String Quartet No. 1

This string quartet is a one movement work divided in to three sections. Whilst each movement has it’s own distinctive characters harkening to the structure of a traditional string quartet there is one chord that is present throughout each movement that was derived at random from a five note tone cluster. The chord appears the most at the linking sections between each movement. The first movement of the piece explores the use of 2nd intervals (and their compound intervals as well) which again makes re-occurrences in the preceding movements. The second movement has a greater tonal centre allowing the opening 4 bars of the movement to be developed as it meanders through a series of unrelated keys. The final movement is a Rondo inspired by Mussorgsky’s The Seamstress.