FRANK STEMPER, COMPOSER
String Quartet No. 2 (2025)
Four Movements [28 mins.]
I. Strong, Confident. II. Minuet Pizzicato - Jazzy
III. Adagio Espressivo - pensive, serious
IV. Trio Pizzicato. V. Attacca: Marcato Allegro
Commissioned by the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival;
To be premiered 24 July 2026
at the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival, 14th Season
Anchorage, Alaska
Opus 84 -- A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 934751672
SCORE
To be premiered 24 July 2026
at the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival, 14th Season
Anchorage, Alaska
Opus 84 -- A.S.C.A.P. work I.D. 934751672
SCORE
PROGRAM NOTES:
I’d like to thank Nathaniel Pierce for bringing up the topic of “string quartets” during an email discussion we were having about his double identity as a ‘cellist and tenor – and his desire to do both simultaneously. “What’s better than a string quartet,” wrote Nathaniel. His claim rang a bell in my head. In my 50+ years of composing I had only written one. But back 55 years, when I was piano student, I attended a noon concert that presented the noted Fine Arts Quartet playing Mozart. It was the first time I had heard a string quartet. I was mesmerized. At the finish, after the applause concluded, I sat stunned. My interest in the shifted away from playing the piano. I wanted to do what the Mozart guy did.
In that single moment, my professional life and goals were altered and set in stone.
After Nathaniel’s email snapped me, I immediately started writing my 2nd quartet. It flew out of me. I’m not sure where it came from. It must have been percolating for years. But I haven’t stopped there. I recently finished my 4th quartet and am planning my 5th. Thanks Nate!
For the listeners, there are a few things to mention as you listen.
1. Overall, this piece is influenced by Bartok’s string quartets. Specifically, Bartok’s 4th quartet, its 4th movement, “allegretto pizzicato.” It is entirely played pizz! When I first heard this completely “pizz” movement, I thought, “Hey – he can’t do that.” But he did. And so, so did I. I wasn’t satisfied with just one pizz movement, though. So, my 2nd quartet has two, shall we say, ‘pizz dominated’ movements – the 2nd and 4th. But this idea is also is a Bartok thing. He often had five movements, instead of the usual 3 or 4. And he utilized this odd numbered group to write in “arch” form, i.e. the five movements create a symmetry with the 2nd and 4th somehow matching, and with the 3rd movt. creating the top or middle of the arch. The 1st and 5th sometimes matched but more often were up for grabs.
2. My 2nd String Quartet utilizes at times heterophonic texture. That’s not really such a big word. There are 3 basic textures in music: 1. Monophonic texture – a single line, melody. If several people are singing Happy Birthday, they are all singing the same melody, and that would be a good example of Monophonic. 2. Homophonic texture – one melody (monophony) with an accompaniment. Maybe your Aunt Gladys accompanies the partiers on the piano; the melody is the primary focus, and the accompaniment is merely supporting the melody. 3. Polyphonic texture – Two or more melodies (monophonies) occurring simultaneously, each presenting an independent musical narrative as well as blending in with (accompanying) the other lines. This is also known as counterpoint. Polyphony can be as simple as a 3rd grade classroom singing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat,’ or as complex as a 5-voiced 3-subject Bach Fugue in C# minor!
However, there is a 4th texture: Heterophony. It can most easily be explained as a casual cross between the Monophonic and Polyphonic textures. It is also defined as the simultaneous performance of different variations of the same melody by two or more voices or instruments. If, at the birthday party above, the group is singing, but your Uncle Mike joins in, and he has no sense of rhythm, and always sings out of tune, the result is a little strange – especially because Uncle Mike loves to sing, is not at all shy, and has a good strong – if incompetent - voice. We’re hearing the group as usual, but now Uncle Mike is adding some peculiar “revisions” to ‘Happy Birthday.’ He seems to begin each line of the song before everyone else, and holds some of the words way too long, which throws off the rhythm. He also gets some of the words wrong, and in general isn’t singing in the same key as the group – in fact he doesn’t seem to be singing in any key at all! Good old Uncle Mike. The result of Heterophonic texture can be cacophonic (an awful noise) or quite beautiful. Although I use Heterophony here and there in all five movements, it is most obvious in the middle movement, III, the center of the arch.
I’d like to thank Nathaniel Pierce for bringing up the topic of “string quartets” during an email discussion we were having about his double identity as a ‘cellist and tenor – and his desire to do both simultaneously. “What’s better than a string quartet,” wrote Nathaniel. His claim rang a bell in my head. In my 50+ years of composing I had only written one. But back 55 years, when I was piano student, I attended a noon concert that presented the noted Fine Arts Quartet playing Mozart. It was the first time I had heard a string quartet. I was mesmerized. At the finish, after the applause concluded, I sat stunned. My interest in the shifted away from playing the piano. I wanted to do what the Mozart guy did.
In that single moment, my professional life and goals were altered and set in stone.
After Nathaniel’s email snapped me, I immediately started writing my 2nd quartet. It flew out of me. I’m not sure where it came from. It must have been percolating for years. But I haven’t stopped there. I recently finished my 4th quartet and am planning my 5th. Thanks Nate!
For the listeners, there are a few things to mention as you listen.
1. Overall, this piece is influenced by Bartok’s string quartets. Specifically, Bartok’s 4th quartet, its 4th movement, “allegretto pizzicato.” It is entirely played pizz! When I first heard this completely “pizz” movement, I thought, “Hey – he can’t do that.” But he did. And so, so did I. I wasn’t satisfied with just one pizz movement, though. So, my 2nd quartet has two, shall we say, ‘pizz dominated’ movements – the 2nd and 4th. But this idea is also is a Bartok thing. He often had five movements, instead of the usual 3 or 4. And he utilized this odd numbered group to write in “arch” form, i.e. the five movements create a symmetry with the 2nd and 4th somehow matching, and with the 3rd movt. creating the top or middle of the arch. The 1st and 5th sometimes matched but more often were up for grabs.
2. My 2nd String Quartet utilizes at times heterophonic texture. That’s not really such a big word. There are 3 basic textures in music: 1. Monophonic texture – a single line, melody. If several people are singing Happy Birthday, they are all singing the same melody, and that would be a good example of Monophonic. 2. Homophonic texture – one melody (monophony) with an accompaniment. Maybe your Aunt Gladys accompanies the partiers on the piano; the melody is the primary focus, and the accompaniment is merely supporting the melody. 3. Polyphonic texture – Two or more melodies (monophonies) occurring simultaneously, each presenting an independent musical narrative as well as blending in with (accompanying) the other lines. This is also known as counterpoint. Polyphony can be as simple as a 3rd grade classroom singing ‘Row Row Row Your Boat,’ or as complex as a 5-voiced 3-subject Bach Fugue in C# minor!
However, there is a 4th texture: Heterophony. It can most easily be explained as a casual cross between the Monophonic and Polyphonic textures. It is also defined as the simultaneous performance of different variations of the same melody by two or more voices or instruments. If, at the birthday party above, the group is singing, but your Uncle Mike joins in, and he has no sense of rhythm, and always sings out of tune, the result is a little strange – especially because Uncle Mike loves to sing, is not at all shy, and has a good strong – if incompetent - voice. We’re hearing the group as usual, but now Uncle Mike is adding some peculiar “revisions” to ‘Happy Birthday.’ He seems to begin each line of the song before everyone else, and holds some of the words way too long, which throws off the rhythm. He also gets some of the words wrong, and in general isn’t singing in the same key as the group – in fact he doesn’t seem to be singing in any key at all! Good old Uncle Mike. The result of Heterophonic texture can be cacophonic (an awful noise) or quite beautiful. Although I use Heterophony here and there in all five movements, it is most obvious in the middle movement, III, the center of the arch.