BEN JOHNSTON--STRING QUARET NO. 4 (AMAZING GRACE)

Ben Johnston, born in 1926, was active as a composer during the mid twentieth century. His output includes stage works, vocal pieces, chamber pieces, and electro-acoustic pieces (Grove Music Online, S.v. “Johnston, Ben”). Johnston took great inspiration from the composer Harry Partch, who was known for his innovations in just intonation. Richard Kassel speaks about the influence between Partch and Johnson:“While Partch’s theory was proundly [sic] influential on him, his more comfortable relationship to Western art music and lack of instrument building skills let him to compose primarily for traditional instruments and genres, especially the string quartet” (Grove Music Online, “Johnston, Ben”). Out of all of Johnston’s pieces, Gilmore argues that String Quartet no. 4 (Amazing Grace) is his most popular work. Drawing on a hymn that nearly every American has heard countless times, Johnston weaves an elaborate web of sound, transforming the familiar hymn in new and unexpected ways.
String Quartet No. 4 (Amazing Grace) was composed in 1973. The piece, in theme and variation form, is approximately eleven minutes long and is based on the American hymn tune “Amazing Grace.” Later, Johnston indicated that his String Quartet no. 4 could optionally be combined with his String Quartet no. 3 to form a two movement piece known as Crossings with a period of silence of sixty to one hundred and twenty seconds separating the movements. Johnston discusses Crossings:
One may equally well consider Crossings a triptych, since The Silence, the middle movement, is a more than merely pregnant pause, but constitutes a tenuous and breathless traverse of a ridge or bridge between two opposite canyon walls, the nearer the post-Viennese expressionist ethos, submitted to the liberating but at the same time straitjacketing abolition of twelve-tone equal temperament in favor of ultrachromatic microtonal just intonation; the farther the deceptively simple and direct-seeming American folk hymn “Amazing Grace,” generating variations of steadily increasing rhythmic and microtonal profusion, always securely grounded in new-old once more frontier-fresh modal tonality capable of wide proportional spaces: new reaches of consonance and metrical intricacy which push the boundaries of intelligible complexity beyond horizons conceivable in the confines of conventional tuning. This is the world of String Quartet no. 4, The Ascent (Ben Johnston, “Maximum Clarity” and Other Writings on Music, p. 200).
Although Johnston’s String Quartet no. 4 is seemingly simple, the score for the piece is quite complex. In the performance notes, Johnson calls for the use of several different tuning systems throughout the piece. Bob Gilmore explains the tunings in the liner notes:
The quartet traverses three different tunings in its eleven-minute span, all of them forms of just Intonation: Pythagorean tuning (based entirely on chains of pure fifths), triadic just intonation (based on pure fifths and pure major thirds), and an experimental form of extended just intonation using, in addition to pure fifths and thirds, intervals derived from the seventh partial in the overtone series (a narrow minor 7th quite different from its equal-tempered equivalent).
In the score, Johnston notates how pitches should either be raised or lowered by a series of symbols consisting of pluses, minuses, or elaborate accidentals. The Pythagorean tuning at the beginning was not immediately obvious to me the first time I listened to it, but it had the subtle effect of evoking folk or modal music.
The quartet also presents several rhythmic challenges such as intricate contrapuntal textures, complicated time signatures such as 10/64 or 27/32 and different time signatures occurring simultaneously. Randall Shinn comments that the pitch/rhythm relationships in the quartet show the influence Medieval and Renaissance music more than any other style. (“Ben Johnston’s Fourth String Quartet,” p. 159).Yet, the complicated rhythmic texture never gets in the way of Johnston’s musical intentions. As Shinn implies, this piece displays all the effortless simplicity of medieval polyphony, with the lines of each instrument weaving gracefully in and out of prominence in the overall texture.
I enjoyed this quartet immensely. I sometimes assume that most twentieth century classical music is atonal and ugly. I was pleasantly surprised by the clear tonality and easy-to-follow theme and variation structure of this piece. Although the score for this piece is filled with mixed meters, and polyphonic textures, and multiple tuning systems, these enhance rather than distract from the enjoyment of the performance. Unlike some of the more atonal avante-garde music of the twentieth century, this piece can be enjoyed and appreciated by a wide audience because its accessibility. By using a well-known American hymn tune as his theme, Johnston has made this piece immediately appealing to a wide variety of listeners. “Amazing Grace” has become such an integral part of American culture that it has almost achieved folksong status and is recognized by nearly everyone. The fact that Johnston uses this hymn makes the piece approachable by giving the audience something familiar to grasp on to. Although I feel this piece is more than worthy of being included in the Canon, there are several reasons why it is not. In 1973, with popular music on the rise, it was difficult for classical composers to generate interest in their works. Additionally, in the world of classical music, Johnston’s quartet had to vie with the established string repertoire of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven for performances and audiences. Unfortunately, because of its novel tuning system, it has probably intimidated performers as well as audiences, who immediately dismiss it as one of those dreaded “modern” pieces. It is a pity that such a well balanced and satisfying work has been relegated to the back shelf of the musical world. Perhaps the coming years will see a renewed interest in the works of Ben Johnston, and his String Quartet no. 4 in particular.