This string quartet and a work for solo guitar, Prospero Dreaming, were both composed in 1998, immediately after I had completed the vocal score of Enchanted Island, an opera based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Material from the opera pervades this work.The opening first violin line – a twisting, rising phrase ending in three repeated notes – provides most of the material for the first movement. The mood shifts, sometimes brooding, sometimes animated, and the rhythms veer between 6/8, 3/4 and 3/2, both alternating and in combination. The second movement is based on material associated with Ariel, the fairy held captive by Prospero to execute his magic. He longs to be free again. Speed and capriciousness are of his essence, and these characteristics are both reflected in this scherzando movement, which concludes with his final heavenward escape.The final movement is Prospero's. It begins with his "motto" theme that provides a basis for a series of variations. These culminate in an apotheosis in which the conflicts of the opera are resolved, the twisting lines of the opening of the quartet now leading ever upwards.
