Elliot Carter Contribution

Elliott Carter is among the most celebrated American composers of the 20th century. Until his death in 2012, Carter was a renowned ace in composing contemporary classical music. His success during his career spanning eight decades can well be manifested by the numerous accolades he gained including the most coveted Pulitzer Prize. Elliot Cook Carter, Jr. was born in New York City in 1908 and died in 2012. His interest in music began while he was in high school. Carter’s music career was instigated by Charles Ives, who had relations with Carter’s family by virtue of business. Being a late bloomer unlike his predecessors did not diminish his influence as he soon established himself as among the most sort after composers. Carter studied music
These two compositions formed a platform that would later define his distinctive style. His individual voice was to be later established with his composition of the First String Quartet (1951). In this composition, the use of “metric modulation” that is where two distinct tempi are related by a regular complex division of the beat is evident. Although he did not come up with this term himself, he is often associated with this rhythmic technique. The Second String Quartet (1959) is an advancement of the metric modulation since each of the four instrumental parts are markedly independent of one another. The Third String Quartet (1971) is made up of two contrasting duos all having the same ten unequally divided movements. Also composed during the same period were the Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano (1961) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1969). Three significant vocal works mark his career. These were composed between the years of 1975 and 1981. They include A Mirror on Which to Dwell for Soprano (1975), Syringa for Mezzo (1978), and In Sleep, In Thunder for tenor (1981). Ten years prior to his death, he never slowed down in his compositions of music, but released several other compositions including A Fourth String Quartet (1986), Violin Concerto (1990) and Partita (1993) in addition to other
In this case, Carter was influenced by an all-interval tetrachord. In all his works, he used specific chords as unifying factors in his musical rhetoric, that is, as frequent central sounds from which the differing pitch material of the pieces was obtained and the First String Quartet is no different. In this piece, he uses an “all-interval” four-note chord. The basis of this is as a motive to integrate all the intervals of the work into a distinctive sound whose presence can be felt through at all the differing kinds of intervallic writing. In addition, this chord acts as a harmonic frame for the work by talking about all the events and details of a piece of music feel as if they fit in together and make up a persuasive and unified musical