Literarische und mediale Aspekte auditiver Offenheit, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2020, p. 56 (German), in: Stefan Börnchen/Claudia Liebrand (eds.): Lauschen und Überhören. Zu Jean Sibelius’ Streichquartett "Voces intimae" d-Moll op. Ulrich Wilker: "Ein fernes Murmeln aus einer fernen Welt".
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The second movement is a scherzo in A major, connected to the first by musical motifs. The first movement contrasts "murmurous figuration with firm chords". The work opens with a dialogue of violin and cello. Sibelius structured the quartet in five movements: It is not a composition for the public at large, it is so eccentric and out of the ordinary." Sibelius later wrote about the composition: "The melodic material is good but the harmonic material could be 'lighter', and even 'more like a quartet.'" Structure and music A review in the Helsingin Sanomat noted: "The composition attracted a great deal of attention, and it is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant products in its field. The first performance was on 25 April 1910 at the Helsinki Music Institute. I will say no more." Sibelius showed it to his publisher Robert Lienau on 15 April 1909. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. The composer wrote about his work in a letter to his wife: "It turned out as something wonderful. The Latin title, translating to "Intimate Voices" or "Inner voices", marks a "conversational quality" and "inwardness" of the music. Sibelius composed the quartet from December 1908, working on it in London in early 1909. Composed between his Third and Fourth Symphony, it remained "the only major work for string quartet of Sibelius's mature period". Afterwards he wrote no string quartets until Voces intimae in 1909. The first string quartet to receive an opus number was in 1890 the quartet Op. In 1885 he finished a string quartet in E-flat major, followed in 1889, after quite a few individual movements for this combination, by a string quartet in A minor. As a student, Sibelius composed several works for string quartet.