The Quartet Project, created by composer Geoffrey Hudson from 2007-2014, is a collection of new music for graduated string quartets composed in six volumes. Modeled on Béla Bartók's Mikrokosmos, and meant for musicians of all ages, it offers modern music for students' chamber studies beginning in Volume 1 with introductory pieces that are "easy contemporary music for string quartet", and become increasingly more difficult though Volume 6.
Contents
The Quartet Project provides music which is "contemporary in sound and technique (i.e. including the use of glissando, pizzicato, and modern harmonies)" early in players' studies, and is structured to accompany players as they advance to concert-level performance.
"Each of the six volumes contains approximately 25 minutes of music, divided into two types of pieces: miniatures and full-length performance quartets. The miniatures are typically less than a minute long and focus on a particular aspect of ensemble playing. The full-length quartets use the materials covered in the miniatures to create multi-movement string quartets suitable for performance. Volumes 1, 2, and 3 include an optional third violin part, which can be used in place of a viola. The Quartet Project encompasses approximately 2 ½ hours of new music for string quartet."The Quartet Project has been workshopped and performed at, among other places, Community Music Works (Providence, RI), Drake University’s Community School of Music (Des Moines, IA), the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra (Grand Forks, ND), Indian Hill Music (Littleton, MA), the MacPhail Center for Music (Minneapolis, MN), Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts, and the Third Street Music School's Chamber Music Program in New York City.
The Music
Selections include:
Beginner Miniatures (From Volumes 1 and 2)
Intermediate Miniatures (From Volumes 3 and 4)
Advanced Miniatures (From Volumes 5 and 6)
Additional Examples:
Workshop Partners
The Quartet Project tested its music with string students and faculty coaches in workshop settings hosted by its partner organizations, followed by a mini-residency with composer Geoffrey Hudson. The following organizations have hosted Quartet Project workshops: Community Music Works (Providence, RI), Drake University’s Community School of Music (Des Moines, IA), the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra (Grand Forks, ND), Indian Hill Music (Littleton, MA), the MacPhail Center for Music (Minneapolis, MN), and the Third Street Music School Settlement (New York, NY).
Quartet Project Challenges
Quartetville is a virtual meeting place for string players of all abilities. The Quartetville website has been using Quartet Project miniatures to develop a Quartet Project Challenge concept. This concept represents a series of free, world-wide online masterclasses for players of all ages and abilities. Quartetville seeks to expand the Challenges to identify and use appropriate level quartet pieces from the complete string quartet repertory in order to offer young quartets entry points into playing string quartets. In the Challenges, young quartets learn directly from high level professionals in a free, online environment.
Quartet Project Challenge have been hosted by the following professional quartets:
Volume Dedications
Communities have come together to dedicate Volumes of the Quartet Project to master teachers: