String Quartett, Op. 20 [19] (1934) Józef Koffler

String Quartett, Op. 20 [19] (1934)

String Quartett, Op. 20 [19] (1934)

Chamber Works, Work with Opus Number

Dedication: Dedicated to Professor Edward Dent

Manuscript: [as Op. 19] Royal College of Music Library, London (GB-Lcm): MS 7735

Premiere: No data available

Movements: I. Andante sostenuto – Ben mosso – Andante sostenuto – Ben mosso; II. Scherzo. Vivacissimo – Trio. Meno mosso; III. Adagio, non molto; IV. Allegro

Premiere: University of Warsaw, 29.03.2025, The Silesian Quartet

Found by Iwona Lindstedt in early 2024 at London’s Royal College of Music library, the Quartet was written in 1934. The work is one of Koffler’s most sophisticated syntheses between twelve-note technique and Neoclassical formal principles. The opus number was changing as the composer’s works were reorganised in the successive lists. Originally (in Koffler’s own inventory of ca 1935) it was Op. 18, and in the last historical list contained in Almanach i leksykon żydostwa polskiego [Yearbook and Lexicon of Polish Jews] (1938), this Quartet is assigned to Op. 20.

Józef Koffler, String Quartet op. 19, manuscript cover, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, title page, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I and II, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. II and III, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. IV, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet op. 19, manuscript cover, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, title page, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I and II, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. II and III, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. IV, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet op. 19, manuscript cover, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, title page, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. I and II, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. II and III, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, manuscript, fragment of mvt. IV, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

In the recovered autograph, however, it is marked as Op. 19

Józef Koffler, String Quartet Op. 19, fragment of the manuscript score, Royal College of Music Library, London. Ms 7735

and dedicated to Edward Dent, the then president of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). The Quartet has four movements as in a sonata cycle. The first and the last follow the sonata form. The second is a scherzo (ABA), the third – an intricate and very ingenious fusion of variation technique with polyphony (passacaglia and fugue). The piece was most likely never played in the composer’s lifetime, though Koffler made serious efforts to have it performed, offering it, among others, to the famous ensembles of Rudolf Kolisch in Vienna and Antonio Brosa in London. Most significantly, Koffler used the material of this String Quartet six years later as the basis for his Symphony No. 4, Op. 26.