String Quartet No. 2 (Lauds) Maestoso feroce - Allegro Track 1 3:58 Poco andante - Poco allegro Track 2 4:11 Stiltedly swaying, moderato Track 3 2:40 Intermezzo: Allegro molto Track 4 1:15 Finale: Allegro molto Track 5 2:59 Maria Newman's String Quartet No. 2 was commissioned by the Icicle Creek Music Center for the Kairos Quartet, and received it's premiere performance at the Icicle Creek Music Festival in 1998. Now one of Newman's most popular and performed works, Lauds has been featured on chamber music concerts and radio broadcasts around the globe. Lauds presents the orchestration of string quartet as one instrument: the four as equal collaborators, fiercely determined, passionate, melodic, witty, folksy and mercurial. Running the gamut of motivic presentation and unusual sonic sensation, and displaying a diversity of formal musical pathways, Newman's quartet is set in five succinct and individually distinctive movements. Lauds, (defined roughly from the Latin as, 'from darkness into light,') opens amidst pleading angst, while running it's frenetic course through marked metric changes and palpitating passagework. Soothing the wild storm, the second movement coaxes with inner voice ostinati, over which cello and high violin enter tremulously, gradually beginning to soar. In direct contrast, dancing motives and guitar-like pizzicati characterize this movement's formal B section. A stiltedly swaying cello solo distinguishes Lauds' middle movement rondo theme material, while agile canonic polyphony interrupts teasingly from time to time. Featuring thrown-bow ricochet, the fourth movement, Intermezzo, highlights an unpredictable and acrobatic violin cadenza within the bounds of it's breathless and brief existence, whereas the Americana flavor of the Finale pleases with it's fast paced, hurdle-jumping gallop to it's conclusion. String Quartet No. 1 (The Birthday of the Infanta) The Party - Carneval Track 6 5:14 The Bullfight Track 7 4:18 The Dance of the Dwarf Track 8 5:02 The Forest and the Minuet Track 9 9:05 The Search and the Mirror Track 10 8:51 Finale: The Death of the Dwarf Track 11 7:55 Maria Newman's String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned in honor of the Inaugural Season of the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival, and received it's premiere by the Kairos Quartet in 1995. While utilizing a great deal of modality and chromaticism, this programmatic work is nonetheless tonal in nature. Maria Newman has composed a number of works based on the short fiction of Oscar Wilde, having declared her admiration of the romantic, yet politically charged nature of these stories, and the autobiographical implications personified in Wilde's misunderstood protagonists. In a previous interview, Newman indicated, 'Wilde's skill in the interweaving of language techniques to assist in displaying the degradation of the common man by the social elite, is utterly thought provoking and exceedingly touching. I have chosen his short story, The Birthday of the Infanta, as the programmatic basis for my String Quartet, for I find Wilde's account to be horrifying and strangely revealing of human nature. Within the quartet setting, I have sought to utilize inherent rhythmic aspects of Wilde's text in the form of operatic musical recitative and aria method, presented in a wordless, syllabic setting.' Wilde's depiction is of the kind and trusting Dwarf, who is tricked into dancing for the guests of the 12th birthday party of the Princess of Spain, (the Infanta). Newman's String Quartet follows Wilde's story quite literally. Framed in six movements with an extended coda, the music seeks to describe the action of the story, it's themes of place and time, and the emotions, passions, and denials of it's vivid characters. Personalities and bodily attributes are clearly illustrated throughout Newman's work. The eerie opening material of The Party creates foreboding in the midst of what should be a carefree day. It's subsequent Carneval is indicative of the blatantly extravagant birthday party, and the vapid, insipid and selfish nature of the entitled children. In The Bullfight, the Infanta and her guests are entertained by a fake rendition of that gory sport. It's corresponding music emerges as a hearty declamation that morphs incrementally into a feverish, chaotic scherzo, as the sham bull and bullfighter battle for the children's delight. The Dwarf's clumsiness, as he entertains he party guests, is portrayed in the limping mixed meter of The Dance of the Dwarf, while internal moments of innocence reflect the Dwarf's naivete as he accepts the Infanta's gift of a white rose. The Dwarf's reverence for the forest, and his fantasies of a love relationship with the Infanta, are illustrated melodically in the intimate The Forest and the Minuet. The Search and the Mirror opens as the Dwarf seeks his beloved Infanta within the castle itself, presenting fragmented motives, materials and textures, which serve to describe varying rooms and events. It's tentative main motive will immediately invert into mirror image, as our protagonist spots an unknown monster in a bright, mirrored room, moving toward it, then away. This motivic ebb and flow portrays disbelief, desperation, incredulity, for the truth dawns upon the Dwarf that it is he who is reflected in the mirror. A frenetic, The Death of the Dwarf, sardonically recalls the Dwarf's ecstasy surrounding his misguided belief of acceptance by the nobles, yet musically foretells of his tragic death. Here, the 5/8-meter reveals the uneven structure of the Dwarf physically, and represents the fibrillation of the heart which will inevitably fail him. Ultimately in coda, Newman reprises the initial Party material, exemplifying the complete detachment of the Infanta, even in the face of the death of the innocent Dwarf. Further, this bookend structure represents the fact that the precious life, and untimely death of the Dwarf, does nothing to sway the attitudes and mores of the remaining characters.