Composer's notes: This piece came about in a rather unusual way. I had a dream in which a string quartet were playing some very beautiful music. I was exhorting them to 'play it like late Beethoven' When I woke up, I could not remember any themes or details of what they had been playing, but had an intense memory of the 'feeling' of the music, which was soft, sensual and muted, and I immediately sat down to write a string quartet. What began to emerge was nothing like Beethoven at all, and very early into the writing I had a strong vision of some people dancing a formal and intense series of dances in a village in a very dry and hot landscape - the Australian outback or Africa maybe. The dances were very moving, with an inward, ritualistic quality and they obviously had great meaning for the people performing them. Geoffrey Burgon

String Quartet (Parts)

SKU: HL.14037707

Parts. Composed by Kevin Volans. Music Sales America. Contemporary. Softcover. Composed 2010. 80 pages. Chester Music #CH7452501. Published by Chester Music (HL.14037707).

ISBN 9781849385916. UPC: 884088578626. 8.25x11.75x0.262 inches.

Kevin Volans' String Quartet No. 9: Shiva Dances was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed by the Smith Quartet at the 2004 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Kevin Volans (the composer) notes on the piece:
In the past I have been interested in trying to go beyond historicism (1970s), beyond style(1980s) and beyond form (1990s) in my work. Looking back over the music of the twentiethcentury I was struck by the fact the nearlyall of it is extremely 'busy', almost cluttered. Italmost seemed that composers felt compelled to look industrious. In the new millennium Ithought it would be interesting to try and eliminate content. I also aspired to movingfrommusic (sound as art) to art (art as sound). This, of course, has already been done by a numberof composers (many from New York - Phil Niblock and La Monte Young, to name but two), butit was something I had never tried.AlthoughI found it annoying that the label 'minimalist' was given to my African-based work,and fearing this would make the label stick, I set out to write a piece which reflected my loveof minimal painting and architecture. The Japanesehave a term 'wabi' meaning 'voluntarypoverty' or 'emptiness' to describe their restrained minimal aesthetic, an aesthetic which,however, pays greatest attention to the quality of material and fine detail. I like to think thatthelack of excessive pitch material in this piece reflects a kind of voluntary poverty.When Shiva is portrayed dancing (as Nataraj) He is depicted in a circle of flames crushing asmall figure - the ego - underfoot.You get theimpression He dances on the spot, not movingaround at all. I like that.
The piece is dedicated to Pablo Pascual Cilleruelo.

String Quartet

SKU: ST.Y262

Composed by Rhian Samuel. String music. Score and Parts. Score and parts. Stainer & Bell Ltd. #Y262. Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (ST.Y262).

ISBN 9790220222665.

Written in 2009 for an event to celebrate the Bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, The Last Dance is a musical reflection on contemporary questions about the survival of our planet. It begins with energetic, even frenetic, material exchanged between the instruments. This is interspersed with moments of respose that are gradually extended, until the piece concludes with a quiet final section with solo first violin playing high above the other instruments, an ending open to many different interpretations.

Set of Parts. By Various. Arranged by John Kember. Schott. Size 9x12 inches. 44 pages. Published by Schott.

Chamber Music String Quartet

SKU: PR.14440727S

Composed by Sydney F. Hodkinson. Sws. Full score. 44 pages. Duration 22 minutes. Merion Music #144-40727S. Published by Merion Music (PR.14440727S).

UPC: 680160681907. 9 x 12 inches.

My Eighth and Ninth String Quartets, begun in late 2017, are sonic cousins. Akin to real cousins, each piece exhibits differing natures. They were requested by two ensembles that have become asecond familiesa to me: The Jupiter Quartet of Urbana, Illinois and the Amernet Quartet based in Miami, Florida. Their collective dedication to, and care for, our art remains a personal and constant are-fuelinga for me. The quartets were commissioned by, and dedicated to, Margaret and Philip Verleger of Denver, Colorado. Additional financial support was provided by the School of Music at Stetson University, Timothy Peter, Dean. Quartet No.8 is laid out in a classical four-movement design. The work does break somewhat from conventional tradition by often placing quartet members into soloistic roles as the movement titles note. individual The opening piece presents at the outset a three-note motto which is turned over, tumbled, and energetically discussed, primarily by a violin duet. It is a duel. The two players part company only infrequently during the movement's progress, pausing briefly for other commentary by their alower cohortsa, the Viola and Cello do not argue, but abet their friends' aeffortsa. The piece's overall character is fairly bright and dancelike, closing in an unresolvedastandoffa. not Two principal asound-objectsa stitch the second movement scherzo together: sliding hands (glissandos) and a plucked ashufflea (pizzicato) - both instigated by the (solo) cellist. The others are influenced - or are not - by their aleadera, and follow - or interrupt - the cello throughout their four-voiced conversation. The third movement (longest of the set) is an elegy dedicated to the memory of a close personal friend, the American composer David Maslanka (1943 - 2017). Its' genesis is a simple 5-note melody derived from my own name (SaC/DaC/EaC/H). This line commences in the (solo) viola and is obsessively uttered without relief during the movement's lamentations. The closing movement revisits much of that opening three-note material, but now dressed up for the full quartet to view. It is a slowly accelerating romp which - twice - cannot avoid a nod to the Amernet and Jupiter performers by offering a humble bow to the 4th movement of Gustav Holst's PLANETS - Jupiter: The Bringer of Jollity. My quartet serves as an honouring salute of thanks for the talent, respect, and friendship of these two young quartets. STRING QUARTET No. 8 is roughly 22 minutes in duration. It was written as an homage to Franz Joseph Haydn, my adesert-island-composera, and completed in Holly Hill, Florida in early April of 2019. S.H.