Program Note

for string quartet alone until I was fifty-nine. Now, in my second string quartet, the fingers of the players still have yet to touch the fingerboard.

This music contains no normal stopped tones. All the sounds are produced either as natural harmonics or on open strings.

The highest harmonic utilised is the tenth. Some of the harmonics may be more resonant when played as double harmonics. For example, the sixth harmonic can be produced by simultaneously touching the nodes for the second and third harmonics.

Dynamics are free. But all the sounds in the air at any moment should be equally balanced.

John Luther Adams