Longest string quartets?

Question

A combination of managing a leading UK string quartet AND a strong anal streak which causes me to collect obsessively useless (and sometimes useFUL) information is what is behind this question.

I think it is widely accepted that Morton Feldman's 'String Quartet' (actually his second work in the medium) is the longest quartet ever written at around 5 hours for a complete performance. The second-longest string quartet I know is the early one in D major (often referred to as No 3, B 18 [no Op No]) by Dvořák, which clocks-in at over an hour and 10 minutes (72-74 minutes in performance, usually). This is a little more than Josef Haydn's String Quartet 'The Seven Last Words' Op 51 which is also nearly an hour and 10 minutes in performance.

Does anyone know of any other works which can join these giants of the string quartet world?

Come on - feed my obsession!

Suggested category: Sports>Tennis (!!)

Mark Sango · Accepted Answer

Longplayer by Jem Finer (1000 years) :  

  Longplayer is a one thousand year long musical composition. It began playing at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, and will continue to play without repetition until the last moment of 2999, at which point it will complete its cycle and begin again. 

  Conceived and composed by Jem Finer, it was originally produced as an Artangel commission, and is now in the care of the Longplayer Trust.

  Longplayer is composed in such a way that the character of its music changes from day to day and – though it is beyond the reach of any one person’s experience – from century to century. It works in a way somewhat akin to a system of planets, which are aligned only once every thousand years, and whose orbits meanwhile move in and out of phase with each other in constantly shifting configurations. In a similar way, Longplayer is predetermined from beginning to end – its movements are calculable, but are occurring on a scale so vast as to be all but unknowable.



  ORGAN2 / ASLSP (As Slow As Possible) by John Cage  (639 years) 
  The slowest and longest piece of music in the world 
  John-Cage-Organ-Project in Halberstadt, Germany 

  Since September 5, 2000, which is the 88th birthday of the avantgarde composer and artist John Cage, the slowest and longest concert that the world has ever heard has been playing: ORGAN2/ASLSP As Slow aS Possible that means this piece of music, for the organ, will be performed for 639 years in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt. 


  Deutsche Welle, July 5th, 2008
 
  One Thousand Hear Change of Note in World’s Longest Concert
 
  The next musical change in John Cage’s slow masterpiece will happen in November
More than 1,000 music-lovers showed up on Saturday, July 5, in a German town to hear a change of note in the longest-running and slowest piece of music ever composed. Eccentric US composer John Cage (1912-1992) planned his composition to last 639 years, meaning more than a dozen generations of musicians will be needed to play it on an automatic, as-yet unfinished organ at Halberstadt, Germany.

Entitled ORGAN2/ASLSP, it began in 2001 and has so far reached its sixth note. The second part of the name means "as slow as possible."

springsteen · Answer

Morton Feldman String Quartet 2

Susan · Answer

Swan Lake Winter's 2nd Movement by Vivaldi Handel's Water Music Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart Canon in D Pachalbel Bach Air on G String Good Luck(:

HUANG · Answer

I am now listening to Dvorak's String Quartet No.3 and amazed by its large scale structure (69'42, played by Prager String Quartet, DG, 1977). I can't imagine anyone playing Feldman's! Is there any?

joshuacharlesmorris · Answer

You already have the big ones that come to mind. The next closest things that I have in my collection:

Ferneyhough Sonatas for String Quartet clock in at about 41 minutes
Schubert quartet in D is 40 minutes
Grieg string quartet is about 38 minutes

? · Answer

I am afraid the longest symphony must be by the composer Sorabji, symphony no 3 the jami symphony lasts over 4 hours(one movement alone lasts 2 hours) and hasn't been performed by an orchestra but can be downloaded as a virtual rendition for free here(all the downloads are legal as well).  I suspect he composed the largest of many things.  No doubt he composed the most difficult pieces for piano ever written and possibly just some of the most complex music ever written.

http://www.sorabji-files.com/music.php

By the way, Sorabji is a very interesting composer, I have listened through his opus clav a piano piece that is 4-5 hours a few times.  I have no great understanding of modern music yet, so I wouldn't dare judge whether he is a great composer or not myself.  He is sometimes referred to as a cult composer because the people who like him generally REALLY like him, sort of like glass fanatics except I suspect that Sorabji might actually be deserving of such devotion with his 40 minute fugues and giant sets of variations.

I know sorabji also composed an organ symphony(no 2) for solo organ which is supposed to last 9 hours and is in the process of being recorded/performed now by kevin bowyer.  I am not aware of the lengths of his piano concertos but with sorabji it can be safely assumed that they are as long as the majority of his works.  I know alistair hinton, a composer who is still alive today and was friends with sorabji composed a 3 hour string quintet which I, to my sorrow, have not yet purchased or heard, but I don't know of any string quartets that challenge feldman in any way.

Well, anyway, hope I wasn't too off-topic there have a nice day.

Longest string quartets?

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