String Quartet No. 2 (Glass)

String Quartet No. 2, also known by its other title Company, is a string quartet by American composer Philip Glass. This composition was finished in January 1983 in New York City, and was expected to be a piece of instrumental music for Fred Neumann's adaptation of Samuel Beckett's 1979 novella with the same name.

Composition

After withdrawing his first sketch of a string quartet in 1963, Philip Glass composed his String Quartet No. 2 seventeen years after his first quartet, even though it was not initially conceived as chamber music, but for theater. This work was composed as a result of Glass' collaboration with the Mabou Mines quartet, of which he married JoAnne Akalaitis, one of its members. Glass himself decided to extract the music he had written for Samuel Beckett's Company, and wrote a score thought to be a concert work on its own.[1]

Structure

This composition consists of four movements and takes approximately nine minutes to perform. The movements are listed as follows:

  1. = 96
  2. = 160
  3. = 96
  4. = 160

The main theme of this work is subjugated to arpeggios in minor keys all along the four movements. All of the movements of this monochrome work are highly and closely related to each other. This composition is written for string quartet, but has been performed by string orchestras.[2]

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this composition include:

Orchestra Conductor Record Company Year of recording Format
Ulster Orchestra Takuo Yuasa Naxos 1999 CD[3]

References
  1. Grimshaw, Jeremy. String Quartet No. 2 (Company) at AllMusic. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  2. Potter, Keith. "About this Recording – 8.554568 – Glass, P.: Violin Concerto / Company / Prelude from Akhnaten". Naxos Digital Services Ltd. Retrieved August 24, 2011.
  3. "Glass, P.: Violin Concerto / Company / Prelude from Akhnaten". Naxos Digital Services Ltd. 1993-08-02. Retrieved 2011-04-05.
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