Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Fantasiestücke for String Quartet Op.5

The Coleridge Ensemble
John McLaughlin Williams, Violin
Hilary Walther, Violin
Lisa Suslowicz, Viola
William Thomas, Cello

Coleridge-Taylor's early compositions were chamber works and all of them rank among his finest creations. His skill in this genre was so striking that it is tempting to speculate about the composer he might have become had the musical fashion of England at that time favored chamber music rather than the large choral cantata (a form to which he contributed many works and which occupied him almost completely throughout his successful but sadly abbreviated career.) The Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces) was composed in 1895 while he was still a student at the Royal College. This work was dedicated by Coleridge-Taylor to his composition teacher, Charles Villiers Stanford. Technically, the work is breathtakingly assured. The composer employs some cyclic elements, imaginative voice leading, gracious melodic invention, and generally showing great understanding of the textural possibilities in quartet writing. Each movement creates a distinct character unto its own, all the while retaining a freshness that remains to this day. The Fantasiestücke were published posthumously in 1921. The movements are:
I. Prelude
II. Serenade
III. Humoreske
IV. Minuet & Trio
V. Dance

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