String Quartet No. 2 (Borodin)
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The String Quartet No. 2, written in 1881, by Alexander Borodin is a work in four movements:
- Allegro moderato in D major and cut time, with 304 bars
- Scherzo. Allegro in F major and 3/4 time, with 299 bars at tempo 80 dotted half notes to the minute
- Notturno (Nocturne): Andante in A major and 3/4 time, with 180 bars at tempo 60 quarter notes to the minute
- Finale: Andante — Vivace in D major and 2/4 time, with 671 bars at initial tempo 76 quarter notes to the minute.
It was written in Zhitovo in 1881, the same year that saw the writing of the tone-poem From the Steppes of Central Asia; the quartet premiered in that year or the next. (The external links give a more complete tale but conflict on the date.) It is unusual in a sonata form exposition, as happens in this allegro moderato, that the second theme section of the first movement begins in F♯ minor, the so-called mediant minor instead of the dominant A major — though it does get there.)
The scherzo second movement is also in sonata form rather than the i-ii-i form more usual for minuet-style movements like most scherzos, so it can be divided i-ii-iii-i'-ii':
The division is more or less - i is based in F major and consists here mostly of running figures, ii more melodic and based in C, iii a section which takes off from C and ends back in or near F (a development, here but not always based on earlier material), i' is more or less the same as i and ii' based on ii but now in F rather than in C major, releasing and removing the overall tension that should be caused by a move to another key. The tuneful second group, whose first appearance begins at bar 29 and is announced by a meno mosso and slowing down to a tempo of 60 of the same beat (60 dotted halves to the minute), is used in the musical Kismet as the song "Baubles, Bangles and Beads".
(This is a summary of material covered in sonata form; again the purpose of this dramatic form is more important than whether the 'rules' are in followed to the jot...) The first, second and fourth movements of this work are in sonata form, the famous Nocturne third in the A-B-A form which, along with a modified sonata form and along with variations, has been more usual for classical slow movements in Mozart's time and since.
Note: A more typical minuet or scherzo, to emphasize the difference - the forms of the third movements of Schubert's 9th symphony or the same composer's string quintet provide examples here — typically has a 'closed' i which does not modulate and ends in the key where it began, an ii which usually is also closed, and then a return of i which may happen after a transition, especially but not only if, as in the Schubert quintet, ii is in a key very far from i.
The main theme of the third movement Nocturne, performed in string orchestra arrangements and perhaps the most famous in the quartet, appears in the musical Kismet also, as And this is my Beloved. An agitated middle section lasting from bars 47-110 of the movement interrupts this theme's otherwise peaceful interchanges and spinnings-out.
The finale opens with a dialogue between violins and lower strings, the question and answer inspiring the main, sonata form movement which follows after 20 bars of introduction (at Vivace, half note = 108) and later interrupting the flow of the movement at several key points, before the long-breathed D major close.
The Borodin Quartet in both its incarnations have specialized in these works, producing fine recordings of them.
