Born in South Africa but now an Irish citizen Kevin Volans? musical idiom has been shaped by an unusually diverse range of experiences including studies with Stockhausen in Cologne field trips to South Africa tostudy traditional music his own involvement with the New Simplicity movement his collection of contemporary art and African textiles friendships with composers like Morton Feldman and Gerald Barry as well as a love of virtuosopiano music which he performs broadcasts and records. While having an easily recognised unique voice Volans? music resists compartmentalisation. He is as comfortable working in conventional genres as embarking oninnovative collaborations with artists of other disciplines. String Quartet No.1 (White Man Sleeps) was written for the Kronos Quartet and was first performed by them in July 1986 London.The title?White Man Sleeps? comes from a moment in nyanga Panpipe music where the performers leave off playing their loud pipes for a few cycles and dance only to the sound of their ankle rattles to let the whitelandowner sleep for a minute or two.'In composing this piece I drew from the following sources: the first movement owes something to the style of Basotho concertina music; the second and fourth movements are drawnfrom traditional Nyungwe music played by Makina Chirenje and his Nyanga panpipe group at Nsava Tete Mozambique recorded and transcribed by Andrew Tracey (to be found in an article entitled ?The nyanga Panpipe dance? in AfricanMusic Vol.5 No.1 (1971); the third movement derives from the San bow music (recorded by Tony Traill of the University of Witwatersrand) and from Basotho lesiba music transcribed by myself; in the fifth movement I added my owninvented folklore. My approach to the original music was anything but purist it is played in Western tuning filtered slowed down by a few ?time-octaves? cast into non-African metres (like the 13-beat pattern of the first

Composed between 1973 and 1976  Ainsi La Nuit for a String Quartet is one of the most important works of its genre byHenri Dutilleux (1916-2013) a French composer. This score of Ainsi La Nuit is the conductor's score with the four instruments altogether. The score for each individual instrument can be bought separately. Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation for the Juilliard Quartet  Ainsi La Nuit is based on a series of studies lasts 18 minutes and is divided into 7 sections:  1. Nocturne 2. Miroir d'espace 3.Litanies 4. Litanies II 5. Constellations 6. Nocturne II 7. Temps suspendu Built on single hexachords it also use the octatonic mode and focus on harmonies contrasts and oppositions of register.  Henri Dutilleux was internationally acclaimed for his work winning prizes such as the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers among many others. His work also includes a Piano sonata two symphonies the Violin concerto 'L'arbre des songes' (The tree of dreams) and the Cello concerto 'Tout un monde lointain' (A whole distant word).

for String Quartet op. 35a-Josef Suk played second Violin in the Bohemian String Quartet. Since 1914 the ensemble was obliged to perform the Austrian national anthem at the opening of every concert. Suk decided to supplement this obligatory piece with a work inspired by the ancient sacred Bohemian St. Wenceslas hymn. The hymn?s message a plea for the well-being of the Czech people directed at their patron saint was immediately understood by the audience.The Bohemian String Quartet performed this single-movement Meditation for the first time on 27 September 1914; the premiere of the version for string orchestra followed on 22 November 1914 played by the CzechPhilharmonic. That same year the piece was published by Fr. A. Urbánek together with arrangements for Piano and Organ.This first Urtext edition prepared by the Sukscholar Zdenek Nouza is published in two scorings one for string quartet and another for String Orchestra (BA9584). The orchestral version differs in some details and has an added part for Double Bass.First Urtext editionInformative trilingual Foreword (Cz/Eng/Ger) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editorTwo versions published in two separate editions

Par ZIMMERMANN BERND ALOIS. With this edition, Schott publishes the early two-movement string quartet by Bernd Alois Zimmermann for the first time. In a letter the composer wrote: 'I am still messing around with my quartet. This probably is the most concentrated work of composition - and the most abstract.' The string quartet belongs within the context of his early works which focussed on chamber music, unlike those of later years. Until 1945, he created a number of piano pieces and songs, a Suite for Violin and Piano as well as a String Trio (ED 7563)./ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

This String Quartet along with other chamber works by Onslow is worthy of serious study alongside works of other composers of the period such as Beethoven. It has a lively and tuneful first movement a beautiful theme and variations (including a florid variation with an exciting part for 1st Violin) a pretty minuet and trio and a rousing final movement. All instruments have interesting parts.George Onslow an Anglo-French composer was born in Clermont-Ferrand in July 1784 and died there in October 1853. Three of his String Quintets and his Piano quintet are also published by SJ Music (Q1993-5 Q1991-1 Q1993-4 and Q2005-2).