Introduction[]
George Rochberg was an American composer born July 5th, 1918 in Paterson, New Jersey. He served in the United States Army in the infantry during World War II. In his early years of composing, Rochberg used the technique of serialism up until the death of his son in 1964. After this he found serialism to be expressionless and unable to express his grief over his loss. George Rochberg has been heavily talked about for his use of tonality similar to that of Beethoven. He was classified as a neo-romantic composer for his tonality usage.
Work Analysis[]
The piece that I will be analyzing is Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3. This work was written in 1971 and was premiered on May 15th, 1972. The quartet was composed of five movements split into 3 large sections due to the first and last 2 movements being played straight through with no pause in between. Most of the piece is atonal with a couple of tonal and expressionist sections. The quartet opens up with Fantasia the introduction. This intro includes a very abrupt entrance from the violins followed by a graceful atonal melody and then a repeat of the beginning motif. The second movement is an extremely obvious atonal march that follows the introduction without pause. The third movement Variations is where we find the more classical techniques and elements heavily criticized by modern composers. This is in tradition theme and variations from popular in the classical and romantic era. The fourth movement which is also a march is similar thematically to the first march. The last movement of the work, "Scherzos, and Serenades" is written in palindromic form meaning it is the same music played forward as it is played backward. At the end of the movement, we can hear the same motif from the first movement played to end the quartet.
String Quartet No. 3- Part A (Introduzione- Fantasia & March)
Comparisons[]
When it comes to musical techniques Rochberg can most famously be compared to classical romantic composer Ludwig van Beethoven. His constant uses of tonal techniques in his writing make him comparable and noted in the classical era. Rochbergs atonality methods can be compared to composers such as Schoenberg for his use of serial techniques.
Observations[]
While researching the history and life of Rochberg I learned a couple of new words such as scherzo, which is a playful composition comprising a movement in a symphony or sonata and the word Palindromic which is the same forwards and backward. I observed and remembered that while in class we looked at a piece of music that also used the palindromic technique. I have always loved the sound of violins so listening to the string quartet was enjoyable.
Works Cited []
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scherzo