String Quartet #2 reflects my thoughts on a long career as a composer, and the prospect of it all, sooner or later, coming to an end. Not that I’m becoming morbid, but simply aware of my time of life and wishing to bequeath a tired world something of beauty and thoughtfulness. The first movement is the most “academic” in that it utilises a melodic pattern of increasing intervals, going up by semitones -2nd to +7th. It is thus the most dissonant of the movements. The second movement quotes a song from a 13th century Liturgical Drama called “Ludus Danielis” (“The Play of Daniel”), My wife, Andrea Mellis, asked me to arrange the old melodies for an ensemble of period instruments. She then directed a couple of stunning performances in Austria in 2022 (and hopefully more). I fell in love with one of the melodies and made it the basis of my second movement. The third is a chattering conversation, a busy counterpoint with a sad section in the middle, and the last is a Chaplinesque, crooked march into the sunset.