Alvin Singleton: Four String Quartets
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Release Date: 08 July 2022
Label: New World
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 093228083221
Genres: Classical  Chamber Music  
Release Date: 08 July 2022
Label: New World
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 093228083221
Genres: Classical  Chamber Music  
Description
Alvin Singletonâs (born 1940) approach to music-making has all along been involved in an interplay with listeners and their psychology.
While this does not mean he has been centred on simply pleasing his audiences, his work seems to constantly draw his audience into confronting challenges of listening, and they tend to end up pleased.
When asked recently about why ordinary listeners seem to âgetâ? his music, he answered:
âPerhaps because itâs structurally filled with surprises, a lot of silences, and spaces in my compositions.â¦â?
Contrasts both big and small, long and short, vigorous and subdued, loud and quiet, are important to his music. Maybe a passage is presented that happens loudly over and over again followed by sudden silence. Suddenly the listener notices how loud that silence seems. In a way, it is the relationship with the listener that he regards as making serious music a serious matter.
Singletonâs string quartets span the arc of his careerâthe first (untitled) written in 1967, the fourth in 2019âand trace his stylistic evolution as a composer. Suggestively and somewhat enigmatically titledâNo. 2 (1988) is Secret Desire to Be Black; No. 3 (1994) is Somehow We Can; No. 4 is Hallelujah Anyhowâthey serve as an excellent introduction to his work and constitute a substantial contribution to the string quartet repertoire by one of this countryâs most distinguished African-American composers.
Three of the four quartets are world-premiere recordings.
Tracklisting
Ostrava New Orchestra, Owen Underhill, Ostravska Banda, Petr Kotik, Elision Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, Switch~ Ensemble, Jason Thorpe Buchanan
James Martin, Lynn Raley
Peter Gena
New World
New World
Mivos Quartet
Twilight String Orchestra; Fahad Siadat
Conrad Harris; Joseph Kubera
Ensemble La Francais
Christoph Croise; Andrey Baranov; Alexander Panfilov
Trio Parnassus
Kilian Herold, Barbara Buntrock, Florian Donderer, Tanja Tetzlaff
Narratio Quartet
Beau Soir Trio
Martin Rummel, Stefan Stroissnig
Hanspeter Oggier; Marina Vasilyeva