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Peter Sculthorpe String Quartet No.14 This work is concerned with my feelings about mountainous landscapes in northern Tasmania. The short Prelude presents some of the material upon which the music is based. Throughout, certain falling intervals are especially important. These intervals dominate From Legges Tor, which is sombre and somewhat threatening, like the rocky peak itself. In contrast, On High Hills is calmly lyrical, a recollection of much-loved places, its melody originally conceived in my schooldays. The last and longest movement, At Quamby Bluff, concerns the tragic killings of Aboriginies at the bluff’s edge, in the early part of the nineteenth century. If the music here is questioning and restless, there is some resolution at the close. In writing this work, I set out to compose the kind of string quartet that I longed to write in my youth. I set out, then to write a work of innocence, a work free from the influences that were to enter my later music. String Quartet No. 14 was commissioned by Launceston Chamber Music Society. Peter Sculthorpe