String quartet no. 2: "Nostalgia"

Ronald Bruce Smith, Northeastern University

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Composition for strings. Audio recording available at http://www.ronaldbrucesmith.com/

Abstract

The quartet is in four movements and is dedicated to the Del Sol String Quartet. Each movement contains references to music of the past both in their formal designs and through the use of quotation. Borrowed materials as well as references to music from all four movements of Maurice Ravel’s Quatuor à Cordes can be heard throughout the composition. The third movement, a loosely structured chaconne, also takes material from Bill Evans’ versions of My Romance and Alice in Wonderland. As can be symptomatic of the yearning for an irrecoverable past, nostalgia can corrupt the memory to long for a world that never existed.