string quartet no. 4

Program Note

My 4th String Quartet, composed in 2011 and commissioned by the Carpe Diem String Quartet, was inspired by my daughter and commenced a new direction in my compositional writing: direct, powerful motion juxtaposed with tender lyricism. I was inspired by a recorder recital at my daughter’s school, of all things. My daughter and her friends played a single melody on their recorders. I found the sound and spirit to be so pure and uplifting that the experience made its way into the third movement of the quartet. The quartet is cast in a five-movement arch form, with resemblance between movements 1/5, 2/4 and a central climactic movement. The first movement is brief and rhapsodic, the second movement has a tremendous drive and crescendos and ends abruptly without resolution. Following the slow third movement, inspired by the aforementioned event, the fourth movement drives forward relentlessly and unites all themes of the quartet. The fifth movement, also brief, brings the quartet to a contemplative and ethereal close. The dramatic moments were written with Carpe Diem’s flair for dynamic energy and verve.