Ben Johnston: String Quartet No.6 (1980)

Ben Johnston (*1926): String Quartet No.6 (1980). The New World String Quartet. “In String Quartet No. 6, I undertook the problem of endless melody so fascinating to late nineteenth century composers. Since it seemed to me that this concept never really met successfully the tests to which it was subjected, I was especially anxious to make it succeed in a non-dramatic, non-programmatic context. The melodic phrases are completely elided, avoiding al! cadences. The punctuation, the rise and fall, and the