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CECILIA MCDOWALL (b 1951)
The Case of the Unanswered Wire
BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976)
String Quartet No 2 in C, Op 36
The Case of the Unanswered Wire (wire, of course,
refers to the telegram in days gone by) was inspired
by the Scottish poet Douglas Dunn, in his long
narrative poem in which he describes the life of a
Russian engineer on board ship at the time of the
Russo-Japanese War in 1905. I was captivated by
the poignancy of this atmospheric poem, titled
The Donkey’s Ears. The poet gives a powerful sense
of what life might have been like on board as
an engineer; meticulous attention given to the
maintenance and function of machinery, repetitive
and dangerous. And yet, at the same time, this
poetic engineer tries to preserve the other side of
his life by writing tender letters to his wife, sent by
telegram from his ship.
1 Allegro calmo senza rigore
2 Vivace
3 Chacony: Sostenuto
The second of Britten’s three string quartets was
composed in 1945, in commemoration of the 250th
anniversary of Purcell’s death in 1695, and was first
performed at Wigmore Hall by the Zorian Quartet
on 21 November – the day of Purcell’s death.
The first movement is remarkable for its close-knit
thematic organisation. There are three themes,
all of them announced in quick succession at the
very outset by three of the instruments in unison
while the fourth instrument (in the first case the
viola, in the second the second violin, and in the
third the cello) maintains a pedal chord of a tenth
– the interval with which each of the themes starts.
This concise exposition is followed by an extended
‘second exposition’ during the course of which the
second subject reappears in the ‘correct key’ – the
dominant. The development is relatively free in
style, and draws in turn on the third and second
subjects, with the interval of a tenth still occupying
a commanding position. The recapitulation is even
more concentrated than the first exposition, since
it presents all three themes simultaneously: the
first on the second violin, the second (augmented)
on the first violin and the third on the viola. The
movement ends with a coda introduced by the
viola, in which both the tonic key and the familiar
interval of a tenth are emphasised.
The idea of those pulsating communicating wires,
conveyors of fact, terror and joy, drives through
the piece but also, bound into this, there is, I hope,
an expression of despair at the tyranny of war
and its awful consequences. The stoical Russian
engineer prepares for battle in the closing lines of
The Donkey’s Ears, ‘well dressed to meet the horrid
sea,’ and in the final section of the quartet, there is a
suggestion of Morse code, stuttering into silence. As
ships go down communication fails.
The Case of the Unanswered Wire was premiered in
August 2004, at the Presteigne Festival, by the Sorrel
Quartet.
Cecilia McDowall
The middle movement is a scherzo (in C minor) with
a trio. The scherzo itself is based on a descending
motif played by first violin and cello, and its
ascending answer is played by second violin and
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