Uploaded July 2011 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
...I abandoned program music and turned in the direction that was much more my own than all the preceding. It was the First String Quartet, Opus 7, in which I combined all the achievements of my time (including my own) such as: the construction of extremely large forms; greatly emancipated melodies based on a richly moving harmony and new chord progressions; and a contrapuntal technique that solved problems offered by superimposed, individual parts which moved freely in more remote regions of tonality and met frequently in vagrant harmonies.
In accommodation to the faith of the time, this large form was to include all the four characters of the sonata type in one single, uninterrupted movement. Durchführungen (development) should not be missing and there should be a certain degree of thematic unity within the contrasting sections.
The great expansion of this work required careful organization. It might perhaps interest an analyst to learn that I received and took advantage of the tremendous amount of advice suggested to me by a model I had chosen for this task: the first movement of the Eroica Symphony. Alexander von Zemlinsky told me that Brahms had said that every time he faced difficult problems he would consult a significant work of Bach and one of Beethoven, both of which he always used to keep near his standing-desk (Stehpult]. How did they handle a similar problem? Of course the model was not copied mechanically, but its mental essence was applied accordingly. In the same manner I learned, from the Eroica, solutions to my problems: how to avoid monotony and emptiness; how to create variety out of unity; how to create new forms out of basic material; how much can be achieved by slight modifications if not by developing variation out of often rather insignificant little formulations. From this masterpiece I learned also much of the creation of harmonic contrasts and their application.
Brahms' advice was excellent and I wish this story would persuade young composers that they must not forget what our musical forefathers have done for us.
Arnold Schoenberg
...I abandoned program music and turned in the direction that was much more my own than all the preceding. It was the First String Quartet, Opus 7, in which I combined all the achievements of my time (including my own) such as: the construction of extremely large forms; greatly emancipated melodies based on a richly moving harmony and new chord progressions; and a contrapuntal technique that solved problems offered by superimposed, individual parts which moved freely in more remote regions of tonality and met frequently in vagrant harmonies.
In accommodation to the faith of the time, this large form was to include all the four characters of the sonata type in one single, uninterrupted movement. Durchführungen (development) should not be missing and there should be a certain degree of thematic unity within the contrasting sections.
The great expansion of this work required careful organization. It might perhaps interest an analyst to learn that I received and took advantage of the tremendous amount of advice suggested to me by a model I had chosen for this task: the first movement of the Eroica Symphony. Alexander von Zemlinsky told me that Brahms had said that every time he faced difficult problems he would consult a significant work of Bach and one of Beethoven, both of which he always used to keep near his standing-desk (Stehpult]. How did they handle a similar problem? Of course the model was not copied mechanically, but its mental essence was applied accordingly. In the same manner I learned, from the Eroica, solutions to my problems: how to avoid monotony and emptiness; how to create variety out of unity; how to create new forms out of basic material; how much can be achieved by slight modifications if not by developing variation out of often rather insignificant little formulations. From this masterpiece I learned also much of the creation of harmonic contrasts and their application.
Brahms' advice was excellent and I wish this story would persuade young composers that they must not forget what our musical forefathers have done for us.
Arnold Schoenberg
![Billy Jim Layton, String Quartet in Two Movements, Second Movement [1 of 2 total]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kuyEIDaKL8Y/mqdefault.jpg "Billy Jim Layton, String Quartet in Two Movements, Second Movement [1 of 2 total]
ABOUT the String Quartet in Two Movements, composer Billy Jim Layton has this to say: The
quartet was written during 1955 and early 1956 while I was at the American Academy in Rome as a
Rome Prize Fellow. It is a composition to which I devoted a great deal of thought and effort and, as
I look back on it, it seems to me that it represents a kind of summation of my artistic development
and convictions up to that point. In it my aim was to achieve the widest range of expression possible
without lapsing into incoherence, by always maintaining the strongest formal control.
The thought and effort expended by Layton on this work has resulted in a Quartet which holds
qualities of extraversion and introversion in an unusual balance, with areas of high emotional
tension and vigor being set off against other statements of the utmost passivity and inwardness,
sometimes almost expressionist in esthetic. A highly complex treatment of rhythmic resources is
always in evidence, whether the music flows along with an ethereal line singing above a lightly
punctuated counterpoint, or steps out in jazzy, muscular syncops. Indeed, rhythm would seem to
be the real heart of this Quartet. In more than one section, it constitutes the entire subject under
discussion. Instrumental color, however, is another string preoccupation of the composer. The
resources of his medium are constantly exploited to the full, bringing into combination writing con
sordino and senza sordino; non vibrato and molto vibrato; col legno plus high and low pizzicato.
There are even trills beginning as whole-step intervals and gradually contracting to quarter-tones.
Every measure of the score bespeaks meticulous handling of all materials; a high consciousness of
the potency of timbre, and a delight in its manipulation.
about the composer:
Billy Jim Layton was born in Corsicana, Texas, in 1924. He studied at the New England
Conservatory of Music in Boston, Yale University, and Harvard. Several scholarships and prizes
were awarded him by these institutions. He has also held the Hertz Travelling Fellowship from the
University of California and the Rome Prize, 1954-57. In 1958, a grant in recognition of creative
work in music was awarded him by the National Institute of Arts and Letters, in connection with
which the present recording is issued. He has received several important commissions, including
one by the Koussevitsky Foundation. Performances of his music for solo, chamber, orchestral, and
choral combinations have been given in many cities of the United States and Europe.
Claremont St ring Quartet
Marc Gottli eb, violin
Vladimi r Weisman, violin
William Schoen, viola
Irving Klein, cello
We apologize must humbly, profusely, and in a virtual paroxysm of self-deprecation, for the poor sound quality of this 1950s thirty-three-and-one-third revolutions per minute micro-groove recording.")
