This collection of ten compositions for string quartet by Mozart includes six pieces dedicated to Joseph Haydn and three pieces composed for the king of Prussia. The King of Prussia for whom Mozart composed some of these quartets for was by all accounts a Cellist of no mean ability; especially if one may judge by these works whose Cello parts are elaborate and demanding often soaring into the upper ranges leaving the viola to take up its momentarily abandoned role as bass instrument! Works include String Quartet No. 14 in G major K387 'Spring' String Quartet No. 15 in D minor K421 String Quartet No. 16 in E flat K428 String Quartet No. 17 inB flat major K458 'The Hunt' String Quartet No. 18 in A Major K464 'Drum' String Quartet No. 19 in C major K465 'Dissonance' String Quartet No. 20 in D major K499 'Hoffmeister' String Quartet No. 21 in D major K575 'Prussian No. 1' String Quartet No. 22 in B flat major K589 'Prussian No. 2' and String Quartet No. 23 in F Major K590 'Prussian No. 3'

1st & 3rd Position String Quartet: Romantic contains 4 pieces from some of the most famous composers of the Romantic period all expertly arranged by William McConnell for String Quartet.William McConnell grew up and was educated in Dundee where he started his musical education at the age of 9 learning to play Fiddle. Shortly after the war McConnell joined the Royal Marines School of Music where he enjoyed making music world-wide as well as taking on the traditional role of The Ship's Fiddler. After coming out of the services he began to educate at The King's School in Canterbury. Nowin his 80's McConnell still spends his time as an educator of music and restoring stringed instruments.

For String Quartet Volume 1-The idea for these arrangements came to me whilst listening to the Hagen Quartet's beautiful recording of the fugues that form part of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets' Op. 20. The spirit and influence of J.S. Bach in particular his Well Tempered Clavier Book II courses through these three miraculous Haydn fugues. Like the viol consort the string quartet suits this kind of composition (the fugue) with all four instruments sufficiently similar in character to each other to match the extraordinary unity and economy of the counterpoint. A string quartet playing Bach fugues is a good example of a harmonious relationship between form andcontent: just as there is a unifying principle behind the construction of the four string instruments so there is (usually) a single theme or subject that unifies the construction of a four-part fugue. Thus the form enacts the content telling yousomething about the text and message within. Apart from Haydn's and a handful of other composers' wondrous creations there's little fugal writing for string quartet at least in comparison with the abundance of other forms. This was another reason to make these arrangements. The quartet offers a melodic independence impossible to achieve on a single instrument. And I believe the technical and interpretative challenges posed by this repertoire – lightness of sound and rhythmic fluidity for example - willbe very valuable to quartets seeking the holy grail: a unified sound. Perhaps the simplest and most compelling reason for this work is that I just love this music more than I can say. These dazzling pieces mostly fast bright and in major keys show Bach at his most playful funny and mischievous composing for an instrument rarely associated with these qualities. And so I'm very happy to offer string quartets these little know fugues written by my favourite composer - a violinist and violist himself but above all a

Chaconne. Par LERDAHL FRED. Chaconne (2016), for string quartet, was commissioned by the Daedalus Quartet to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The commission was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and Aaron Copland Fund for Music. My music has a substantial history with Daedalus. I composed the Third String Quartet (2008) for them, and subsequently they performed my three string quartets on several occasions and recorded them brilliantly on Bridge Records (Bridge 9352: Music of Fred Lerdahl, vol. 3). Chaconne is in one movement lasting 19 minutes. It is effectively my fourth string quartet. Quartets 1-3 form a unified cycle lasting 70 minutes. When I finished the cycle, I thought I would never write again for the medium; yet I could not resist the opportunity of working again with Daedalus. The issue was how to compose another string quartet unrelated to the earlier cycle. The solution came from my solo cello piece There and Back Again (2010), which was based on a four-bar variation pattern from a 17th-century chaconne. Unlike the asymmetrical phrases and expanding variations of much of my music, the chaconne form requires symmetrical phrases and strictly periodic variations. I wished to work again with these symmetries but on a larger scale. Chaconne also differs in character and expression from the three-quartet cycle. The cycle is inward and intense, a kind of psychological excavation. Chaconne is, for the most part, transparent and playful. Many of its textures emerge from little canons, not completely unlike the rounds that children sing. Any composer who writes in chaconne form (one thinks above all of the last movement of Bach’s D minor violin partita and the finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony) is confronted with the challenge of how to create a larger form out of a constantly repeating pattern. My Chaconne grows from paired antecedent-consequent phrases, each variation lasting eight bars. The 50 variations group into three large rotations, forming three arcs of tension and relaxation, with subtle parallel connections across the rotations. Notwithstanding my attraction to chaconne form, I purposefully disguised its symmetries and periodicities in order to build an overall dramatic shape. Fred Lerdahl/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Take Your Bow is a collection of 20 concert pieces for beginner string players written by Celia Cobb and Naomi Yandell. Years of string teaching have given them the inspiration to produce pieces which will both delight and engage. Their imaginative writing strengthens rhythmic and stylistic concepts whilst employing a variety of adventurous playing techniques that students will find to be a fun and achievable challenge. Each piece is compatible with any of the other instruments in the series in any combination making it an excellent resource for individual or group teaching. Take Your Bow is available in 4individual editions — for violin viola cello and double bass each with piano accompaniment — and as a separate full score.