Composers Datebook

In New York City on today’s date in 2008, The Juilliard School’s annual FOCUS! Festival showcased music from the opposite coast, including the world premiere performance of a new string quartet by Californian composer John Adams. Some 14 years earlier, Adams had written a work for string quartet and pre-recorded tape that was premiered by the Kronos Quartet at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. That earlier string quartet Adams titled “John’s Book of Alleged Dances,” because, as he said at the time, “the steps for the dances had yet to be invented.” His new work for 2008 had a more serious title: simply, “String Quartet,” and was premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Adams had heard the Saint Lawrence Quartet perform his “Book of Alleged Dances,” and was so impressed he wanted to write a new work for the ensemble. Considering the great string quartets written by composers of the past ranging from Haydn to Ravel, throwing your hat in the string quartet ring can be intimidating, however. “String quartet writing is one of the most difficult challenges a composer can take on,” confessed Adams. “Unless one is an accomplished string player and writes in that medium all the time—and I don’t know many these days who do—the demands of handling this extremely volatile and transparent instrumental medium can easily be humbling, if not downright humiliating.