3 Sketches (“Drei Skizzen”) is a trio of late Romantic works by the Austrian composer Hans Gál. The opus is dedicated to the composer’s piano teacher, Richard Robert. Date: 1910 Catalogue: Op. 7 Dedicatee: Richard Robert Order: No. 1 - Allegretto vivace in D-flat Major: 0:08 No. 2 - Lento e dolce in E-flat Major: 2:04 No. 3 - Vivace in B-flat Major: 6:29 Performer: Russell Ryan on piano Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are only used for non-commercial purposes. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAxP0MZktls

Quartet for 3 Violins and Cello is a composition commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a writer, a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a diplomat, a printer, a publisher, a political philosopher, and most importantly a Founding Father of the United States of America. In Franklin’s life, there are two musical works that have been attributed to him. The first piece is a ballad on the death of Blackbeard the pirate, composed in 1719. The second is the Quartet, of which the authorship by Franklin has been doubted by some scholars (authorship of the work has been variously contested to be held by Joseph Haydn, Ignace Joseph Pleyel, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini). However, other scholars have posited that the rational and over-practical approach in the composition’s writing reveals the presence of Franklin’s scientific ability. A likely theory to the context and origin of the piece would be that Benjamin Franklin ventured outside of his comfort zone to impress his friends Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy and Anne-Catherine de Ligniville, Madame Helvétius (to whom he is said to have once unsuccessfully proposed marriage) with a composition to be featured in one of their salons. That composition came in the form of the Quartet. Franklin played several instruments, including the guitar and viola da gamba, and invented one called the “glass harmonica”. His tastes in music largely centered around popular music in the form of tuneful songs; he was not very impressed by much of the contemporary styles of instrumental art music that occurred during the late Baroque and Classical periods. The Quartet is unusual and unique in many aspects. The instrumentation here consists of three violins and a cello, rather than the usual two violins, viola, and cello in a standard string quartet. Each instrument uses scordatura and is specially tuned in a way that the composition, which only contains 16 different pitches, can be played entirely on open strings. With those pitches, the pieces in the set are entirely diatonic with no modulation. In terms of notation, the overarching melody is spread evenly between the violins; the violins function in an egalitarian manner and simply looking at the individual parts will not help the observer grasp the meaning of the work. The Quartet is structured like a suite, rather than in the typical sonata cycle format. It begins with an unnamed first movement that functions as an Intrada (some editors have given it the title “March”). This is followed by two slower Minuets, a walking-speed Siciliana, and a faster Capriccio. Date: around 1778 Order: No. 1 - Intrada (or March) in F Major: 0:08 No. 2 - Minuet in F Major: 1:17 No. 3 - Capriccio in F Major ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iKz2F0kC2U