Babbitt's Fourth Quartet was written in 1970, almost immediately after the
Third Quartet. It is in a single
movement, divided into twelve sections marked by (amongst other things) five different
metronomic tempos, distributed 1–2–3–1–4–5–1–2–5–3–4–1. In contrast to its predecessor, the Fourth Quartet makes extensive use of coloristic instrumental effects, such as
col legno,
sul ponticello, and
pizzicatoglissando. Octave relations are especially important in this work. Contrasts of register, instrumental setting, timbre, duration and dynamics serve to articulate modes of set
partitioning.[1]
The basic pitch structure of the Fourth Quartet is an array containing 77 statements of the aggregate.[2] It is the first of Babbitt's works to employ
weighted aggregates.[3]
Lake, William E. 1986. "The Architecture of a Superarray Composition: Milton Babbitt's String Quartet No. 5". Perspectives of New Music 24, no. 2 (Spring–Summer): 88–111.
Mead, Andrew W. 1983. "Detail and the Array in My Complements to Roger". Music Theory Spectrum 5 (Spring): 89–109.
Mead, Andrew. 1987. "About About Time's Time: A Survey of Milton Babbitt's Recent Rhythmic Practice". Perspectives of New Music 25, nos. 1–2 (Winter–Summer): 182–235.
Mead, Andrew Washburn. 1994. An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
ISBN0691033145.