting both a canonic feast and melodic writing of ravishing beauty based upon a single intricate theme . The premier of this program was done in collaboration with the mathematician and science fiction writer Rudy Rucker, who presented his striking images of cellular automata, visually beautiful examples in themselves of multum in parvo.
The Galax Quartet, in collaboration with the triple harpist Cheryl Ann Fulton, explores Bach’s major works exhibiting this quality of multus in parvo
• Canons and Contrapuncti from The Art of the Fugue
• Canons from the Musical Offering
• Loose Canons — a new piece for string quartet and triple harp by Roy Whelden based on the 14 Goldberg canons
Loose Canons was written with support from the American Composer Forum.
Sample Program IV
Multum in parvo
The string quartets of Carl Friedrich Abel (London, 1723-1787), Dan Becker (San Francisco), Marc Mellits (New York) and Belinda Reynolds (San Francisco)
• Carl Friedrich Abel: Adagios
The luxurious opus 15 quartets republished by J. B. Cramer in 1820 as Adagios in Score.
• Dan Becker: Quartet
"Points, Lines, and Planes was written in the late 1980s under the influence of what seems to be a cyclical compulsion to 'start over', compositionally speaking. The title of the movements – 'a chord', 'a line', 'a couple lines and a chord', 'the chord again'– demonstrate this attempt to reexamine some basic assumptions."
• Marc Mellits: String Quartet no. 2
String Quartet No. 2 was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, the Kronos Quartet. It was completed in late 2004. In 2006, the composer worked with the Galax Quartet to make it work for our unique combination of instruments.
• Belinda Reynolds: Static Motion
In late 2006 the composer sat down with the Galax Quartet to explore the possibility of performance of this quartet on early instruments. The results were extremely satisfying.
• Belinda Reynolds: Envision
Commissioned with assistance from the American Composers Forum and the East Bay Fund for the Arts, this dynamic quartet explores the instrumental space unique to the Galax Quartet.
Envision was written with support from the American Composers Forum and the East Bay Fund for the Arts.
Sample Program V
Adagios and other Movements for String Quartet
