After collaborating with the Dover Quartet during my five years as composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center, I was thrilled to create a new piece especially for them.  Suite for String Quartet incorporates a variety of techniques from outside the classical tradition to enrich the traditional quartet soundworld.

Informed by the plectrum textures of old-time string band music, the first movement uses the bow as a kind of percussion instrument in several passages.  Its exuberant flourishes are also related to a different kind of folk sound, the bard-like world of Renaissance music.  The second movement offers a lopsided rhythmic accompaniment to a sighing melody in the cello and, eventually, the viola.  In the last movement, an American folk song is brought to life at first with gently strumming pizzicato, then in a more passionately virtuosic manner. 

Many thanks to these tremendous players for the many ways they continue to inspire me.