Cousins' String Quartet is concerned with the investigation of two qualities inherent in the medium of the string quartet: the sonorous potential of the instruments when they are played ‘as one', and the melodic possibilities of each individual instrument. The structure could be likened to a journey across a tornado, each ring of the spiral generating greater and greater contrapuntal energy, interspersed with areas of relative homophonic calm, until the perfectly still centre of the storm is reached; only to be followed by further troughs and peaks as the opposite side of the spiral is crossed.
John Cousins was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1943. He received training as a musician, graduating with an honours degree in music from the University of Canterbury in 1965. In 1967 he was appointed to the staff of the university’s School of Music, subsequently working there as a teacher and creative artist until 2004 when he left to concentrate fully on making and promulgating his work.
