The String Quartet No. 21 was conceived in the late 1980s and composed during 1992 (with minor revisions in 2017)as part of a portfolio of works for a Master's Degree in Music on which I was working at the time. It is, to date, my only quartet to have striven consciously for a post-19th-century idiom; and even within such a framework it remains fairly traditional, drawing its principal influence from Shostakovich and Khachaturian. Most of the work is general rather than specific in its inspiration. It is in eight movements, the first five of which are very brief.

The melody of the opening Song movement owes something to my memories of Meteora, in northern Greece, which I had visited in 1984, and of a bus journey taken through the breathtaking gorges of Bosnia during a tour with the Coventry Youth Orchestra two years later.

The second movement (Landscape) was conceived very much later, mere weeks before the completion of the quartet, by which time I had experienced some pretty stunning landscapes among the Altai mountains in central Asia. The material attempts, within a short time frame, to give a general impression of space but also a suggestion of detail.

The third movement (Stick Dance) is actually a back-formation from the corresponding passage in the seventh movement, which was the earliest part of the work to be conceived. The stick dance melody came a little incongruously into my head during a rather wet night walk from Bishop's Stortford railway station to Saffron Walden in October 1986, about three months after the Yugoslavia tour.

The fourth movement (Serenade) is without any specific geography, but reflects rather wistfully upon the opening Song and (at a very much more ponderous pace) the previous Stick Dance.

The fifth movement (Notturno) is neither a somnolent nor an amorous Nocturne, but rather a fleeting sound-picture of the minute movements and rustlings of nature during the hours of darkness or semi-darkness when human activity has temporarily ceased.

The sixth movement (Intermezzo) is a somewhat macabre waltz alternating with static 'trio' sections. The waltz melody grows out of a twelve-tone melody first spelt out rather more cryptically in the Landscape movement. The harmony is also informed to a certain extent by dodecaphony, and the movement as a whole remains to date the closest I have ever come to the techniques of the Second Viennese School. The trio sections, also in large part twelve-tonal, constitute the most geo-specific passages in the quartet. In May 1992 I had the extraordinarily eerie experience of flying over the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan, in the early dawn before sunrise. Our aeroplane followed the desert highway for what must have been a hundred miles or so, during which I saw not a single sign of human life. Something of the utter loneliness of that landscape may be found in the music. Something also of the sparse scrub of that environment, and of the insect and animal life eked out among it, is depicted in the previous Nocturne.

The seventh movement (Pastorale) follows without a break. It was the first to be composed, in April and May 1989. Back in the world of human habitation, it begins with an alternation of recitative and rustic lament, the latter of which takes its initial from a massively slower version of the theme from the spectral Notturno music heard previously. The third occurrence of the recitative becomes an increasingly urgent fugue, succeeded by an accelerando into a frenzied version of the Stick Dance, which in turn runs without a break into the Finale ('Scherzo'). A slower Trio section recalls the Pastorale, and the work ends with a resumption of the Scherzo, rounded off by a brief, energetic coda.

The Twenty-First String Quartet is dedicated to Roxanna Panufnik, whom I was very moved to meet at a memorial concert for her father hours after having completed it.

String Quartet No. 21, in G, 'Impressions of a Traveller' (1992)

The String Quartet No. 21 was conceived in the late 1980s and composed during 1992 (with minor revisions in 2017)as part of a portfolio of works for a Master's Degree in Music on which I was working at the time.  It is, to date, my only quartet to have striven consciously for a post-19th-century idiom; and even within such a framework it remains fairly traditional, drawing its principal influence from Shostakovich and Khachaturian.  Most of the work is general rather than specific in its inspiration.  It is in eight movements, the first five of which are very brief:

1) Song (Lento Risoluto, a Tempo un' Poco Libero) (0:00).  The song melody presented at the opening of the work, and reiterated at various points throughout, was part of the great quartet outpouring of 1988-89.  It owes something to my memories of Meteora, in northern Greece, which I had visited in 1984, and of a bus journey taken through the breathtaking gorges of Bosnia during a tour with the Coventry Youth Orchestra two years later. 

2) Landscape (Molto Adagio) (0:39).  The second movement was conceived very much later, mere weeks before the completion of the quartet, by which time I had experienced some pretty stunning landscapes among the Altai mountains in central Asia.  The material attempts, within a short time frame, to give a general impression of space but also a suggestion of detail.

3) Stick Dance (Presto) (2:10).  The third movement is actually a back-formation from the corresponding passage in the seventh movement, which was the earliest part of the work to be conceived.  The stick dance melody came a little incongruously into my head during a rather wet night walk from Bishop's Stortford railway station to Saffron Walden in October 1986, about three months after the Yugoslavia tour.

4) Serenade (Tempo di Recitativo Lento, tanto Libero) (2:52).  A movement without any specific geography, but which reflects rather wistfully upon the opening Song and (at a very much more ponderous pace) the previous Stick Dance.

5) Notturno (Molto Vivace, ma sempre Leggierissimo) (5:12).  Neither a somnolent nor an amorous Nocturne, but rather a fleeting sound-picture of the minute movements and rustlings of nature during the hours of darkness or semi-darkness when human activity has temporarily ceased.

A.M.Bell - String Quartet No. 21, 'Impressions of a Traveller' (I - V)

The sixth movement of the 21st Quartet is an Intermezzo, in the manner of a somewhat macabre waltz alternating with static 'trio' sections.  The waltz melody grows out of a twelve-tone melody first spelt out rather more cryptically in the Landscape movement.  The harmony is also informed to a certain extent by dodecaphony, and the movement as a whole remains to date the closest I have ever come to the techniques of the Second Viennese School.  The trio sections, also in large part twelve-tonal, constitute the most geo-specific passages in the quartet.  In May 1992 I had the extraordinarily eerie experience of flying over the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan, in the early dawn before sunrise.  Our aeroplane followed the desert highway for what must have been a hundred miles or so, during which I saw not a single sign of human life.  Something of the utter loneliness of that landscape may be found in the music.  Something also of the sparse scrub of that environment, and of the insect and animal life eked out among it, is depicted in the previous Nocturne.

The Intermezzo runs without a break into the seventh movement.

A.M.Bell - String Quartet No. 21, 'Impressions of a Traveller' (VI)

The seventh movement Pastorale (Andantino Libero, poi Accelerando in Presto) was the first to be composed, in April and May 1989.  Back in the world of human habitation, it begins with an alternation of recitative and rustic lament, the latter of which takes its initial from a massively slower version of the theme from the spectral Notturno music heard previously.  The third occurrence of the recitative becomes an increasingly urgent fugue, succeeded by an accelerando into a frenzied version of the Stick Dance, which in turn runs without a break into the Finale (Scherzo: Allegro Vivace con Brio, at 7:33).  A slower Trio section recalls the Pastorale, and the work ends with a resumption of the Scherzo, rounded off by a brief, energetic coda.

The Twenty-First String Quartet is dedicated to Roxanna Panufnik, whom I was very moved to meet at a memorial concert for her father hours after having completed it.

A.M.Bell - String Quartet No. 21, 'Impressions of a Traveller' (VII - VIII)

5'' Run - Off

Born 1965, lifelong lover of music.  Have been picking out little tunes from 5, and attempting seriously to compose since 12.  Generally (although not exclusively) happiest writing in the manner of late-18thC/early 19thC, but very happy to listen to pretty nearly any music.  String quartets a speciality, although not entirely sure why.  No plans to give up the day job (secondary school Support for Learning Assistant) or the weekend job (Choirmaster at St. Magnus's Cathedral, Kirkwall).

String Quartet No. 21, in G, 'Impressions of a Traveller' (1992)

Michael Bell