String Quartet No. 1, “Calvary”

Composer: PERKINSON, Coleridge-Taylor
  • Perkinson’s “Calvary” string quartet was written in 1952 when the composer was just 20 and still an undergraduate student at the Manhattan School of Music.1
  • The piece premiered in 1956 at Carnegie Hall by the Cumbo Quartet (which included famed cellist Marion Cumbo) as part of a memorial concert for Harry T. Burleigh.2
  • Consisting of three movements, Perkinson’s first string quartet is nicknamed “Calvary” because it’s based on the African American spiritual of the same name.3

Sources

  1. Carman Moore and Anya Laurence, “Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor,” Grove Music Online (2012), accessed February 7, 2023, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002219404.
  2. M. Myrta Leslie Santana, Notes in accompanying booklet, Uncovered, Vol. III performed by the Catalyst Quartet, Azica 71357, 2023, compact disc.
  3. “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Calvary,'” Keiser Southern Music, accessed February 7, 2023, https://www.keisersouthernmusic.com/compositions/string-quartet-no-1-calvary-sc-pts.

Cut IDs

24976