Quartet for Strings No.13

OK, I've long suspected I may be suffering from some mild form of OCD (if only because of a lifelong appreciation for Bruckner symphonies); and this current work offers potent evidence. Written in rigidly conformative High Classical four-movement form, each of the movements slavishly follows the ABA' pattern; and each of the four A' sections is a strict analog of the primary A section, with a new iteration of the tone row (at a new tonal center) plugged into the precise pattern of attacks and durations already determined (though with marked dynamic variation). The outer movements each feature four tempo changes; while the inner movements only show three changes - and the B sections in both inner movements each contain extended palindromic sections.

Beyond these curious structural rigidities, the annoying pattern of four-note motives followed by a cloud of two-note responses in distributed voices that has appeared in each of my quartets since at least the Tenth is here in spades throughout; and the Scherzo actually reverses that pattern with clouds of two-note motives followed by four-note responses. There are aggressive extended ostinato patterns somewhere in each of the work's movements and other distinctive rhythmic patterns recur again and again throughout. In conclusion: this is either an incredibly tightly-integrated composition far beyond the inherent necessity of the tone row itself, or the product of seriously anal-retentive neurosis gone wild.

Possibly and probably a little bit of both.