Holmboe's last quartet work which is unoffi­cially also String Quartet No. 21 was the last work he ever composed and was unfinished on his death in 1996. His pupil Per Nørgård has finished the quartet and himself characterizes his contribution by saying that the score existed “in an only partly completed form which could however be written out with only a few cases of doubt”. With only two movements and a play­ing time of about nine minutes it is at its exist­ing length the shortest of Holmboe's string quar­tets. The first movement takes the form of one long arch in a rocking triple time which constantly shiftsamong different tempo and pulse sensations. At the same time the rhythmic en­ergy increases until the movement in a faster Con moto tempo accelerates to a more flowing 12/8 time coloured both rhythmically by cross-­rhythms in duple time and timbrally by harmon­ics in the viola. In its middle section Con fuoco the movement culminates in both tempo and expression until it falls calm in brief recapitula­tions in reverse order of the first two sections. The rocking feeling continues in the second movement but now at a more extroverted level from the outset Allegro and pizzicato. The en­ergy builds up further as the mood intensifies to Con fuoco while all instruments go over to bowed playing but like the first movement this movement ends Adagio here however not as a gradual attenuation but through a sudden shift in tempo to a calm imitative passage before the movement slowly thins out to the almost inaudible through a last dense open sounding chord with a brief violin solo above it. The quartet is dedicated to Holmboe's wife MeLa May Holmboe and was given its first performance by the Kontra Quartet on 22nd March 1997 at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense Denmark.

Pops for String Quartet-Rhythmic drive and modal harmonies are just a part of the intrigue of this Beatles classic known for its revolutionary inclusion of a string quartet with a pop-rock song. Larry Moore gives us a solid arrangement that features theunique blend of the classical and pop-rock style that is Eleanor Rigby's continuing legacy.

Scored For String Quartet. Commissioned by the New Arts String Quartet first performed in Tokyo November 1996.Quoting Tanaka: The title Metal Strings suggests speed metal rock music which I have been listening to a lot in recent years. I find an explosive energy in its music that people of today thirst for. Previously I have explored solid speedy and metallic sound in pieces such as 'Wave Mechanics' (1994) 'Wave Mechanics II' (1994) and 'Metalic Crystal' (1994-95). This idea has been extended and developed in my string quartet Metal Strings.

Recorded by Swedish rock band Europe Final Countdown has remained one of the classic rock tunes of all time. This international number 1 chart hit has been expertly arranged for String Quartet by Anthony Gröger. Let the Countdown begin!