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String Quartet (1965)
Earle Brown:
"String Quartet is one of several works in which I have attempted to combine the 'graphic' and 'mobile' ... In composing these later works, which use more than one performer without conductor, I have fixed the overall form but have left areas of flexibility within the inner structures. The works achieve a strong formal identity while maintaining the 'performer process' spontaneity and the balance of collaboration between the composition and the performers that are characteristic of the ... 'open-form' and graphic works."
Earle Brown's (1926-2002) work in the early 1950's with new notations, scoring methods, and performance attitudes led to his development of graphic, improvisational, and 'open-form' scores such as December 1952 (from Folio), Twentyfive Pages (1953) for one to 25 pianos, as well as the later orchestral scores Available Forms I and II (1961 and 1962). Directly influenced by the visual arts, in particular Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock, Brown's music is also related to the work of Robert Rauschenberg in its use of collage and juxtaposition.
Born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Brown studied mathematics and engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, and attended the Schillinger House School of Music for techniques of composition and orchestration. He served as composer-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts, University of California at Berkeley, Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Rotterdam Kunstichting, Basel Conservatory of Music, Yale University, Indiana University in Bloomington, American Academy in Rome, Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals, and DAAD Berlin. Brown received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and commissions from Darmstadt, Paris, Zagreb, London, Rome, Saarbrücken, and Venice. He was also a recipient of the John Cage Award for Music from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in New York.
In 1999, Brown was elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He served as director of the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University and president of the American Music Center. Brown's music has been recorded on many labels including CRI, Deutsche Grammophon, Elegua, HatHut, MDG, mode, New Albion, Newport Classic, VoxBox, and Wergo labels.
related websites
http://www.earle-brown.org
The San Francisco-based Del Sol String Quartet performs contemporary music by living and recent composers. Founded in 1992, the quartet began its life in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, followed by a residency at San Francisco State University, California in association with the Alexander String Quartet. Other residencies have included the 2003 Emerging Quartets and Composers Residency in Park City, Utah, and University of New Mexico. The quartet regularly appears on programs presented by Other Minds, San Francisco Performances, Montalvo Arts Center, and Santa Fe New Music/Santa Fe Opera. Its concerts garnered an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in 2006. Upcoming projects include new commissioned works by composers by Tania León and Chinary Ung, and a collaboration with Spanish musician Chus Alonso. For more than a decade, the group has also given lectures/performances for young people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area; its bi-annual QuartetFest brings young string players together for intensive chamber music coaching and performances. The quartet's two self-released recordings include the complete string quartets of George Antheil as well as music by Earle Brown, John Harbison, Lou Harrison, Astor Piazzolla, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and a number of younger composers.
related websites
http://www.delsolquartet.com
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