Instrumentation: String Quartet
Year Composed: 2006

The inspiration for this piece came when I saw a brass quintet suddenly put their instruments down and sing a verse of a Christmas carol. I thought about what would be the most unlikely chamber ensemble to put their instruments down and sing, and decided on a string quartet, as nearly all string players I know hate singing the fiery passion of a thousand white-hot suns. With some very notable exceptions of course.

The work is in two movements; the first movement introduces a series of sonorities played by the quartet, and the second movement has them put their instruments down and sing through each sonority on a variety of different vowel sounds.