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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (APRIL 10) — The multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet continues its exploration of American musical traditions with the release of American Voices on Cedille Records, Friday, May 10. The album features four works that weave the sound of the classical string quartet together with important threads in the country’s broader musical fabric, from 19th-century folk music traditions to early 20th-century trends in popular music. The featured works are Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 (“American”), Florence Price’s String Quartet in G major, Louis Gruenberg’s Four Diversions for String Quartet, Op. 32, and James Lee III’s new commission for the album, Pitch In. The latter is scored for string quartet and children’s choir, sung on this world-premiere recording by Chicago’s Uniting Voices under conductor Josephine Lee.
The String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, that opens American Voices was composed not by an American, but by celebrated Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, who nevertheless served as classical music’s most important early advocate for a distinctly American sound. He composed the work, nicknamed the “American” quartet, in 1893 while on vacation from his directorship of the National Conservatory in New York City. In his letters, Dvořák remarks that his works composed in the United States—most notably this quartet and the “New World” symphony—possess a uniquely American color and character that is distinct from his music written back home. The “American” quartet does not contain any known quotations of American folk melodies, but the work is cast in a rustic, pentatonic style that even today is used in film and other media to evoke rural 19th-century American life.
The folk influence evident in Florence Price’s String Quartet in G major, by contrast, was a natural product of the composer’s upbringing in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is particularly on display in the work’s lyrical second movement, especially its outer sections, which resemble traditional American hymns. Price composed the work in 1929, two years after having relocated to Chicago as part of the Great Migration from the Jim Crow South. This string quartet was her first in the genre. While she went on to produce additional works for this instrumentation, this G-major quartet remained unfinished, with only two movements completed.
Written in 1930 by American composer Louis Gruenberg, Four Diversions for String Quartet, Op. 32, taps into a different sound world—that of the jazz age. In the work’s third and longest movement, rich harmonies with telltale “blue” notes are heard over a rocking bass that at times resembles (the then-popular) boogie-woogie. That movement’s melodic character and the episodic nature of the whole work foreshadow the cinematic leanings of its composer, who would go on to achieve acclaim and multiple Academy Award nominations for his work scoring films during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
American Voices closes with a world premiere specially commissioned for the album from Baltimore-based American composer James Lee III, who has been praised by The Washington Post for his “bright, pure music.” Titled Pitch In, the piece addresses the social justice issue of food insecurity and is based on a poem of the same title by Sylvia Dianne Beverly. The composer writes:
The work is in three contrasting, continuous sections with a melodic motivic figure on the words, “People are hungry,” frequently followed by, “yet people continue to waste food.” Throughout the work, the character of the music changes as the words fluctuate between stating the issue, hope, despair, and a call to action.
On his incorporation of traditional American musical styles into his music, he adds:
When I use folk elements in my pieces, it has been mostly with major and minor pentatonic scales. For example, in the middle section of Pitch In, when the string parts are a little more animated, I hinted at an E-minor pentatonic scale in the voice parts as they sing “So others might eat…”.
Pitch In is not only a musical composition, but a social justice project. As such, Cedille Records will donate 25% of American Voices’ first-year of revenues from direct CD sales via cedillerecords.org to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
American Voices is the Pacifica Quartet’s 14th recording for Cedille Records, following upon their “extraordinary” (Strings) Grammy-nominated album, American Stories, featuring clarinetist Anthony McGill. About their prior album, Contemporary Voices, which won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, BBC Music Magazine declared, “the Pacifica’s ensemble playing is of the highest standard.”
The Pacifica Quartet’s performances and recordings this season include projects with clarinetist Anthony McGill and guitarist Sharon Isbin. In addition, the Quartet collaborates with soprano Karen Slack for performances of James Lee III’s A Double Standard, a new song cycle commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, and the Shriver Hall Concert Series. Renamed the University of Chicago’s Don Michael Randel Ensemble in Residence for the 2023–2024 season, the Pacifica Quartet performs and gives masterclasses at the University of Chicago throughout the academic year. Additional performances are presented by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Chamber Music Detroit, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, and Caramoor.
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