Set of parts for String Quartet No.4 by Poul Ruders dating from 2012. Score available: WH31600 Programme Note: It might be of interest for some to note that a gap of only six months separates the writing of my second and third quartets (1979) but a 33 year interval stands between the third and the present piece String Quartet No. 4.Which is in five movements and is about nothing but itself. The first movement 'Adagio - Presto alla breve - Adagio' is an overture of sorts lifting the lid as it were on the odd bit of what happens later on in the other movements.A portal into:The second movement 'Vivo scherzando' which is just that: a short (2 minutes only) fast and jocular piece leading up to the next movement: 'Adagio sognante' a slow and hushed dream-world paving the way for the pièce de resistance of the entire quartet: 'Presto alla breve' a ferociously fast tour de force for the four players who with that one under their belts can lean back a little (but only a little) and put the whole thing gently to bed in the fifth and final movement: a simple 'Adagio'. Off the record: my first string quartet (1972) has been withdrawn and is no more a fact that renders the numbering of the subsequent quartets a matter of personal conviction. Poul Ruders November 2012

Horovitz composed this work during February and March 1969 as a tribute to E. H. Gombrich on his 60th birthday.In this one-movement quartet the opening thematic material is deliberately based on the decadent chromatic gestures prevalent in early twentieth century Viennese music. Healthier diatonic discords tear into these themes during a long development section and in a way finally cleanse them.The melodies of the first section are entirely based on the intervals of the third and sixth but with garish appendages of extra chromaticism (produced by means of bi-tonality between the upper and lower instruments). After the conflict these intervals emerge in their trueand elemental role as essential pillars of a major key.

Vagn Holmboe's Vivace - Tempo di Ardeleana for String Quartet. From 'Døgnets Timer' Op. 128. Parts available: WH31825A