The first movement opens with the following thematic material from Chou’s solo violoncello line.
I chose to place this line in the Viola both to distance the piece from Chou’s concerto and because Viola is the instrument he played as a young man. From here the movement develops in a classical sonata-allegro form; with development, secondary theme and its development (in a double fugue) back to a recapitulation and codetta.
The second movement is a set of variations from this accompanied line.
The third movement begins with the following line, once again taken from the solo violoncello of Chou’s concerto.
From here it develops quickly in a form somewhat akin to a fantasia built on thematic snippits (or windows) to a point comes where there is a free, yet written, cadenza for the first violin player followed immediately by the end of the movement.
The fourth movement, not quite a minute long, serves as a coda to the whole piece.
The name of this quartet is a line taken from the Dylan Thomas poem, In My Craft or Sullen Art, a marvelous work of brooding pessimism punctuated by an almost awed optimism.