String Quartet - Ruehr - String Quartet No. 7: A Thousand Cranes [Cant: 8859]

Co-commissioned by the Delgani, Arneis, and Quartet Nouveau String Quartet. The work explores the experiences and resiliency of children of war. A lovely children’s book, A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, by Amy Lee-Tai, begins with a young girl playing on a swing in her back yard, then depicts her experience in an internment camp. This string quartet begins with that: two minutes of swinging, the joy of movement and moments where the rhythm is made precarious from swinging too high. After this, there are mini “movements” (all played without pause), beginning with a sense of foreboding and moving to sorrow, expressed in lyrical mini cadenzas by each instrument (perhaps depicting mother, father, sister, and brother). Then trouble sets in, offset by a slower sense of sadness. Finally, the piece ends where it began: on a swing set, perhaps returned home, but now that pure joy is altered with a sense of change and growth.