Duel Movement

This string quartet was inspired by August Strindberg’s play The Stronger, which involves a confrontation between two women, one speaking and the other reacting through the use of body language. By analogy, in this work there are two types of musical material which are defined in a number of ways, but perhaps most obviously by the fact that one is played arco and the other pizzicato. They interact throughout, reaching an uneasy truce in the coda, where the pizzicato gives an initial ictus to the sustained arco harmonics to create a bell-like effect. 

Duel Movement was commissioned by Manchester University to mark the opening of the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, Manchester and first performed on October 4, 2003 by the Lindsay String Quartet.                  

Philip Grange