About that string quartet . . .

I finished it.  There are just three movements.  (Most string quartets have four movements, I read, but I'm not cruel.)

• The first movement is here; I have not made very many changes since I put up a link on this blog a few weeks ago.
• The second movement is here (second movement); lots of changes were made, but if you're checking this out for the first time, you won't notice any of them.  There is a sort of refrain between various segments, which I am sort of planning to take out.  Just one of them (the third) is nice, and I might keep that...  I did orchestrate it for a small orchestra, and it sounds lovely, which is probably a big indictment on the quartet movement.
• The third movement is here (third movement), in a sort of rondo form.  It has a speed (tempo) indication of Presto, which is very fast.  I don't think most professional string quartets can play it that fast, so it's going to be essentially allegro.

Added later: here's a video of the whole thing.

Just in case you were wondering: I did set the last movement going at M-M ♩=200, which is fast.  Here it is, if you're interested.  Try and relax.  By the way, it sounds as if the music is getting faster and faster, but I'm fairly sure it keeps a steady pace, because, after all, the music is played mechanically by a program.  (There is a complicated way to verify whether the music is speeding up, but I haven't tried that approach yet.)

I discovered that serious composition is difficult and slow.  It's fun getting started, but pretty soon you find that to keep up the same quality of creativity, it takes a lot of effort; in short, good composition is work.  (Not work from beginning to end, but it needs to be backed up with work.)

I wrote earlier about orchestrating the three movements, just for fun.  I began to realize that, because of the wide range of tone colors available, even a simple, boring piece can be made more interesting by the instrumentation.  The second movement benefited a huge amount by orchestration, whereas with just the four instruments of the string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello) the piece has to be made interesting purely by the notes.  Note: I must say that experienced composers of string music use all sorts of special techniques to expand the range of sounds available.  Not being able to do this was a handicap, but hey; every composer (other than my honorable self) tries hard to make his or her composition more interesting to play than others, because the more interesting it is to play, the more likely an actual string quartet will "adopt" the work, and play it frequently, and the more commissions the composer is likely to get, which translates to money.

The second movement is not hopeless as it was originally written, but the orchestral version is much more awesome (to my ears, anyway).  So here are links to all three movements in their orchestral form.

i - Allegro

ii - Andante

iii - Presto

If you want the whole thing in a single sound file, here it is.