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1. Allegro vivace
2. Largo
3. Allegro ma non troppo
This String Quartet originated as a Sinfonietta for Chamber Orchestra in 1975. A quartet version was made of the second movement in 2002 and the whole work was recomposed for that medium in 2019. The piece was written during a period of study for a higher degree in composition and betrays an academic character, especially in the first movement where a twelve-tone technique involving a three-note cell irelentlessly employed. I attempted, in my revision, to soften its angularity and occasional harshness. There is a more human quality to the Largo, and the final movement includes a comic element. I considered designating the key as D-flat major, but although it opens with the dominant seventh of that key and the Finale ends with the tonic, the quartet rarely stays in this tonality for long.