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Ensemble music performance is a highly coordinated form of social behavior requiring not only precise motor actions but also synchronization of different neural processes both within and between the brains of ensemble players. In previous analyses, which were restricted to within-frequency coupling (WFC), we showed that different frequencies participate in intra- and inter-brain coordination, exhibiting distinct network topology dynamics that underlie coordinated actions and interactions. However, many of the couplings both within and between brains are likely to operate across frequencies. Hence, to obtain a more complete picture of hyper-brain interaction when musicians play the guitar in a quartet, cross-frequency coupling (CFC) has to be considered as well. Furthermore, WFC and CFC can be used to construct hyper-brain hyper-frequency networks (HB-HFNs) integrating all the information flows between different oscillation frequencies, providing important details about ensemble interaction in terms of network topology dynamics (NTD). Here, we reanalyzed EEG (electroencephalogram) data obtained from four guitarists playing together in quartet to explore changes in HB-HFN topology dynamics and their relation to acoustic signals of the music. Our findings demonstrate that low-frequency oscillations (e.g., delta, theta, and alpha) play an integrative or pacemaker role in such complex networks and that HFN topology dynamics are specifically related to the guitar quartet playing dynamics assessed by sound properties. Simulations by link removal showed that the HB-HFN is relatively robust against loss of connections, especially when the strongest connections are preserved and when the loss of connections only affects the brain of one guitarist. We conclude that HB-HFNs capture neural mechanisms that support interpersonally coordinated action and behavioral synchrony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the publication of Louis Spohr's string quartets, which aims to bring attention to overlooked composers and support research into chamber music. It challenges traditional views of the quartet genre and explores the social and cultural contexts in which Spohr's quartets were composed. The article highlights the diversity and versatility of Spohr's compositions, drawing inspiration from various musical genres and reflecting different occasions. It also analyzes the presence of waltz topics in Spohr's quartets and their significance in challenging the distinction between popular and high concert music. The article praises the edition of Spohr's quartets for its historical and cultural context, as well as its performance notes and critical report, but raises questions about the selection of sources and use of autograph manuscripts. Overall, the edition is recommended for performers seeking to expand their repertoire. [Extracted from the article]

Extended just intonation confronts us with musical problems arising from the sheer array and variety of pitch relationships that can be written, played, and heard. Through an analysis of Ben Johnston's Seventh String Quartet as a case study, this essay addresses the diversity of these pitch relationships by suggesting a three-way categorization of just intonation ratios: primary intervals (simple integer ratios), ectopic intervals (ratios with no primary interval analogue), and intermediary intervals (ratios with a close primary interval analogue). I suggest a listening strategy based on the categorization resulting in two analytical models. A voltaic analysis recognizes changes in the pitch domain indicated by the differences between primary and intermediary intervals. A pitch pun analysis emphasizes the small magnitude of the differences between primary and intermediary intervals and the slow drift away from a secure sense of pitch place. Finally, I combine these views to compare the two analytical strategies as applied to the last measures of Johnston's Seventh String Quartet and speculate on the implications of these strategies for hearing and conceiving of pitch intervals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the elaborate compositional processes at work in the opening movement of Mendelssohn's Quartet in D major, Op. 44 No. 1 (1838) in the service of advancing and further refining the application of contemporary Formenlehre to nineteenth‐century music. Most conspicuous of these features is the role taken by the key of F♯ minor, iii of the tonic, which assumes increasing prominence over the course of the exposition, culminating in a curious ostensible secondary theme (bar 71) which appears initially to contradict the tonality of A major just confirmed. This harmonic argument runs alongside a fluid approach to phrase and interthematic structure, in which not only are the erstwhile first theme and transitional material subject to functional transformation but the latter is further elided with potential secondary material, while no terminating cadence (or EEC) is present either. Current analytical approaches – foremost here, sonata theory – cannot fully elucidate the subtlety of Mendelssohn's procedure (one might variously argue for an overridden medial caesura, a secondary theme starting in multiple places, a continuous or even a failed exposition), and nonetheless, clear precedents for individual elements of Mendelssohn's design can be found earlier in the music of Haydn and Mozart. Mendelssohn's movement raises significant questions about recent approaches to theorising nineteenth‐century form and its relation to Classical precedents, not all of which can be easily answered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses an edition of correspondence between Robert and Clara Schumann and their Swiss contemporaries, highlighting the overlapping friendships between the Schumanns and Richard Wagner. Despite their differing aesthetic outlooks, the Schumanns and Wagner had mutual acquaintances who played a role in Wagner's creative activities during his time in Switzerland. The article emphasizes the importance of understanding the relationships and aesthetic allegiances of the day in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of the Schumanns and Wagner. [Extracted from the article]

In terms of institutional positioning, the quartet of Indo‐Pacific states – Australia, India, Japan, and the United States – firmly endorse ASEAN. 'ASEAN centrality' is clearly highlighted in all Quad statements. Yet, the Quad presents an organizational and substantive challenge to the core institutional model of ASEAN. This competitive dynamic, with respect to style of associational methods (the how) as opposed to organizational purpose (the why), has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. If the literature does focus on the comparative approaches of ASEAN and the Quad, the prism is for the most part targeted on the differences with respect to the engagement with China. Our analysis is different and emphasizes the contrast between two types of institutional informality exhibited by ASEAN and the Quad. By situating our analysis in the context of contested informality, we point out that both ASEAN and the Quad are signposts showing that the foundational privilege of formal international organizations is under stress, albeit from a wide range of institutional designs. Only by detailing and evaluating the critical divergence in modes of informality can an appreciation of the nature and impact of the contest between ASEAN and the Quad be fully understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This quartet was composed in 1946 and followed a Symphony censored by the Soviet authorities, Symphony no. 9. The first audition took place on December 16, 1946, in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, by the Beethoven Quartet, to whom the work was dedicated. The composition has been brutally denounced as a result of the horrors it portrays and also for the fact that it ends in an unclear, unusual way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet is a series of novels that delve into various aspects of British life, such as the Brexit referendum, political polarization, the migrant crisis, and ecological breakdown. The novels center around characters who either isolate themselves or embrace life, love, and connection. These characters include lovers, activists, individuals of great kindness, and free spirits who bring renewal and possibility to those they encounter. The quartet acknowledges the brokenness of the world while also highlighting the resilience, generosity, and longing for meaningful connections that exist within individuals and communities. The text also explores the artistic qualities of two characters, Daniel and Lux, who infuse everyday life with creativity. Each novel in the quartet references works by Dickens and Shakespeare and reflects on the life and work of a female artist. Ali Smith, the author of the quartet, is described as an ally of free spirits, employing a playful and lyrical writing style. The text briefly mentions a character named Hannah, who embodies various character types and writes letters to her brother during the war. The text concludes by emphasizing the power of art to awaken creative energy and provide a deeper understanding of life. [Extracted from the article]

Leoš Janáček did not return to composing a string quartet until 1923, almost 45 years after his student composition for this instrumentation. The earlier Piano trio premiered in 1908 has direct relation with Quartet after Tolstoy's "Kreutzer sonata", but Janáček was not convinced of the Trio quality and destroyed it in 1923. However, some moments from the Trio could form the basis of the future quartet. Janáček composed the piece at the initiative of České kvarteto between October and November 1923 and then sent the score to the ensemble. Nonetheless, the first performance was not scheduled until 17 October 1924, when České kvarteto performed the piece at the Mozarteum in Prague. Subsequently, the score and parts were printed in Hudební matice of Umělecká beseda. Josef Suk, the second violinist of České kvarteto, made a significant contribution to the printed form of the composition. The material was published in 1925 and the first foreign performance -- critically acclaimed -- took place the same year at the festival of International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Venice. This study deals with the complicated genesis of the composition, Suk's changes and the principles of the forthcoming edition. Furthermore, it publishes a complete inventory of sources for the first time and describes them in detailed manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cancer progression and treatment can be informed by reconstructing its evolutionary history from tumor cells. Although many methods exist to estimate evolutionary trees (called phylogenies) from molecular sequences, traditional approaches assume the input data are error-free and the output tree is fully resolved. These assumptions are challenged in tumor phylogenetics because single-cell sequencing produces sparse, error-ridden data and because tumors evolve clonally. Here, we study the theoretical utility of methods based on quartets (four-leaf, unrooted phylogenetic trees) in light of these barriers. We consider a popular tumor phylogenetics model, in which mutations arise on a (highly unresolved) tree and then (unbiased) errors and missing values are introduced. Quartets are then implied by mutations present in two cells and absent from two cells. Our main result is that the most probable quartet identifies the unrooted model tree on four cells. This motivates seeking a tree such that the number of quartets shared between it and the input mutations is maximized. We prove an optimal solution to this problem is a consistent estimator of the unrooted cell lineage tree; this guarantee includes the case where the model tree is highly unresolved, with error defined as the number of false negative branches. Lastly, we outline how quartet-based methods might be employed when there are copy number aberrations and other challenges specific to tumor phylogenetics.

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga compuso durante sus escasos veinte años de vida obras que escapan a lo común y aún no se han descifrado los orígenes del talento que le llevó a tales resultados. A través del cuarteto de cuerda, uno de los géneros que ha acompañado a Juan Crisóstomo en todas las etapas de su vida, el presente trabajo propone una vía alternativa a los estudios convencionales con la viola como elemento vehicular. Un análisis del balance de voces de sus cuartetos nos brindará información de las ideas transformistas de Arriaga en torno a este género y desmontará las principales hipótesis sobre su origen: la influencia de la escuela vienesa a través de la incidencia de Haydn en España y su posible replanteamiento del cuarteto de cuerda tras su etapa académica parisina. La existencia del Tema variado para cuarteto de cuerdas op.17, un cuarteto previo a su traslado a la capital francesa de construcción igualitaria y asignación de ciertas técnicas complejas a la viola, nos acerca un paso más hacia la comprensión de su forma de concebir la composición cuartetística y hasta qué punto excede a los estándares marcados por sus contemporáneos españoles, así como por sus referentes internacionales.

This book review discusses "Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times" by William Kinderman. The review highlights the final chapter of the book, which explores the political and politicized nature of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It discusses the symphony's use as the anthem of the European Union, its performance during the fall of the Berlin Wall, and its connections to other works by Beethoven. The review praises Kinderman's use of evidence from various disciplines to trace the presence of the political in Beethoven's music. However, it also notes that the book may marginalize other works by Beethoven that respond to the revolutionary times. [Extracted from the article]

"Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World" by Leah Broad is a non-academic book that explores the lives and music of four British female composers: Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell, and Doreen Carwithen. The book highlights their individual approaches to music and their contributions to the classical music world. While the author argues for the significance of these women in a field often overlooked by musicological scholarship, there are concerns about the lack of acknowledgement of previous scholars and the omission of other notable women composers. Overall, the book provides an engaging introduction to these composers and may inspire readers to explore their music further. [Extracted from the article]

like knotted strings for string quartet was commissioned in 2020 by the New York City-based Jack Quartet (through their Jack Studio programme), completed in 2022 and premiered in January 2023. In Jorge Luis Borges's short story, The Garden of Forking Paths (2018 [1941]), the character Stephen Albert describes the fiction of the author Ts'ui Pen as works which explore all the possible narrative alternatives, in contrast with other authors whose fiction considers only a single outcome. Gary Saul Morson (1994:19), addressing a similar subject, argues that narrative offers both advantages and challenges to our comprehension of time. The metatextual nature of these themes - infinity (related here to narrative possibilities), memory and perception - gave me the impetus to compose like knotted strings, where they are reflected in such a way that musical material comments on the creative process itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer progression and treatment can be informed by reconstructing its evolutionary history from tumor cells. Although many methods exist to estimate evolutionary trees (called phylogenies) from molecular sequences, traditional approaches assume the input data are error-free and the output tree is fully resolved. These assumptions are challenged in tumor phylogenetics because single-cell sequencing produces sparse, error-ridden data and because tumors evolve clonally. Here, we study the theoretical utility of methods based on quartets (four-leaf, unrooted phylogenetic trees) in light of these barriers. We consider a popular tumor phylogenetics model, in which mutations arise on a (highly unresolved) tree and then (unbiased) errors and missing values are introduced. Quartets are then implied by mutations present in two cells and absent from two cells. Our main result is that the most probable quartet identifies the unrooted model tree on four cells. This motivates seeking a tree such that the number of quartets shared between it and the input mutations is maximized. We prove an optimal solution to this problem is a consistent estimator of the unrooted cell lineage tree; this guarantee includes the case where the model tree is highly unresolved, with error defined as the number of false negative branches. Lastly, we outline how quartet-based methods might be employed when there are copy number aberrations and other challenges specific to tumor phylogenetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the Bärenreiter Urtext edition of Beethoven's Trio in B-flat major for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello, also known as the "Archduke" trio. The Urtext edition, edited by Jonathan Del Mar, aims to provide an authentic and unmediated access to Beethoven's original text. Del Mar compares various sources and versions of the trio to determine Beethoven's original instructions and distinguish them from later additions or changes made by others. The article highlights the importance of understanding the historical context and collaborative nature of music production in order to interpret and perform Beethoven's music accurately. The Bärenreiter Urtext edition is praised for its accessibility, high-quality textual-critical work, and affordable price. [Extracted from the article]

Classical Turkish music, which has been continuing to be fed with the Middle Ages Islamic world since the 10th century, owes its development to the pieces written by many theorists and composers, especially Fârâbî, İbn-î Sînâ, Safüyüddin Urmevî, Abdülkâdir Merâgî, Bedri Dilşad, Lâdikli Mehmed Çelebi, Abdülbâkî Nâsır Dede, Dimitri Cantemir, Rauf Yektâ. In these pieces, explanations are given on the concept of maqam, the formation of maqam, the factors affecting its formation (caesura, prepotent, course), and its classification. Especially in the pieces having been written since the fifteenth century, there is a distinction in the classification, with the word maqam being mentioned more frequently. In the research, it is aimed to investigate the change in the concept of maqam in Classical Turkish music in the historical process and to see the theoretical approaches of theorists and composers to the concept of maqam. The study, within the framework of maqam definitions and classifications, is limited to the period between the 13th and 20th centuries. In the research, it is seen that the fifteenth century was a transition period as a maqam expression style, and since this century, maqam narrations have been made with note and course focusing rather than quartets and quintuplets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance to reception history of the first complete cycle of Beethoven's string quartets, given in London in 1845 by the Beethoven Quartett Society, is securely established. Less well recognized is the significance of the complete edition of the quartets prepared by the cellist Scipion Rousselot and published in London in 1846. This article offers the first close examination of Rousselot's edition and posits that while its claims for unparalleled correctness were unsustainable, its inclusion, uniquely in the case of the late quartets, of two uncommon features – rehearsal letters and instrumental cues – constitutes a trace of the rehearsal practices of the four players responsible for these historically outstanding performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beethoven's music has often been framed in terms of art religion, immortality, and secular humanism. Building on these studies, this article proposes that certain works by Beethoven enact a fantasy of infinitely postponing death and living forever on earth, something that I call temporal eternity. To develop this concept, it draws on the concept of chronolibido developed by the contemporary philosopher Martin Hägglund, as well as writings by Novalis and Friedrich Schlegel. The article's case studies are Beethoven's Piano Sonata in A Major, op. 110 (1821), and String Quartet in A Minor, op. 132 (1825). In both works, the score refers to an increase in strength. Opus 110 concludes with a return of a previously heard fugue, marked "again reviving, gradually returning to life." Similarly, the third movement of op. 132, "Holy Song of Thanks from a Convalescent to the Godhead," revolves around a continually returning B section, titled "feeling new strength." In both ops. 110 and 132, then, the textual references to strength occur in the context of a double variation form that supports cyclic processes of return. Their structural designs allow for the continual regeneration of each section, as though the evocation of new strength could recur eternally. Such formal processes depict strength as a renewable resource capable of sustaining temporal eternity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comprehensive account of the life of composer Claude Debussy, challenging myths perpetuated by previous authors. It explores Debussy's daily experiences, artistic influences, and relationships with other composers and writers. The biography also delves into Debussy's personal attributes, including his introverted nature, refined taste, and relationships with women. Additionally, it highlights Debussy's connection to Symbolism, his musical influences, and his artistic outlook. The text also discusses Debussy's attitudes towards other composers and musical styles, as well as his interest in non-European music and his rejection of labels. Overall, this biography offers valuable insights into the life and work of this innovative composer. [Extracted from the article]

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Anxious to free Beethoven's compositions from the ideologically driven notion of "lateness" - 'why should it be impossible to look at works at chronologically late points in Beethoven's creative biography without highly loaded historical and aesthetic prejudgements ... ? For Joseph Kerman, the String Quartet in B flat, Op. 130, was Beethoven's "most dissociated composition" ( I The Beethoven Quartets i (London, 1967), 321), the antithesis to the paradigm of "integration" represented by the C sharp minor work, Op. 131. [Extracted from the article]

'Scholars in other fields have called for a moratorium on studies of the sublime, yet there are remarkably few books dedicated to the sublime and music' (p. 1). As writers adopted spatial metaphors to portray the past of British music and its future glories (mountain ascents, panoramic vistas, soaring flights), they enlisted both Handel and the sublime rhetoric bestowed on his music. She focuses on British musical historiography of the late eighteenth century, and at the centre of the discussion stands Handel, the age's paragon of musical sublimity. [Extracted from the article]