MIDI samples on my Haba webpage [plug alert]

I've added two short MIDI samples to my Alois Haba webpage:
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/haba/haba-worklist.htm

- the first 42 seconds of his _2nd Quartet_, op 7
(1920, his first published quarter-tone piece), and

- the first 33 seconds of his _14th Quartet_,op 94
(1963, also quarter-tone).

(Please be sure to listen with a soundcard that gives
good emulations of solo violin, viola, and cello.)

I intend to continue working on both of these until they
are complete, and also to eventually add the _3rd Quartet_
(another important quarter-tone Haba work). I'd also like
to make MIDIs of the _5th Quartet_ (his first use of 36-ET)
and _16th Quartet_ (his first use of 31-ET), if I can find
the scores.

As usual, I've edited the note-durations to precisely reflect
the composer's phrasing markings, and made extensive use
of _rubato_ in my tempos, to delineate the phrase-groupings
and make the performance more expressive.

I'd like to note that my version of these pieces seems to
me to give Haba's melodies a great deal of the quality of
speech, which I think is partly the result of the use of
quarter-tone intervals.

The _2nd Quartet_, which (I think) was the last piece
Haba wrote in Vienna, where he had been studying Schoenberg's
compositions, sounds to me like it was heavily influenced by
Schoenberg's _1st Quartet_, op 7.

Also evident when listening to both of these samples
is how Haba's style changed after the Communist takeover
of Czechoslovakia in 1947. The _16th Quartet_ has a
palpable folk-song feel to it that is very different
from the style of the _2nd Quartet_.

I've never heard these pieces before, so I'm going strictly
on my own deduction of what's in the score.

(The only performance of a Haba work I've ever heard was
Wim Hoogewerf playing his _2nd Suite for quarter-tone guitar_,
op 63, at a recent AFMM concert.)

-monz

Joseph L. Monzo Philadelphia monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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