String Quartet no 5 "Time Cycles"

Andrew List String Quartet no. 5 “Time Cycles” Program Notes: String Quartet No. 5 "Time Cycles" is inspired by T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets and also Circular Time Theory. The work consists of five movements each of which inspired by a quotation from Burnt Norton the first of the Eliot’s Four Quartets. The entire piece is based on the same musical material through out. The first four movements are variations that explore this musical material in different ways. In Burnt Norton Eliot writes: "Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past" The fifth movement is a recapitulation of the earlier four and is also the point where all of the musical material comes together.