Music for Strings Alone

Although trained as a pianist, that instrument is not what I hear inwardly when musical ideas spring to mind. Rather, it is the sound of bowed strings. Renaissance vocal music informs much of what I write, but the rich sound of a bowed string offers so much better opportunity than does the human voice for long, sustained lines – after all, string players don’t have to breathe (at least not in order to produce sound). The music on this page ranges from solo works to works for massed strings, but it is the string quartet that has mostly occupied my attention over the years. A matter of personal taste, but for me, it is the perfect vehicle for musical expression.