MusicString quartet
Crickets
From the suite The Bog Frog Fantasia
A cricket outside the window, transcribed for string quartet — insect timbre, interlocking tuplets, and a run of false endings.
At a glance
- Composed
- 2025
- Forces
- Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Violoncello
- Duration
- 2′29″
- Status
- Complete; available for premiere
- Score
- Perusal PDF, free to download; parts on request
Listen
Program note
Crickets began as a transcription of a single cricket singing outside my window. The quartet turns that call into a study of insect timbre — whispered tremolos, harmonic glints, rapid repeated figures — set in interlocking tuplets that never quite line up, and it keeps arriving at endings that turn out not to be the end.
It is part of a larger allegorical suite, The Bog Frog Fantasia, drawn from a bog near my home in the Pocono Mountains.
For performers
What the score asks of the players, read from the engraved parts.
- Meter
- 5/4, 4/4 and 3/4
- Length
- 72 bars
- Interlocking triplets and sextuplets are written so that the parts never quite line up; keep each line steady and let the friction between them be the cricket.
- Four fermatas mark the false endings. Give each one enough time to be believed.
- Both violins climb to C7.
- No double stops in any part. Dynamics run from pp to ff.
| Part | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|
| Violin I | A3–C7 |
| Violin II | A3–C7 |
| Viola | C3–F5 |
| Violoncello | C2–D4 |
Score and parts
Downloads
Parts
Individual parts are sent on request. Tell me who is playing and when, and I will send the score and parts ready for rehearsal.
Images
Give Crickets its premiere
This piece is available for its first performance. If your ensemble would like to give it, I would love to hear from you. Or, if you would rather have something new, ask about a commission.
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