About this Piece

Third Movement of String Quartet No. 1 – may be performed separately. Recording on Telarc Label with Ying Quartet released January 2008.

Pizzicato is a short work for string quartet, the duration of which the players never use their bows. The central sound produced is that of plucked strings as well a few surprises in the middle and towards the end of the work. Inspired by listening to Asian folk music, the piece is influenced partly by the music of the Chinese plucked instruments pipa and qin as well as by the energetic rhythms of Indonesian gamelan.

Pizzicato was read by the American String Quartet while I was an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) in New Smyrna Beach, Florida from April 29–May 17, 2001. Funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center, the entire string quartet, a four-movement composition in which Pizzicato is the third, was premiered by the Avalon String Quartet on January 24, 2004 as part of the Chamber Music Columbus series in Ohio. The string quartet version has been recorded by the Ying Quartet and is commercially available on the Telarc CD entitled “Dim Sum,” featuring short works for string quartet by Chinese American composers.