ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the sketch content of Elliott Carter’s Fourth String Quartet through selected examples, housed at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, that illustrate the process from sketch to finished score. Sketch study analysis reveals a logical hierarchical system in Carter’s compositional process. It illustrates how composing by sections, where all elements are worked out individually, allowed Carter to omit the intermediate compositional stage for the most part of the piece. The evidence indicates that by the time Carter finished sketching the rhythmic, harmonic, and formal processes, he had already conceived the entire quartet and was ready to write out the piece into a draft at a much later date, a segment at a time. This explains why sketches of the final stages are few in number, fragmented, and incomplete.
