The String Quartet

A composer who largely abstained from what was fashionable at the time was Jean Cras, an officer at the navy by trade. His Breton roots coloured his music a whole lot with memories of local songs and references to the source of a lot of inspiration, the sea. This is also the case in his only String quartet ‘ma Bretagne’, which isn’t less impressive than Debussy’s quartet in French literature. The Breton composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz came from Franck’s teachings, where he befriended fellow student Albéric Magnard which resulted in the Fantaisie brève sur un thème unique sur le nom de Albéric Magnard.