David Matthews writes:
I love the string quartet medium - it is my favourite kind of chamber music. Four musicians hold an intimate conversation and communicate what they say to the audience. What they say must not be intelligible only to the musicians: wider communication is an essential part of what I try to do as a composer. I am aware that audiences have had great problems in understanding the music of the past hundred years, and because of this many people only listen to music of the 19th century and earlier, or else they listen to pop music, which however cannot satisfy the need for musical experience at a deep level. I'm trying in my own small way to mend the gap that has opened between the contemporary composer and his or her public.
With this in mind, I think it's vital for the composer to maintain a link with the traditions of the past. The string quartet is an ideal medium to do this, because of the richness of its history. Most people who attend a string quartet concert will have some familiarity with the repertoire - with quartets by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in particular. My 11th Quartet in fact has its starting point in a short Bagatelle by Beethoven, a late piano piece, but so written that it looks like the short score for a string quartet. I have written a set of variations on this Bagatelle, moving from Beethoven's language to my own. One of the variations, towards the end, is a quite extensive Cavatina – I have taken the title from the famous Cavatina in Beethoven's Quartet, op.130, but I have also borne in mind the scheme of Bach's Goldberg Variations which has a long, slow variation near the end.