Lyric Quartette

• Still composed this string quartet in Los Angeles in 1960.¹
• Still considered several names for this work before settling on Lyric Quartette. He also called it “Lyric String Quartette.” The first name he gave it was “Musical Portraits of Three Friends,” and the second name he considered was “Impressions.”²
• Still dedicated this quartet to Hollywood String Quartet violinist Joachim Chassman.³

There are also a couple versions of the names of this quartet’s three movements.

• Here are the names that accompanied the “Musical Portraits” iteration:⁴

1. The Sentimental One 
2. The Quiet One 
3. The Jovial One 

• Here are the names that accompanied the final iteration:⁵

1. Moderately: On a Plantation 
2. Moderately Slow: In the Mountains of Peru. “Based on an Inca melody.” 
3. Moderately Fast: In a Pioneer Settlement 

1. Judith Anne Still, Michael J. Dabrishus, and Carolyn L. Quin, William Grant Still: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1996), 140.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Lyric Quartet, Musical Portraits of Three Friends,” Editions Silvertrust, accessed November 29, 2021, http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/still-lyric-qt.htm.