1. Molto vivace
2. Adagio cantabile, molto sostenuto
3. Allegretto scherzando – Trio ‘con malizia’
4. Presto assai, leggiero ma ben marcato
The string quartet has been central to my musical life ever since I first participated in one aged about eleven. Subsequently, I have played much of its core repertoire and some that isn’t, lectured extensively on it and on occasion, coached ensembles. However, up to 2009 I had composed very few quartets of my own. Apart from a teenage attempt, of which even the thought still brings me out in a cold sweat, my first numbered quartet (1985) in one concentrated movement was an unofficial ‘graduation’ piece from my studies with Hans Keller. This was eventually followed by Double Duo (2001), another short work, originally composed for violin, viola and two cellos as a kind of encore piece. However, I always wanted to write at least one full length quartet and just needed an initial impetus.
That finally came in 2009 when the Stanford Quartet performed the two aforementioned pieces in a concert given at Dartington International Summer School. I immediately decided to compose a work especially for them. Because of other compositional commitments, the piece took over two years to complete, although time spent actually writing it was short. The first movement was completed in odd moments in the summer of 2009, while the second movement was composed in free time during a week spent teaching at Dartington in 2010. Finally, the remaining two movements were written in reverse order in the last two weeks of August 2011.
From the start, I had a very clear idea of the kind of piece I wanted to attempt. For many composers, the string quartet since ‘middle period’ Beethoven seems to have been imbued with deadly seriousness. Perhaps significantly, most of the very few intermittent exceptions to this rule have themselves been quartet players. My aim was to attempt a type of piece, common in Haydn, where with the frequent exception of the slow movement; a kind of playfulness predominates on the surface, while not excluding an underlying seriousness of purpose.
Because of this, I decided to take a specific Haydn quartet as an initial model. This didn’t mean that I wanted to write pastiche but rather that I would try to work out in my own way some structural and textural features that can be found in the Haydn piece, as well as more or less following its general proportions. If the comparison isn’t too absurd, the relationship between my work and the model is roughly as close - and equally, as distant - as that between Beethoven’s Op.18 no.5 in A major and Mozart’s K.464 in the same key. I don’t wish to name my specific model, as the relationship should not be that important for the listener; although I’m sure that those who know their Haydn quartets will readily identify it, particularly from the last movement of my piece!
The work is dedicated to the Stanford Quartet in friendship, admiration and gratitude. They gave the first two performances of the quartet at the Purbeck festival and at a concert at St Paul’s Church, Brighton marking my 50th birthday in March 2012.