How to Be; What to Do: Character and Action in Ralph Shapey's String Quartet No. 6

摘要

Ralph Shapey wrote a large body of dense, intense, and to those who know it, deeply compelling music over a career spanning nearly 60 years. Highly contrapuntal, employing extremes of register and virtuosity, this music is nevertheless hyper-lyrical and unfolds in ways that allow the dedicated listener to take in its larger gestures on first hearing while rewarding a close attention to its details on subsequent engagement. The article illustrates several features of Shapey's music through an examination of his String Quartet No. 6. This is prepared by a consideration of some of Shapey's own words about his compositional procedures, as found in his volume A basic course in music composition, and in an interview conducted by Stefan Wolpe.