Join us for a live performance of chamber music from Latin America in celebration of Public Domain Day 2025, featuring musical works entering the public domain in the U.S. The event will include remarks on the music, recent copyright developments, plus Ohio State resources and events that promote works from 1929 entering the public domain for the first time. Ohio State School of Music Professor Emeritus Mark Rudoff’s Janus String Quartet will perform Mexican composer Manuel Ponce’s Four Miniatures and the String Quartet no. 3 by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Questions about public domain, the composers, and the music itself will be welcomed following the performance.
Program
Four Miniatures for String Quartet by Manuel Ponce
Moderato energico — Vivo, in tempo d’uno scherzo — Lento — Allegro giocoso
The Miniatures, which date from 1927 and which are in four movements, include a movement entitled Scherzo and the finale in the form of a fugue. The music combines Baroque ideas with polyphony. Of particular note is that in the last movement, each voice is in a different key. The first violin is in A Major, the second violin in B-flat Major, the viola in F Major and the cello in D-flat Major.
String Quartet no. 3 (“Quarteto de pipocas”—”Popcorn” Quartet) by Villa-Lobos
Allegro non troppo — Molto Vivo — Molto Adagio — Allegro con fuoco
Because of the persistent fast plucking of the strings in the second movement, Villa-Lobos gave it the onomatopoeic, alliterative nickname “pipocas e potócas” (popcorn and tall tales), and this nickname is also applied to the entire quartet.
Performers
The Janus String Quartet features violinists Devin Copfer and Kelsey Broker Shaheen, violist Nancy Nehring, and cellist Mark Rudoff. Their programs seek to be “Tugging on threads that connect old and new music and weaving those threads into the broad tapestry of the humanities.”
This event is co-sponsored by Ohio State Libraries, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
This event was supported in part by grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI NRC funding. The content of this event does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
