Remembered as one of the most important composers of film music in the 20th century, Bernard Herrmann is saluted in this 2011 release by the Tippett Quartet. Featuring an arrangement for string quartet of the effective soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, along with two original chamber pieces written by Herrmann in the mid-'60s, this album provides insights that fans of the composer will find fascinating. Echoes (1965) is cast in a single-movement for string quartet and evokes the modal style of Bartók, sustaining a ...
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Remembered as one of the most important composers of film music in the 20th century, Bernard Herrmann is saluted in this 2011 release by the Tippett Quartet. Featuring an arrangement for string quartet of the effective soundtrack for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, along with two original chamber pieces written by Herrmann in the mid-'60s, this album provides insights that fans of the composer will find fascinating. Echoes (1965) is cast in a single-movement for string quartet and evokes the modal style of Bartók, sustaining a quiet, meditative mood for two-thirds of the piece, until a startling eruption of frightening music breaks the stability and introduces more astringent counterpoint. Souvenir de Voyage (1967) is a clarinet quintet composed in a style similar to Echoes, and clarinetist Julian Bliss carries much of the work's nostalgic expression in long-breathed melodies in the dark chalumeau register. But the most interesting work of the program is Richard Birchall's string quartet arrangement of the...
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