Untitled Piece for String Quartet

It's funny I see a trend to your endings - you love to have the texture evaporate slowly - it is not a crutch but just a trend you like to use.

I would advise simplifying the notation of the meter by just doing the following - set the time sig as 3+2/4 and have the bar divided with a dotted barline to show the division of 3/4+2/4. THis clean up your score a ton. Same for the 3/8+2/4. Show the time sig as additive. I though of possibly you writing 5/4 and then 7/8 but you son't really shift the meter too much from the pattern you establish AND it does simplify the reading if you use this method to denote alteration of time signatures.

I have to say, I immediately loved all the chromaticism, and the thick yet clear textures it causes.

Also, I keep forgetting that these kind of works aren't everyone's so-called cup of tea, but let me just say that making works like these is nowhere near as easy as they appear. You have to really know what you're doing to get the effect and colors you're after, and to make sure that there's an overall point and structure to the piece as a whole.

I find works like this to be strangely beautiful, but in a fragile, distrustful sort of way. As though, if you were to so much as breathe on it, it would crumble. When I hear this, I think of nightmarish betrayal. Whether this can help you find a name or not (assuming you even want to name it or not), I don't know, but that's the strong vibe I'm getting from this piece. Betrayal of a once beautiful creature, causing that creature to become distrustful, and perhaps even somewhat evil like the betrayer.

I hope I'm not terribly far off the mark in my comments, in regards to what the subject matter is

Thanks for sharing, Jason, I really enjoyed this, personally. I look forward to seeing/hearing the performance!

Thanks for sharing this,
though it's indeed a very emotional piece with a mood that would substitue as a structure, it lacks a certain melody for me. It seems to float in mid-air without really defining anything yet at the same time defining constantly...it left me confused in a way.

I liked it, but it's not music I'd listen to, to relax.

I'm not very much into modernism, but there are ocassionally some works that surprise me with their way to make sense. This is one of them. As Beethovenbd noted, there's no "certain" melody - but that's in no way a shortcoming, given the way you explore the harmonies. Well done, Mr. Woodruff.

Thanks very much for both of your thoughtful comments. I'm planning on finishing this quartet this year and am PRAYING that I can get it's premiere secured for next fall. My original goal was to have the first movement here premiered this past November - but sadly, the string quartet didn't have enough time to practice it. I just didn't want to let the movement go without that final assurance that it was 'what I wanted'.

@Beethovenbd: I love your last sentence. While I have composed music that one can easily relax to, I also enjoy music that initiates a need to think and be alert. This quartet is a very emotional quartet - even the movements I have in sketch form. Once finished, I'm expecting it to be my first serious work. I might add a movement to relax to though - just to relieve the tension.

Score?

Loved it, the beginning reminds me a little bit of the first movement of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, which is great, by the way :-).