Wood: String Quartets

Featuring

Madeleine Mitchell
Gordon MacKay
Bridget Carey
Joseph Spooner
London Chamber Ensemble
Charles Wood

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Composer Biography

Charles Wood, the composer, grew up in Armagh, Ireland, where he and his father and brothers all sang in the cathedral choir.

Composition History

Wood's Fourth Quartet, nicknamed the 'Harrogate', was completed during a visit to the Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate where his wife was taking the waters.

Composer Biography

Charles Wood was a highly regarded and influential teacher of harmony, counterpoint, and composition at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University, with students including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Michael Tippett.

Compositional Technique

The third movement of Wood's 'Highgate' Quartet uses a seven-bar ground bass, behaving like a passacaglia, and features an austere viola theme in its lowest register.

Compositional Technique

The scherzo of Wood's 'Harrogate' Quartet is noteworthy for its use of ascending and descending whole-tone scales, a feature picked up by critics.

Composition History

Wood's String Quartet No. 2, nicknamed the 'Highgate', was likely named after visits to his brother William, who was the music master at Highgate Grammar School.