Study score 0-571-50513-9 and parts 0-571-50530-9 on sale.

NB: compulsory repeat to be added movt 2 fig 7-9 (not marked in material)

Peter Sculthorpe String Quartet no. 8 (1969) The basic ideas used in this work stem from the rice-pounding music, ketungan, of Bali, and the popular song play, arja. These musics, however, serve as a starting point only, although the work does retain the basic simplicity of Balinese folk-idioms. String Quartet no. 8 is in five movements, the first and last being almost entirely for solo cello. These two movements, together with the third movement, are written in a spatio-temporal notation in order to create a feeling of improvisation. They also form a contrast to the strict metres of the quicker sections in the second and fourth movements. The actual metrical patterns in these sections, extremely limited in the number of notes employed, are characteristically Indonesian. These two movements, in fact, seem to have a static, ritualistic quality that is very much in keeping with the ideals of Asian music. Commissioned by the Radcliffe Trust, this work was first performed by the Allegri Quartet. Peter Sculthorpe