String Quartet No. 2 (2021) – ca. 15'
two violins, viola and violoncello
Commissioned by the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts for 'A String Quartet Library for the 21st Century'
Premiere performance
Callisto Quartet at the Venetian Theater, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, NY (July 1, 2021)
Callisto Quartet at the Venetian Theater, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Katonah, NY (July 1, 2021)
PROGRAM NOTE
In writing my second string quartet, I looked back to a movement of my first string quartet, Fugha, which superimposed the Arab maqamat (modes) over the harmonic motion of a fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach. As I composed, I quite enjoyed this process of ruminating on what Bach might have done if presented with the rich tapestry of possibility from the microtonally inflected Arab modes coupled with his ingenious sense of counterpoint and harmony.
For this work, I went further back in time for inspiration, turning to the often-overlooked Nicola Vicentino, an Italian composer and theorist from the Renaissance period. In his 16th century treatise, “L’antica musica ridotta alla prattica moderna,” he devised a 31-tone system (our “standard” Western system has only 12 tones!) which includes his four-part madrigal, “Musica prisca caput,” where he put his ideas into practice. I used this work as a harmonic template for my own musical exploration. This madrigal is organized into three parts that are distinguished by their pitch content: (1) diatonic (7 possible tones), (2) chromatic (12 possible tones), and (3) microtonal (31 possible tones(!)).
In my work, every chord in “Musica prisca caput” is chronologically represented: almost all of them with their original voice leading, many of which are solely in root position! They vary from the original by the extension of range (beyond what is possible with human singers), expansion of timbral possibilities (i.e. glissandi, tremolandi, harmonics, etc.), and the implementation of the maqamat to establish a new melodic context for Vicentino’s contrapuntal writing.
By focusing on this distinctly Western point of departure, I hope to provoke a renewed awareness of the richness of Arab traditions and how their facets can coexist within our global cultural landscape.
For this work, I went further back in time for inspiration, turning to the often-overlooked Nicola Vicentino, an Italian composer and theorist from the Renaissance period. In his 16th century treatise, “L’antica musica ridotta alla prattica moderna,” he devised a 31-tone system (our “standard” Western system has only 12 tones!) which includes his four-part madrigal, “Musica prisca caput,” where he put his ideas into practice. I used this work as a harmonic template for my own musical exploration. This madrigal is organized into three parts that are distinguished by their pitch content: (1) diatonic (7 possible tones), (2) chromatic (12 possible tones), and (3) microtonal (31 possible tones(!)).
In my work, every chord in “Musica prisca caput” is chronologically represented: almost all of them with their original voice leading, many of which are solely in root position! They vary from the original by the extension of range (beyond what is possible with human singers), expansion of timbral possibilities (i.e. glissandi, tremolandi, harmonics, etc.), and the implementation of the maqamat to establish a new melodic context for Vicentino’s contrapuntal writing.
By focusing on this distinctly Western point of departure, I hope to provoke a renewed awareness of the richness of Arab traditions and how their facets can coexist within our global cultural landscape.
REVIEWS
This new opus continues Haddad’s long-time preoccupation with marrying different characteristics of the Western musical idiom with the Arabic maqāmāt¸ evoking different moods in the mostly melodic system used in traditional Middle Eastern improvisations. Here, he started, according to his own introductory comments, from the formal structure of a work by Nicola Vicentino, a 16th-century Italian composer, probably as keen as Haddad to explore microtonal excursions in his oeuvre (Vicentino is mostly remembered for the invention of a microtonal keyboard). Quarter tones are introduced gradually, with the soundscape focused more on timbral, aural values and associations than on rhythmic patterns. The three-part score starts with a diatonic section “with church like harmonies”, followed by a second, chromatic one, where microtonal inflections are first introduced, and an “inharmonic” segment where melody “seems to appear out of nowhere”.
– Edward Sava-Segal, Bachtrack
AWARDS
2022 Mivos-Kanter Composition Prize, Finalist
Saad Haddad explains his creative process behind String Quartet No. 2.