On February 4, 2022 Robert Voisey’s Composers Voice presented a Virtual Concert of Contemporary Quartets performed by the outstanding Argus Quartet composed of Clara Kim and Giancarlo Latta, violins, Maren Rothfritz, viola, and Audrey Chen, cello.  My one movement string quartet, “One, Yet Different,” was a part of the concert. Below are the program notes for the work and a link to the performance. This work was commissioned by the Ohio Federated Music Clubs in honor of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the National Federated Music Clubs.   

Program Notes: Music, a unifying force, is expressed in many differing ways. This thought, central to the National Federated Music Clubs, is this work’s basis. Opening with unison pitches in fanfare[1]like manner the intervals gradually grow wider leading to the opening theme in the first violin accompanied by sustained fifths in the cello with the second violin and viola offering syncopated pizzicato chords. The cello and first violin exchange roles. Finally the two inner instruments play the theme in unison with the outer ones adding the punctuated chords. Descending pizzicatos lead to sustained chords by the lower strings while the first violin plays a lengthy cadenza-like melody. The final section is in fugato-style using the melody of the NFMC national hymn, “Lasst uns erfreuen,” as thematic material. The ending is the opening in retrograde, the final note being in unison as it was in the beginning.