Chmaber Music 2

Arthur Foote completed his Piano Quartet in C major, Opus 23, in August, 1890, and dedicated the work to John Knowles Paine. The first performance took place on 21st April, 1891, in Boston with members of the Kneisel Quartet and the composer at the piano. The work became very popular and was played by the composer at least forty times in public concerts. Frequent performances were also given in Europe and in the United States by the Adamowski, Dannreuther, and other well known quartets. His biographer Nicholas E. Tawa finds that "The piece makes a statement that is benevolent and compassionate rather than passionate. Foote makes no attempt to achieve the heroism of Beethoven, the sensuousness of Wagner, the nostalgic sadness of Brahms, or the hysteria of Tchaikovsky. Like Schubert, he is a melodist first, but of quite a different sort. Schubert's edge of bitter-sweetness, ingenuous yearning, and moments of vehement excitement are absent. In contrast, Foote feels there is room in humankind's experience for a long stretch of quietude and repose that is relatively free from high turbulence, mental agitation, and emotional pressure. The quartet inhabits an expressive domain that is strictly the composer's own." The opening movement is marked Allegro comodo, an opening which he wants to be in a lively tempo, but also to be performed with ease and in comfort. From the opening measures, we feel that Foote is in a celebratory mood. There is no Germanic angst here, but rather a well-integrated texture of strings and piano reminding of, perhaps, late nineteenth century French styles. The Scherzo which follows is vivacious and sprightly. The slow movement, marked Adagio, ma con moto, is one of Foote's most soulful and songful chamber music moments. Musicologist and historian, John Sullivan Dwight, compliments this movement's "Finer feeling and sweeter melody, with more to say well worth the hearing." The honey-sweet opening melody is haunting and unforgettable. The leisurely-paced movement unwraps it's musical gifts ever so gently, takes a short break, and returns to the opening music convening the movement as if saying, "There it is... wasn't it just a beauty?" The finale, marked Allegro non troppo, wakes us out of our peaceful repose. It is a forceful, bustling ending, moderately fast paced, somewhat tense, and even includes an old hymn and a fugato passage. John Sullivan Dwight writes. "The last movement seemed to us to contain more musical good sense than any part of the quartet. Clear, spontaneous, consistent, well wrought, especially in the contrapuntal passages near the end, it satisfied the musical sense." The String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Opus 4 was completed by Foote in 1883. It was performed for the first time by a quartet of Boston musicians (Charles N. Allen, Theodore Human, Carl Meisel and Wulf Fries) on 7th December, 1883. According to Nicholas E. Tawa, "Warmth of feeling, directness of expression, simplicity of means, and clarity of structure were found to be the quartet's outstanding merits by the audience and critics who heard it's premiere." The first New York performance took place a decade later, on 5th May, 1893, when the Beethoven Quartette performed the work. The score bears a dedication to Theodore Thomas. Although Foote never willingly honored his musical mentors in his music, their influences are particularly evident in this early work Schumann's (and to a lesser degree, Mendelssohn's) shadow can be felt throughout. The opening Allegro appassionato is cast in a Schumann style sonata-allegro form. The musical material is fervent and direct. The respite Foote provides before the agitated development section is lyrical but not too sentimental. The movement ends in a rapid and dramatic passage, almost as if the quartet scatters off stage. The Scherzo which follows is a spirited, almost "woodland"-like piece of music, while the third movement, marked Andante con moto, is graceful and lovely. The finale, marked Molto allegro, is essentially an energetic rondo. The Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet were composed in 1918 and dedicated to the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco. The Nocturne, which is actually untitled in the manuscript, was published four years later, in 1922, as A Night Piece for Flute and Strings. The Scherzo is Foote's arrangement of the second movement of the unpublished String Quartet No.2 in E major, Opus 32. The first performance took place in San Francisco on 28th January, 1919. Members of the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco - Elias Hecht, Louis Persinger, Louis Ford, Nathan Firestone, and Horace Britt - were the performers. Ray Brown, the critic for the San Francisco Examiner, wrote after the première: "The Nocturne and Scherzo for flute and strings by Arthur Foote, played for the first time anywhere, proved a surprise to those who believed that the composer had about written his talent out. The work was written last summer in Foote's sixty-fifth year, yet it shows not a trace of encroaching age. It is fresh and spontaneous, plentiful in melody and colored with beauty. The Nocturne has nothing of the melancholy musings of disillusioned maturity, but is filled with the quickening impulses of spring, and the Scherzo has a nimble and joyous wit." The Nocturne ("A Night Piece") eventually became Foote's best-known and most-performed work. John Burke, program annotator for the Boston Symphony provided the following insightful comments about this work a few days after Foote's death in 1937. "The "Night Piece" may well be considered to typify Arthur Foote and his art. It has no concern to shake the world. It no more than searches the beauties of certain tonal combination within the suitable confines of an accepted form. And this search is made with a neat skill, a sensitive response to beauty which has enabled him to capture a distillation of sheer sensuous delight. It need hardly be added that result is far more precious to the audiences of 1919 or 1937 than the more ambitious attempts of lesser men."