Afference (2014)

Commissioned by the Nicolas Boas Charitable Trust and The RVW Trust for The Elias String Quartet.          

Afference (2014) is a string quartet that takes its title from a physiological term describing how the brain receives signals from the body: how blood moves through vessels towards organs, and how nerve fibres convey sensory experiences to the central nervous system. Whilst composing Afference I have been concerned with how and when we become conscious of sensory information – things we touch, see, hear – and how this might sound. 

Afference was commissioned by the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust and the RVW Trust for the Elias String Quartet, and first performed by them in the BBC Monday Lunchtime Concert Series at the Wigmore Hall, London, on 4th May 2015. It is dedicated to Elisabeth and Bob Boas.

Emily Howard, 2016