Arranging K 545 for a string quartet, how to write the harmony part
So, I am trying a second time to arrange K 545 for a string quartet. I think my second draft is better harmonically speaking than my previous attempt to arrange the same sonata. But there is a whole movement that makes it a tad difficult to arrange for string quartet. That would be the second Andante movement. And here is why the Andante is more difficult to arrange than the Allegro and Allegretto movements.
The Allegro and Allegretto both go into a 4 voice texture sometimes. The Andante however is like exclusively in a 3 voice texture, with those voices being:
Upper voice - Melody
Middle voice - Alberti bass except for the lowest note
Lower voice - Bass line formed from lowest notes of the Alberti bass
And these voices fit conveniently into 3 out of 4 instruments in the quartet. The melody, I would be giving to the first violin. The middle and lower voices fit very well into the cello and viola. That leaves the second violin with basically none of Mozart's original notes except in a few chords. But, I can't just leave it out of the movement entirely, otherwise I will get a lot of feedback along these lines:
If your arrangement of the Andante is basically a trio, then why did you arrange for a string quartet in the first place?!
Can't you add a harmony part for the second violin to play? This is obviously one of those cases where you have to add notes to the original score.
So, I have to add a harmony part for the second violin. This is where the difficulty lies. I obviously would want to lean towards either parallel thirds and sixths or contrary motion and minimize parallel fourths, parallel fifths, and octave doublings. Quite a few people have told me that I shouldn't have the second violin go over the melody in the first violin. This limits my contrary motion by quite a bit. In my previous draft, I used contrary motion for measures like this one:
The problem I came across there though had to do with voice crossing(I was going in mostly parallel thirds before, so maybe that's why) between the 2 violins. The ideal voicing of the second violin in terms of avoiding voice crossing, if I wanted to use contrary motion and keep it consonant with the harmony would be:
G3 B3 D4
However, that makes the violin go into the very bottom of its range and I have heard that it isn't ideal for that to happen. If I go any higher though, I will either get a unison or voice crossing, neither of which is good. Voice crossing is obviously a bad thing to have happen because it makes the melody sound a bit more static instead of the way it is supposed to sound. Having a unison though is also bad if it is just the 2 violins in unison. I have been told something along these lines when it comes to violins in unison:
If you have 3 or more violins, you can have them in unison with no worries. If you have just 2 violins though, a unison is horrible because of slight tuning differences between the 2 violins. If a situation comes across where you can't avoid a unison between the 2 violins, then have the viola and cello be either in unison with the violins or in octaves so that the tuning differences aren't audible.
So, how can I make it easier for me to write the harmony part for the second violin in the second movement?
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@Caters Here is an image from Mozart's quartet in D for flute, violin, viola and cello. From the second movement. The strings are playing pizzicato:
You could divide the notes in a similar way with the Alberti bass, the viola and cello on the beat followed by the 2nd violin with 3 sixteenth notes, thus you get all players in the quartet involved.
In order of simplicity:
Omit the second violin. (I can't think offhand of a quartet other than my own that omits particular instruments in a movement, but the symphonic repertoire is full of spectacular examples. Use those to answer anyone who complains.)
Alternate the melody between the two violins.
Sometimes double the simplified melody an octave higher, holding notes like pianistic "finger pedaling." Mozart's piano sonatas often have melodic passages in octaves.
Sometimes add finger pedaling to the non-bass notes of the Alberti bass, perhaps an octave higher, pianissimo.
Far from an experienced composer/arranger, nor am I a string musician, but based on what I've heard in classical repertoire, having the second violin play as low as G below middle C isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it does add some special flavor to the music, in my opinion more espressivo and passionate, in fact, a lot of composers have used it in their pieces. But that depends on how you want your arrangement to sound, and I'm guessing, like me, you can't tell accurately how their arrangement would sound like without actually hearing it. (Otherwise you won't be asking the question, right?)
About your arrangement, though, I have a coupe little ideas:
1. Bar 9, 2nd Violin: 1 16th rest followed by three 16th notes G and then one 8th note G, similar to the famous motif from the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. If the second violin part in the previous bars is mostly 3rd or 6th doubling of the first violin, this could give a nice variation.
When the harmony stays the same, the second violin plays the same note instead of moving in parallel or contrary motion with the first. For instance, bar 5 second violin could just play D repeatedly. The following bar is in the chord of G major, which allows further repetition of the same D, though for the last note of the phrase I would have the first violin play octave double stop and the second play the B above the first violin's lower G.
In Camille's answer, he said you could alternate the melody between two violins. Here I would like to give a concrete example based on how I would achieve that. In bar 7, you may have the first violin play quarter notes A F# D and the 2nd play the rest of melody. And then you could have the 2nd violin continue to play the ending of the phrase (B C B A), while the first respond with the eighth notes D C# C. You may also have the first play an extra D which overlaps with the second violin's last A.
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