John Blackwood McEwen: String Quartet No.4 in C minor (1905)

John Blackwood McEwen’s String Quartet No. 4 in C minor dates from 1905. This is an adventurous work for its era. It certainly defies any complaint that McEwen was somehow writing music that was parochially Scottish. One can agree with the writer of the programme notes by Levon Chilingirian, written for the Chandos recording, that there are echoes of Bartók - at least in the first movement. There is an intensity and depth, which sets this work above much British and European chamber music that was being composed at this time. McEwen was absorbing a variety of styles at home and abroad. As with much of his music there is a definite bittersweetness about it.

The opening Allegro ma non troppo is both vigorous and discursive. The first subject is “grim in its severity” but is balanced by an “expressive” second subject. The movement ends with a pianissimo Lento passage. The scherzo, a ‘Vivace’ is sardonic in mood. Although the harmonies are not outrageous, there is a strong feel of dissonance to this moto perpetuo. There is little relief in the trio section. The third movement, an Andante espressivo begins with an impassioned theme with a Scottish feel to it, complete with “Scotch Snaps.” However, this is not pastiche. The mood changes into a very chromatic and intense meditation on this idea. There is an air of sadness here: a lament if ever there was one. The last movement is a kind of “double rondo.” It is typically “a high-spirited romp,” despite opening with a “declamatory larghetto.” This is not the rondo theme as such, even though it recurs twice more. The main Vivace subject is first heard on the viola and is repeated with considerable development throughout the movement. The coda allows the opening theme to catch up with the bustling semiquavers.

There is no doubt that this is fine music. How it can languish from the concert halls is a complete mystery to me. It is a masterpiece of balance between the Scottish idiom and the broader Western musical tradition.

The Quartet was premiered at a concert organised by the Incorporated Society of Musicians on Saturday 11 December at the “small” Queen’s Hall in London. It was devoted to British composers. The ensemble featured Arthur Payne, Ernest Yonge, C.H. Woodhouse and J.E. Hambleton. Another premiere that day was the Suite for Pianoforte in E flat, op.30, 1910 (now known as the Suite No.2) by York Bowen, played by the composer. A mixed bag of other music included songs by the forgotten composer Lewis Carey, sung by Miss Lucie Johnstone. Recitations were given by Jessie Henderson Matthay, accompanied by Stanley Hawley on the piano. The final important work was the Sonata for viola and piano, op.15 by W.H. Bell, which has totally disappeared from the repertoire.

The Times (13 December 1909, p.9) reported that McEwen’s new quartet was “not as genial as the two earlier quartets, but its finale had a good deal of spirit.” Equally tepid was the review in the Daily Telegraph (13 December 1909, p.7) where the critic thought that it was “chiefly remarkable for its lack of melody and synthetic continuity,” and that it is “modern in feeling, at least as regards tonality – or absence of it.”

The Musical Times (January 1910, p.25) reported that McEwen’s Quartet featured “the customary wealth of device that has always distinguished his work, and with a full grasp of his material, only lessened by a tendency to relapse into the least desirable characteristic of Continental music of the new school.” Less likely a reference to Bela Bartok, whose String Quartet No.1 was premiered in January 1910, but possibly Arnold Schoenberg. The Austrian composer’s String Quartet No.1, written around the same time as McEwen’s No.4, had stretched tonality to its limit and in his String Quartet No.2 (1908) he not only introduced a soprano into the third and fourth movements, but “new sounds were produced, a new kind of melody appeared, a new approach to expression of moods and characters was discovered.”

McEwen’s Quartet was dedicated to Mrs Rachel Henry (Henrey) Cheetham, née Shorrock. Nothing is known about this lady, (someone somewhere will tell me about her), except the she was born in Darwen, Lancashire, attended Denmark Hill School in Lambeth, and was married to William Henry Cheetham on 15 May 1879. The 1911 census shows the couple living in Mottingham, Kent. William is recorded as being an East India merchant. She died during 1916.

The first broadcast of the Quartet was on 15 June 1928, on the BBC. The Virtuoso String Quartet played in the Aeolian Hall.

The String Quartet No.4 in C minor was released on Chandos Record label (CHAN 9926) in 2002. The Chilingirian Quartet also include the Quartet No. 16 Quartette Provençale (1936), the Quartet for Strings No.7 Threnody (1916) and the Fantasia for String Quartet No. 17 (1947).