| Year of Composition: | 1980 |
| Duration: | 15 |
| Instrumentation: | 2vn-va-vc-tape |
| Samples: |  Score  Audio |
String Quartet No. 2
Programme Note:
Anno cum tettigonia (Year with the Grasshopper) for string quartet and tape (1980) is a composition of rational craftsmanship, based upon a unique harmony (which brings to mind the sounds of ancient Lithuanian skudučiai – panpipes) and a precisely ordered presentation of musical gradations. This piece, composed in canon form, is considered a classic of Lithuanian minimalism. Its texture is woven with increasing density until it reaches a culmination, whereupon it gradually grows sparse until it thins out completely. The grasshopper is the symbol for a year in Japanese mythology. The timing in this quartet is measured with accurate precision: it is comprised of 365 measures, at every seventh measure there is a slight variation in rhythm, and a recording of a bell tolling is heard twelve times.
© 2011 Austė Nakienė
© 2011 translation by Ada Valaitis
Published scores:
Leningrad: Sovetskij kompozitor, 1985
Cracow: PWM, 1994
Released recordings:
CD Academy/Edel ACA 8503-2, 1991
CD Lithuanian Music Performers Information Centre LMAIC CD 001006, 2001
CD Bronius Kutavičius. The Small Spectacle. – Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre, LMIPC CD 064, 2011 (Chordos String Quartet: Dainius Puodžiukas – 1st violin, Ieva Sipaitytė – 2nd violin, Robertas Bliškevičius – viola, Rūta Tamutytė – cello)
CD Lithuanian Music in Context II. Landscapes of Minimalism. - Vilnius, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD067-068, 2011 (Silesian String Quartet: Marek Moś (violin), Arkadiusz Kubica (violin), Łukasz Syrnicki (viola), Piotr Janosik (cello)
CD Tiltai / Mosty. – Iš arti-005, 2012 (Kaunas String Quartet: Karolina Beinarytė – 1st violin, Dalia Terminaitė – 2nd violin, Eglė Lapinskė – viola, Saulius Bartulis – cello)
CD Chordos. Music for String Quartet. – Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD082-083, 2014 (Chordos String Quartet: Dainius Puodžiukas – 1st violin, Ieva Sipaitytė – 2nd violin, Robertas Bliškevičius – viola, Rūta Tamutytė – cello)
