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In the Spotlight: A thousand quartets
A thousand quartets
Emile Wennekes’ research on Dutch string quartet culture
By Joep Stapel | 17 August 2010 | 12:15
Translation: Hilary Staples
In the early 2000s musicologist Emile Wennekes, who is professor at the University of Utrecht, researched string quartets in the Netherlands. He focussed on both the performing ensembles and the works composed for string quartet. The programmes of the Orlando Festival and the Zeister Muziekdagen, which showcase the ten-year-old Matangi Quartet, are a good excuse to look back at Wennekes' findings.
When Emile Wennekes was appointed to the chair of Post-1600 Dutch Music History at the University of Utrecht in 2000, he tried to find a subject that would allow him to cover various aspects of this field. Studying the development of a genre proved an excellent way to achieve that, as it covers several centuries. ‘Moreover, the string quartet is the finest combination of instruments there is,’ says Wennekes. ‘It is the masterpiece for every composer.’
The research became extremely time-consuming. ‘These days we are used to scores for string quartets in which the parts are notated neatly under each other. But this form was only developed during the 19th century. Earlier material usually consists of four separate parts which, in order to get a good impression, should really be put on four separate music stands.’ When he started out, Wennekes estimated there were around 300 Dutch string quartets; already he has catalogued over a thousand. Until now there was no such overview of the genre. An overview that is not only valuable from an academic perspective, but also for the public, which can now get acquainted with musical highlights that have undeservedly been gathering dust. ‘For example, I unearthed the string quartet by Willem Kes, the first conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra,’ says Wennekes. ‘A beautiful quartet that was wrongly forgotten and that was performed again for the first time by the Utrecht String Quartet.’
Another find by Wennekes, in the archive of the Netherlands Music Institute, is the Third String Quartet by Johannes Verhulst (1816-1891), the existence of which could only be surmised based on secondary sources. In 2002 he talked about this discovery in the television programme Jota! by the Dutch public broadcaster Teleac. This is alternated with a performance of the work by the Utrecht String Quartet (USQ).
Dutch television (Teleac) programme Jota! – Kwartetten in kaart
At the time Wennekes was a producer at MGN, one of the forerunners of Music Center the Netherlands and working on a CD series that was to document such highlights. A string quartet cannot be recorded after three rehearsals, so such a project requires a lot of time and money. But the rewards can be big, as the CD String Quartets from the Twenties by the USQ with, among others, the Sixth by Bernard van Dieren and the only string quartet by Henriëtte Bosmans, demonstrates. Listen here to the impressionistic first movement, Allegro molto moderato, of the latter quartet:
In 2004 Wennekes was appointed to the chair of Post-1800 Music History at the University of Utrecht and since a couple of years he is also Director of Education of the faculty of Media and Cultural Studies. His current research area is the ‘mediatization of music’, a very topical subject; under the flag of the International Musicological Society he has set up the successful study group Music and Media (MaM). All of this means that, for the moment, he hardly gets round to his string quartet research – but he has not abandoned the quartets; in 2008 and 2009 he reported on his research in a series of four articles in the Dutch periodical Mens en Melodie. The definite publication is still to come.
Wennekes’ research coincided with a period in which Dutch string quartet culture flourished, as Stefan Metz from the Orlando Quartet founded the successful Dutch StringQuartet Academy (NSKA), which over the past decade has taught many quartets. At present the Ragazze Quartet is studying at the NSKA. One of the quartets that finished the fulltime course earlier on is the Matangi Quartet, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and is showcased at the Orlando Festival with a diverse programme. This summer one can also enjoy the sunny quartet climate at the Zeister Muziekdagen, which has Dutch contributions by both the Utrecht String Quartet and the Matangi Quartet. Chiel Meijering composed his string quartet Caixa de Dolços especially for the tenth anniversary of Matangi. Watch a performance of this work broadcast in the public television programme NPS Podium:
More music?
More Dutch repertory by the Utrecht String Quartet and the Matangi Quartet:
Utrecht String Quartet, Second String Quartet by Lex van Delden, live on Radio 4
Matangi Quartet, Sivuca by Oene van Geel, in the VPRO television programme Vrije Geluiden
Utrecht String Quartet, arrangements of music by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Interview with the Matangi Quartet in the television programme De Artiestenfoyer - Het Gesprek (in Dutch)
Music by Bartók and Beethoven and an excerpt from the Fourth String Quartet ‘Música da Feria’ by Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940), which also features on the programme of the Orlando Festival.
More details?
Works for string quartet by Dutch composers in the webshop
Music Information Center
Sheet music, audio, video, by appointment in the MIC, Amsterdam.
Joep Stapel studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He writes for, among others, the Concertgebouw and the Holland Festival. He has led reading groups on Roland Barthes and Thomas Pynchon at the centre for contemporary arts W139 in Amsterdam.
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