JAVS Fall 2006

tfmtt. 7 'he dijjim:nce is as great rlS between a thing read about and a thing experienced.... T/;e Beethoven quartets 1nore than any others arepre-eminently for the player rather than jo1· the listenn: Brought into the world as they were by slow and laboriotlS growth it is only by slow and laborious concen tration that they will reveal them selves f ully. ( 120) To ea rn this revelation, Iarke gladly allowed the quarters ro slowly and painsral

Clarke in August, 1972. Used with permission.

In Her Own Words

T he essay concl ude wiLh a com parison of seuings by Clarke and lvor urney to two poems by Yates, Dow11 by the Salley Cardms and The Cloths ofHeave11, and her Passacaglia 011 an Old Citglis/; 7 ime (for viola and pi ano) , the only wo rk from her late period ( 1939 1942) to be published. (34) Deborah tein , in the third essay, "Dare eize the Fire," traces the composer's stylistic evolu rion in an analysis of Iarke's songs, Shy One and The Cloths ofHeaven (to texts by Yea ts), and ettl Man (to a poem by John Masefiel d) , and concludes with Tige1; Tiger (by William Bl ake). T he fou rrh e say, "But Do Nor Q uire Forger'' by nryony Jones, is a compari son of the Trio fo r Violin , Cello, and Piano (1921) and the Viola onata ( 1919).

Clarke's Published Writings "T ht: Bt:erhovcn Quartets as a Player Sees T hem" i writ ten strict ly as a quartet member with vety li trle referen e to anything permin ing to the viola and could as easily have been wri tren by a violinist or cellist. One is quickly jolted into the realization that, al though she arguably was one of the most important violists of her time, Rebecca Iarke fo remost was a chamber musician who spent thir ty yea rs of her life in rhe medium.

On the quarters she wriLes,

It is al111ost impossiblefor those who htwe never played in a string quclrtet to realize to what an exwu those who do /;ave the adt;mttage over

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