Clarinet quartet at West Point

West Point — The United States Military Academy Band’s Academy Clarinet Quartet will present a recital on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 3 p.m. in the West Point Jewish Chapel. The repertoire will consist of the string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven and American composer Samuel Barber. Samuel Barber’s “String Quartet, Op. 11” was composed in 1936. Most listeners will be familiar with the second movement, Adagio, which Barber later arranged as “Adagio for Strings.” Barber found initial inspiration in a passage from Virgil’s “Georgics” describing how a rivulet gradually becomes a large river. Although the idea doesn’t limit the emotional meaning, it influences the overall shape of the work; a long arch beginning quietly, gradually building to an overwhelming climax, and winding down to a quiet end. Barber constructs the long, spiraling theme from a sequence, which is the most elementary form of variation. Most composers use it sparingly, but Barber builds an entire movement from it. In 1986, director Oliver Stone used the adagio in the soundtrack for the film “Platoon.” Published in 1801, the quartets of Beethoven’s “Opus 18” were his first venture in the medium. A letter he wrote in 1801 attests that he had “only now learned how to write quartets properly.” Since his arrival in Vienna in 1792, his work had been compared with that of his teacher, Joseph Haydn. Even though there is some homage to Haydn in the “Opus 18” quartets (some scholars maintain that the homage is tongue-in-cheek), Beethoven was serving notice to the audiences in Vienna that he was a composer who did things his own way. One of the band’s newer chamber groups, the Academy Clarinet Quartet was formed in September of 2002. In addition to performing standard works for the instrumentation, they have branched out to create their own repertoire from music written for string quartet. Sgt. 1st Class John Parrette has arranged both of the string quartets on the program for the quartet. Allow extra travel time for vehicle and photo identification inspection at Stony Lonesome and Thayer gates. For concert information, cancellations and updates, call the 24-hour hotline 938-2617, or visit www.usma.edu/band.