R. Murray Schafer – String Quartet No. 12 [2012]
Commissioned by Phyllis Lambert for the Molinari Quartet — Premiered in Montreal May 17, 2013
R. Murray Schafer is Canada’s pre-eminent composer. Born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1933, Murray Schafer has won national and international acclaim not only for his achievement as a composer but also as an educator, environmentalist, literary scholar, visual artist and provocateur.
My Twelfth String Quartet was commissioned by Phyllis Lambert, a woman I admire for having brought the Canadian Centre for Architecture of Montreal into existence. I remember an evening we spent together walking through the corridors and rooms of that building, and imagining how several quartets could be performed at once or in sequence within the various spaces of the museum. The work eventually settled down to be presented in a more conventional manner. Like several of the earlier works, the Twelfth Quartet borrows material from some of the earlier pieces. The moods change rapidly throughout the singlemovement of the work, alternating from very lyrical and suave to very fast and energetic. One might find the tempo unusual for a composer approaching eighty years old.
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