Boosey & Hawkes (Hendon Music)
I have spent most of my time composing music for orchestra, and my chamber output is resultantly rather small. Indeed, my third string quartet of 2009 is my first chamber work since 1996 (my septet Compline) and only my second since my 1988 String Quartet No. 2.
The wonderful Calder Quartet, who have championed my first two quartets with both enthusiasm and mastery and have recorded them as well, asked me compose a new one for them in 2006, though it took several years before I was able to begin work on it.
I have often heard in my mind's ear what I call "another music," a music whose difficulty and complexity would render it impractical for orchestral use, considering the size of the orchestral apparatus and the limited rehearsal time available for preparing works for that medium. Having duly warned the Calders of what I intended, I set about to try putting down on paper what this "other music" might sound like.
My String Quartet No. 3 was the result. The central focus of what I was hearing was a succession of extremely convulsive and unpredictable gestures rendered by the players in rhythmic unison—that is, these complex rhythms would have to be performed totally together by the four players: no small feat. The work is thus made up primarily of these rhythmically monodic ideas, though they sometimes do spin out of control into a series of imitative gestures. Though perhaps unpalatable to some, my overall description of the piece would be something akin to a schizophrenic having a grand mal seizure. This, at least, was the image to which I continually referred as I composed the music.
The twenty-minute score is dedicated to the Calder Quartet and, after a slow introduction, follows a standard fast-slow-fast ordering of sections played without pause. The music is staggeringly difficult to play, and I believe this to be my most challenging and uncompromising work to date.
— Christopher Rouse
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