Lera Auerbach’s “Cetera Desunt,” Sonnet for String Quartet No. 3: Aftertones of Shostakovich

Cetera desunt translates from Latin as “the rest are missing.”

Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) chose this title for her String Quartet No. 3, composed in 2006. She describes the work as a “sonnet for string quartet.” Its eight sections, each bearing a Latin title, mirror the form and rhyme scheme of a strambotto romagnuolo sonnet, a poetic structure which dates back to 12th century Sicily.

Cetera desunt is an homage to the music of Shostakovich, especially his Eighth String Quartet. Using the German alphabet, Shostakovich signed his name in the music with defiant repetitions of D-S-C-H (D–E-flat–C–B-natural). The outline of this motif can be heard from the striking and dissonant opening measures of Auerbach’s Quartet.

The first section is unrelenting and punctuated with a drum-like rhythmic tattoo. It is titled Dicis et non es (“You speak and yet aren’t”). Following a series of wild trills, the second section, Sic ego non sine te… (“So I can’t live without you…”), concludes with a serene C major chord. The third section, Dicis et non facis (“You speak and do not make”) begins with the raspy ponticello, the sound produced when playing close to the instrument’s bridge, and grows with furious energy. The fourth section, Nec tecum vivere possum… (“…or with you”) is a quiet dialogue among the instruments. Beginning with the solitary viola, it is at once mysterious and tender. The fifth section is a rigid and humorous tango, titled Adventatis asinus, pulcher et fortissimus (“You arrive a donkey, beautiful and very strong”). In the sixth section, Si vis pacem, para bellum (“If you want peace, prepare for war”), a chorale melody emerges as a distant echo, followed by a passionate operatic recitative played by the cello. The ethereal seventh section, Non omnia moriar (“Not all of me will die”) drifts away in pizzicati. A serene chorale emerges in the final section, Cetera desunt. It fades away with conflicted, unresolved harmony.

In her program note, Lera Auerbach encourages us to listen to the music without preconception:

When I was younger I enjoyed writing program notes for my music – I felt it was a way for me to protect it from possible misunderstanding – one last service that a composer could do for his child before it’s fully on its own.I no longer like writing about my music. Even being interviewed about it becomes an inner-burden. What I realized is that you can’t protect your “child” and should just let it be without any attempts to explain or defend it. Sometimes letting go is the hardest thing to do. The music is out there on its own – whether you like it or not, it is no longer under your control, and frankly, it never was. Revealing the umbilical chord that still ties you, as a composer, to your work – only does your music disservice.

Any work of art – a poem, a painting, a symphony, at its best – is much larger then its creator; or at least its co-creator – the one with a pen in hand; the one, who, for better or worse, claims authenticity to its title.Akhmatova wrote – “Who knows, from what dust the poem is born…” (To be more accurate, she used a stronger word – instead of “dust” she wrote, “trash”, or “waste”.) No one knows this, except the Poet. No one should know. Let shadows remain shadows; the dirty dishes should stay in the kitchen and not spoil the feast.

Last spring I was working on two quartets at the same time – Primera Luz for the Tokyo String Quartet and Cetera desunt for the Petersen Quartet. I did not know which one would be written first. In fact, at the beginning, Primera Luz was subtitled as the Quartet No.3 and Cetera desunt was No.2 until Time reversed this order according to the premiere dates. Yet no two other works of mine are further apart from each other than these two quartets. In some way they are such opposites that, perhaps, they complete each other as if addressing the same questions but from very different prospective.

Cetera desunt is written in a form similar to strambotto romagnuolo sonnet, which octave is formed as ab ab cc dd. Musically, the inner rhymes between the movements follow freely this structure. I am not going to comment on the titles for the movements. Nomina sunt odiosa.

Let music connect directly to the listener regardless of the composer’s own attempts to interpret its essence. Jorge Luis Borges wrote: “A man sets himself in the task of portraying the world. Over the years he fills a given surface with images of provinces and kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fish, rooms, instruments, heavenly bodies, horses, and people. Shortly before he dies he discovers that this patient labyrinth of lines is a drawing of his own face”. Sapienti sat. Cetera desunt.

I. Dicis et non es: