Debussy Quartet Digital Open Rehearsal

Good morning, Newburyport!

This summer, I attended the Taos School of Music, a chamber music program in the mountains of New Mexico. My first assignment was the Debussy quartet, his one and only string quartet and an impressionistic masterpiece. Preparing this quartet for performance was the highlight of my summer and I'd like to share with you some of our process – a digital "open rehearsal," as my dad calls them.

***Performing Debussy String Quartet in June***

You may have noticed during festival season that the musicians often spend a lot of time together outside of rehearsal, getting coffee at Chococoa or finding a new book at Jabberwocky. This time together builds group esprit de corps and the trust that is crucial for an engaging and spontaneous performance.

With two weeks of preparation time in Taos, we did the same: we went on hikes, ate lots of New Mexican food, sent each other silly memes, and read other chamber music every night after rehearsal. We were building that trust and, more importantly, learning how to have fun together.

Link to rehearsal recording on Ms. Yang's YouTube channel — ***Our group attempting to read an arrangement of traditional Danish folk tunes for string quartet by the Danish String Quartet***

In the rehearsal room, we spent hours on every last detail, fitting the technique into our evolving concept of the piece. Here are three examples, accompanied by video clips, of what we worked on:

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1. The first is in the opening movement. In these measures, we focused on how to pace the transition from a lonely and unsettled theme to one of short-lived triumph. Our bowings, tempi, and dynamics all depended on our group vision for this transition and how we wanted to make the audience feel.

Click to the right to see the clip

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2. The second example is from the ending of the slow movement. Since the acoustics were less than ideal in our small and carpeted rehearsal room, we crowded into the bathroom with the lights off to open our ears. Though we knew we wouldn't be performing in that bathroom, the experience helped us identify the sound we wanted and would need to recreate on stage.

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3. This third example is the last movement's concluding presto. One of our longest concept discussions centered around the meaning of this ending for our protagonist, who we had decided was a heartbroken man in his early 20s. Does it describe his death or his rebirth?

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There's no right answer to this question. Below is our performance of the quartet, and I'll let you listen and decide what the piece means to you.

Best,Alessandra