for string quartet (2019)

playtime is a piece that approaches the string quartet from a kind of naïve, childlike perspective. I wanted to strip away preconceived ideas about the quartet and explore the medium in ways that fascinate me personally, not just in terms of particular sounds and movements (tapping, gliding, scraping, fluttering, etc.) but also in terms of how the four players coordinate in time and the various ways they can ‘play’ with or against each other. The title refers in one sense to something whimsical and playful, but also more literally to the idea of playing with time.