- Mayer may have composed this work around 1858. This is one of seven or eight string quartets in Mayer’s catalogue.1
- Mayer dedicated this string quartet to her brother, who was an apothecary, as their father had been2 “Ihrem Bruder Dem Apotheker Herrn August Meyer liebevoll zueeignet” (To her brother, the apothecary Mr. August Meyer, lovingly dedicated).3
- Listen for: the third movement (Adagio) is built on the chorale Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, a hymn about trust in the midst of suffering. Bach, Mendelssohn, and many other German have based compositions on this hymn.
- The chorale first appears (m. 27) in the three lower parts under a moving (and rather Bachian) Violin 1 part. It reappears in m. 60 in the upper parts, over a plucked cello accompaniment.4
Sources
- Eva Rieger, “Mayer, Emilie,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 24, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000047439.
- Ibid.
- Emilie Mayer, Quatuor für 2 Violinen Viola und Violoncello (Berlin: Rob. Timm et C., c. 1860).
- Emilie Mayer, Partitur Streichquartett #1 in g-moll, ed. Reinhard Greeven (IMSLP), 23, 26.
Cut IDs
24039