MATTHEW BROWNE Great Danger, Keep Out
ERBERK ERYILMAZ Miniatures Set No. 4
BARTÓK String Quartet No. 6
DVOŘÁK String Quartet in A-flat major, Op. 105
Folk music has always provided an inspiring repository of material for classical musicians. Perhaps the one composer who made the most of his exposure to traditional peasant music was Béla Bartók, who spent years traveling throughout Eastern Europe collecting the traditional music of the peasant population far from the urban centers. His thorough study and exploration of this folk music led to his development of a unique musical language that assimilated many different styles of music into one voice. His String Quartet No. 6, written just before his emigration from Hungary to the U.S. During World War Two, is the perfect synthesis of chromaticism and folksong modality that is typical of his late style. Already a highly respected and notable figure in his native Turkey, Erberk Eryılmaz has now made a home here in the U.S., but his music still retains the influence of traditional Turkish music. His Miniatures Set No. 4 is a set of five Turkish folk dances and calls for the players to imitate Turkish instruments and sing along with the melodies. Dvořák began his final string quartet, Op. 105, while living in New York and working as the director of the National Conservatory of Music. His homesickness is apparent in much of his musical output of this period, as evidenced by the many Czech folk melodies that found their way into his works. Dvořák even suggested that the future of American classical music lay in African American spirituals. While not explicitly based on any particular folk music, Matthew Browne’s Great Danger, Keep Out, a work inspired by Nikola Tesla, clearly shows the composer’s deep affection for the quartets of Bela Bartók.