Presents
Emilie Mayer
String Quartet in e minor
Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was born in the German town of Friedland. Although she received piano and organ lessons as a child, she did not pursue a musical career as her widowed father needed her to help keep house for him. It was only upon his death at the age of 28 that she pursued formal studies moving to the city of Stettin (since 1945 Szczecin in Poland) where she took composition lessons from Carl Loewe, the City Music Director. Loewe considered her extraordinarily talented and as a result she worked extremely hard, dedicating herself to composition. On Loewe’s recommendation she went to Berlin where she studied with Adolph Marx, then a leading teacher in theory and composition and a family friend of the Mendelssohns. It is through him that he introduced her to them and their circle of musical friends,. She was a fairly prolific composer, especially in view of the fact that she started to compose rather late. Among her many works number eight symphonies, six piano trios, two piano quartets, seven string quartets, two string quintets, seven violin sonatas, and twelve cello sonatas.
Emilie Mayer wrote at least seven string quartets. Only one of the seven was published in her lifetime and given an opus number, probably by her publisher. Her String Quartet in e minor was one of the six which for unknown reasons was never published. It is difficult to know exactly when it was composed as she did not begin to publish her works until about 1860 and many of these were completed decades before their date of publication. The manuscript of the score, located in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, bears no date, but judging from the style, it seems likely the quartet was completed in the 1840’s. It is known that she revisited it and revised it. There were performances of it in 1851 and 1854. The opening movement begins with a somber, somwhat ominous Allegro maestoso introduction in which the cello is given the lead. The main part of the movement is stormy and turbulent although there is a more lyrical second subject. Next comes a, Scherzo, in mood sounds much like continuation of the first has the quality of a Mendelssohnian song without words. The exciting finale, Allegro appassionato, bursts out of the starting gate in stormy fashion full of forward motion from start to finish.
This quartet, like her others, which she was able to get performed, though well received did not enter the repertoire which it probably would have done if she had been a man. In our opinion, it is on a par with the quartets of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Not only is this an historically important work by an excellent woman composer when few were writing, but it can stand on its own as a first class piece of work. It deserves to be heard in concert and certainly will be enjoyed by amateurs as well.
Parts: $24.95
Parts & Score: $33.95
