String Quartet No. 4

For string quartet. String Quartet No.4 was commissioned by the Santa Fe Festival for performance by the Orion Quartet. The Quartet takes as its protagonists the first violin and the cello, and projects them into an instinctive relationship, like encounters between operatic characters. My piece begins with cello, accompanied, but isolated by longing and expectation. The second movement brings exchanges between the first violin and cello, with a certain reserve and formality. In the third movement, these restraints dissolve. In the finale, all four instruments share in a spontaneous celebration. — John Harbison