Avery Morris: A Performer’s Approach to Gideon Klein’s Quarter-Tone String Duo and “Fantasietta”

“Before his internment in Terezín, Czech-Jewish composer Gideon Klein experimented with many different types of music and compositional procedures like serialism and quarter-tone writing. Klein’s 1939–40 Duo for Violin and Viola and “Fantasietta”, written in quarter-tones while he was studying in Prague with Alois Hába, is a particularly interesting work from this exploratory period…I hope that by initiating a dialogue around its performance practice, this work can eventually stand alongside Klein’s other more frequently performed works.” - Avery Morris