Actually, this piece is not the fourth string quartet I have written, and I don’t usually use generic titles for my pieces — but I have wanted to write a String Quartet No. 4 for some time. The idea dates back to when I was younger and impressionable. I heard several premieres of String Quartet No. 4’s which imprinted a sense of significance for that title on me. How wonderful it must be to have written a quartet of string quartets! (Sorry Robert Schumann). In this piece, as in all of my music, I am interested in balancing musical materials that are geometric, expressive, and puritanical. I am grateful to Quatuor Bozzini and the Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust who co-commissioned this piece.

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Premiere

• July 30, 2019, Evolution of the Quartet Faculty Concert, Rolston Recital Hall — The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff (Alberta, Canada)

Performers

• Bozzini Quartet (Alissa Cheung, violin; Clemens Merkel, violin; Stéphanie Bozzini, viola; Isabelle Bozzini, cello)