The String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned by the Cypress String Quartet as part of their Call and Response program. The idea of Call and Response is that this new work will reflect, in some way or other of the composer’s choosing, the relationship between two works of the standard repertoire. The new work will then be presented on the same program with the extant works. I was offered several choices of pairings, and settled on the Haydn Op. 33, No. 5 (G Major) and the Mozart K. 421 (D Minor).

Up until the last couple of years, I have avoided the standard chamber music settings. To me the string quartet in particular has always felt terribly burdened by history, by which I mean simply: I struggle enough without Haydn and Mozart looking over my shoulder, thank you. So in choosing these two works, you could say I took the bull by the horns, I suppose. I’ve tried to approach this project as a way of moving beyond this historical “burden” I’ve imagined, and joining the long list of composers who have attempted to contribute to the genre.

  I should explain that, my neurosis and the title of this work notwithstanding, I’ve written a tremendous amount of string music, especially in the last five years for the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. It was an invaluable experience working with Metamorphosen and their music director Scott Yoo, an excellent violinist in his own right, who has worked tirelessly to turn me into a composer of real string music. Without this experience, I doubt I would have been able to approach this new commission in the same way.

The work is about thirty minutes long, in four movements: Overture, Capriccio, Chorale and Cabaret, Variations. Many of the harmonies are generated from the superimposition of G Major and D Minor, the keys of the Haydn and Mozart quartets. This suggested to me a kind of jazz or cabaret tonality, hinted at in the first movement, dismissed in the second, fully realized in the third and formalized in the fourth.

Haydn did some formal experimentation in the Op. 33 quartets, introducing the concept of the "Scherzo and Trio", as opposed to the traditional "Minuet and Trio". My response is the Chorale and Cabaret, which combines two contrasted musical styles and harmonic languages. This movement also functions as a response to the beautiful, operatic second movement of the Haydn, in which the first violin has an exclusive, solo role.

While it sounds as though I took all of my ideas from Haydn, the dark, brooding tone of the Mozart quartet functions as a kind of gray eminence, informing the mood and directing the character. This fits well with my feelings about the two works: Haydn's Op. 33 No. 5 is a remarkably light work, and consists primarily of lovely surface details. The Mozart K. 426, however, with its tense minor harmonies, turgid textures and asymmetrical phrases, feels more monolithic and complicated, iceberg-like, with most of the real story being told below the surface.

The first movement of my quartet, Overture, in the spirit of the classical works, consists of a large, developmental form (those who know musical forms will hear the Overture as a kind of sonata-rondo, rather than the sonata-allegro of the Haydn and Mozart). The second movement, Capriccio, is, as the title suggests, brief, quick and capricious in form. In the traditional four-movement string quartet, a movement of this type would have typically been placed third, rather than second, and originally that was my intention. But once the work was completed I decided to place Chorale and Cabaret in the third slot: it is the longest, darkest movement, and I see it functioning as the heart of the piece, the spiritual center. The Capriccio would have made little sense following it.

Both the Haydn and Mozart quartets end with a movement of variations, and so I decided to do the same. This was a challenge: I have not written a set of variations since the obligations of my student days. While both Haydn’s and Mozart’s variations are beautiful and masterfully executed, I have always found the form inherently undramatic: A theme is stated, then again with a few changes, then again with a different accompaniment, and so forth.  I wanted to retain the character of the variations form while somehow making it my own, so I have written three sets of six variations each, a total of eighteen. The first set treats the theme in exactly the way I describe. The second set of six are variations on the first set, and the third on the second. In this way each set of variations moves further and further from the original idea, constantly spinning off in a new direction. To signal each cycle, the sixth variation ends the same in each case, creating a kind of refrain, and providing the work’s conclusion.