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This composition actually began as a solo cello work. But before I knew what was happening the viola entered. While I wasn't looking a pair of violins entered, one at a time, and I had the canon that begins the second movement. I had no choice at this point but to allow this intrusion and continue writing it as a quartet.

I approached the medium of the string quartet with much hesitation. With the great works of Beethoven and Bartók, not to mention Debussy and Ravel, looming over my shoulder, it was difficult to imagine saying anything new in this genre. But what could I do? I had to try.

Composition was begun during a lazy summer in Interlochen, Michigan, and completed in Cleveland that fall. It was premiered at the Cleveland Institute of Music by four good friends.

The quartet has two movements. Each is divided into two contrasting sections. The first movement begins slowly with the hollow sounds of double stops in the second violin and viola accompanying an eerie melody played four octaves apart by the first violin and cello. This section progresses slowly as it introduces much of the material that follows in the quartet.

A scherzo-like section follows the slow opening. A pizzicato ostinato in the second violin and cello evolve measure by measure as the first violin and viola develop their own more lyrical motive. This leads to an energetic, and at times dissonant, development. The opening pizzicato motive returns briefly to end the first movement.

The second movement also begins slowly, this time with a mournful canon. After all of the voices have entered with the thirteen measure theme, the cello brings back the theme while the whole quartet soars in its upper register.

A quiet, but tense, chord leads to a rousing final section. This virtuostic conclusion pauses only briefly for reflection, before stomping towards the end.