The Bridal Canopy

Jonathan Berger’s fifth string quartet, The Bridal Canopy was commissioned for the St. Lawrence String Quartet by the Friends of Chamber Music, Denver, and premiered in 2008. The work refers to SY Agnon’s masterpiece, Hakhnasat Kallah, which describes the fictional wanderings of the Quixote-like hasid Reb Yudel through the Jewish villages of Galicia at the beginning of the 19th century, in search of a bridegroom and a dowry for his daughter.

Like Agnon’s work, the relationship between structure and ornament is complex and fluid.

The quartet ends with an elegy for the rich and diverse Jewish culture of Galicia before it was ethnically cleansed.

The Bridal Canopy is in four movements: