Reflecting the diversity of styles and schools of thought that flourished in the early 20th century, the changeable music of Erwin Schulhoff is difficult to pigeonhole, though it is relatively easy to categorize his works of the early 1920s, duly noting their eclecticism. The String Quartet No. 1, the 5 Pieces for string quartet, and the Duo for violin and cello were composed between 1923 and 1925, and these three pieces may bring several composers or movements of the period to mind, but none more than Béla Bartók and his ...
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Reflecting the diversity of styles and schools of thought that flourished in the early 20th century, the changeable music of Erwin Schulhoff is difficult to pigeonhole, though it is relatively easy to categorize his works of the early 1920s, duly noting their eclecticism. The String Quartet No. 1, the 5 Pieces for string quartet, and the Duo for violin and cello were composed between 1923 and 1925, and these three pieces may bring several composers or movements of the period to mind, but none more than Béla Bartók and his folk-flavored works. Bartók's influence on Schulhoff is obvious in the String Quartet No. 1, and to varying degrees in the 5 Pieces and the Duo. However, there are other elements of modernist style lurking under the surface, such as neo-classicism, modalism, non-triadic harmonies, popular dance rhythms, hints of atonality, and what (in his limited exposure) Schulhoff took for jazz, all mixed into a kind of stew that simultaneously appeals through its recognizable sources, yet holds...
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