Composer Carl Bettendorf and the Momenta Quartet—Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Shiozaki (violins), Stephanie Griffin (viola), and Michael Haas (cello)—present a virtual program of string quartets focusing on two great Czech modernists, Leos Janacek and Alois Haba, plus a contemporary work by Bettendorf.

Both Janacek and Haba were inspired by folk music of their native Moravian region and became influential figures in the musical avant-garde of the early to mid-20th century. While Janacek achieved international fame, Haba died in relative obscurity due to Communist suppression of his pioneering microtonal compositions.

Carl Bettendorf’s work also uses microtones, at the same time connecting personally with Janacek’s featured offering, String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters,” in the expression of love's heartaches. 

The compositions are introduced and discussed by the musicians and composer.

This event was original performed at Bohemian National Hall in February 2019.

Program:

Alois Haba: String Quartet No. 6, Op. 70 (1950)

Carl C. Bettendorf: Il y a l'Océan for string quartet (2005, rev. 2007)

Leos Janacek: String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” (1928)

This event is brought to you by the Dvorak American Heritage Association with support of Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.

Program Notes: A Closer Look at Microtones and Heartache

Alois Haba: String Quartet No. 6, Op. 70 (1950)

First in the program is a work by Czech modernist Alois Haba (1893–1973), who is little known outside of New-Music circles but is much revered as a pioneer of microtonal music. Microtones are intervals outside of the equal-tempered chromatic (or twelve-tone) scale, i.e. “in between” the black and white keys on the piano. He mainly used the quarter-tone scale, though he occasionally used even smaller intervals. To make his microtonal music playable on a keyboard, he designed and had built two quarter-tone pianos by early 1924 and a third in 1925.  After World War II, his work was negatively affected by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, being labeled “formalist” according to the official Marxist aesthetics.

Carl C. Bettendorf: Il y a l’Océan for string quartet (2005, rev. 2007)

Next listen to a contemporary piece that also uses microtones, with an in-depth explanation by the composer and the Momenta Quartet providing musical examples to illustrate one specific concept of microtonality often used in so-called Spectral music, namely the overtone series.  In brief, this series consists of the natural harmonics a string player can produce on any open string by touching it lightly at certain nodes.

Bettendorf’s composition adds a very personal autobiographical background, which relates to the other part of this concert’s theme: heartbreak. The composer himself writes:  “Some years ago, I saw a French film, a sad love story in which a couple realized that their love was not meant to be.  One of the ill-fated lovers referred to the ocean as a metaphor for the utopia of love.  I liked this image so much that I decided to reference the name of the film in the title of a piece.  As the work has materialized, it is a movement in four sections in spiral form, harmonically based on the spectra of D and C, with a gradual transition from the former to the latter.”

Leos Janacek: String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters” (1928)

Last on the program is one of the final pieces Czech composer Leos Janacek (1854–1928) completed before his death, the renowned String Quartet No. 2, subtitled “Intimate Letters” by the composer himself.  It, too, is a deeply autobiographical work as it was inspired by his long—though much to his regret, unrequited—romantic friendship with Kamila Stösslová, a married woman 38 years his junior. Cast in four movements of changing tempi, the composition reflects the character of their relationship as revealed in more than 700 letters they exchanged with each other.

MOMENTA QUARTET

Formed in 2004, the Momenta Quartet served as artist-in-residence at Temple University, which led to similar residencies at Cornell, Columbia, and Yeshiva universities, Boston and Cincinnati conservatories, and Eastman School of Music. The quartet has won two major commissioning grants from the Koussevitzky Foundation for Malaysian composer Kee Yong Chong and Bolivian composer Agustín Fernández. Momenta has appeared at such prestigious venues as the Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery, and has performed at the internationally renowned Cervantino Festival in Mexico and Ostrava New Music Days in the Czech Republic. The quartet’s debut album, Similar Motion, is available on Albany Records.

Composer Carl Christian Bettendorf is a New York-based composer/conductor. Born in Hamburg, Germany, he studied composition with Hans-Jürgen von Bose and Wolfgang Rihm before receiving his doctorate from Columbia University under Tristan Murail. His compositions have been played at many prestigious venues and festivals on four continents. He has received numerous awards, among them residencies at the Cité des Arts (Paris) and the MacDowell Colony as well as commissions from the Fromm Foundation and the Ralph Kaminsky Fund. As a conductor, Mr. Bettendorf has worked with ensembles in New York (Wet Ink,counter) induction; Ghost and Talea ensembles) and abroad (piano possibile in Munich, Ostravská banda in the Czech Republic) and is currently director of the Manhattanville College Community Orchestra (Purchase, NY). He recently conducted opera productions at Bard College and the Opéra national de Montpellier (France) and has served as assistant conductor of the Columbia University and American Composers orchestras. He has recorded for Albany, ArtVoice, Carrier, Cybele, Hat Hut, Indexical, and Tzadik.