Description Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky/Alexander Borodin: Complete String Quartets This volume collects Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No.1 in D, Op. 11, Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 22 , and Quartet No. 3 in E-flat Minor, Op.30 ; and Borodin's String Quartet No.

Taken from one of Tchaikovsky's string quartets this edition features primarily tutti scoring and provides an opportunity to teach basic meter changes (2/4 to 3/4). Dur: 3:50

This is one of Tchaikovsky's best loved melodies and Don Fraser has arranged it for string quartet as an ideal light item for any concert.

String Quartet No.4 was written for the Camilli Quartet who gave the first performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London April 1995. It is dedicated to the memory of Nyman's composition teacher Alan Bush.This quartet is anarrative made up of a chain of twelve complete but often cross-related movements each quite simple in design. For instance the Scottish melody first heard in the second half of I is hinted at in the 2nd violin/viola in thesecond fast section of II and is directly quoted again during III and XII. The theme of the fast section of IV is taken up again in VIII; IX reverts to the mood of the opening of I while the rising scale/syncopated themes of II IX and the bass of X and XII are related. X also reintroduces the slow harmonics theme from VII. XII is (apparently) cast in the form of a baroque French rondeau. The main theme of VI was plucked out of the Quartet and used inmy score for Christopher Hampton’s film Carrington. Duration 40 minutes. A set of parts is available for sale.

Homunculus is a short (circa 12 minutes) work for string quartet which the composer wrote during the Autumn months of 2007 for the Johannes Quartet.He wanted to compose a piece that would be very compact in form andduration but still contain many different characters and textures. In other words a little piece that behaves like a big piece.He has long been fascinated (and amused) by the arcane spermists’ theory who held the beliefthat the sperm was in fact a 'little man' (homunculus) that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child. This seemed to them to neatly explain many of the mysteries of conception. It was later pointed out that if the spermwas a homunculus identical in all but size to an adult then the homunculus may have sperm of its own. This led to a reductio ad absurdum with an endless chain of homunculi. This was not necessarily considered by spermists afatal objection however as it neatly explained how it was that 'in Adam' all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins.He decided to call my piece Homunculus despite the obvious weaknesses of thespermists’ thinking as he found the idea of a perfect little man strangely moving.