String Quartet No. 3

George Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3 is an important piece in American contemporary music literature. Written in 1971 and premiered on May 15, 1972, by the Concord String Quartet, the third string quartet was an important move away from serialism for the American composer. Background of composition Early in his career George Rochberg wrote in a total serialist style that was popular with post World War II composers. Rochberg's first and second quartets are written in this modernist style. Then in 1961 tragedy struck when Rochberg's son became ill with an ultimately fatal brain tumor. His son's death three years later left the composer deeply changed and struggling to compose. His eventual conclusion that he was unable to adequately express his profound grief and loss through serialism led him towards his more mature style, an aesthetic which often mixes tonality and atonality and has sometimes been labeled “neo-romanticism.” Rochberg described his goal in this new style as an attempt to achieve “the most potent and effective way to translate my musical energy into the clearest and most direct patterns of feeling and thought.” Style and structure String Quartet No. 3 is composed in five movements, with the first two and last two movements played without pause. This ultimately results in the work being heard in three large sections. Sections of atonality are superimposed with tonal and expressionist sections. The string quartet is written in a modified arch form. Part A