'Diacritical Marks was written for the Chiara Quartet in 2011 and is in eight short movements. I have a huge anxiety about string quartets; they are normally meant to be giant expressions of a composer’s emotional life. Here I focused on details: a tiny dot above a letter a tiny swivel of the bow. The first and last movements are energetic and driving and the middle movements are more lyrical rhapsodic and/or floating. The quartet is bound together by a piece of drone music found in movements 3 5 and 7 in which the second violin and the viola play an interlocking repeating pattern ad infinitum while the cello and first violin spin very long outrageous lines on top. The piece lasts just under 20 minutes.' —Nico Muhly

Big Time is a composition by Nico Muhly for String Quartet and Percussion (1 player). Commissioned by the Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival for their 20th anniversary in 2012 the performance lasts around 9 minutes. This is the Full Score.

This quartet lasts about nine minutes. Composed in April 1996 it is dedicated to the memory of Nicola LeFanu's father William LeFanu (1904-1995) and Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994). The quartet was commissioned for the 1997 London International String Quartet Competition.