Doubles
Jonathan Berger’s fourth string quartet, Doubles, was commissioned by the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle for the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Doubles recalls songs of peace, freedom and resistance that were influential in my youth. Some of the references are readily identifiable, others obscured.
The title ‘Doubles’ refers to the seventeenth century practice of pairing a short piece with a highly embellished version of itself. The doubles in the quartet consist of three pairs of ornamental variations. In each double a new theme emerges. This theme is itself ornamented in the subsequent section, thus creating two simultaneous shifted sets of doubles.
Score: Download pdf