About This Offer

When the Lyris Quartet approached me in 2015 to compose a sort of commentary on the story of Intimate Letters: String Quartet #2, by Leos Janácek, I thought that it was a remarkable idea.

The first thing - the only thing, really, - that popped into my mind was the tragedy of unrequited love (hence the name, Unrequited). When I first heard Janacek’s Intimate Letters performed live, the emotion of the piece jumped out at me: the wild shifts of tempo, the beautiful and plaintive melodies, the stark dynamic contrasts.

I wanted to illustrate my perspective on this strange relationship between Janácek and Kamila Stösslová, by telling the story of a man who goes through different phases of emotion, before finally coming to terms with the fact that his love for her is one-sided - it will never be returned the way he would like.

I sought to compose Unrequited so that it moves, like the five stages of grief, through a variety emotions - from romantic, pure love, through paranoid, obsessive, neurotic possessiveness, arriving finally at despondent acceptance.

This piece was commissioned by Madelyn, Jerald, and Lee Jackrel and is dedicated to and premiered by the Lyris Quartet.

• Unrequited - String Quartet #3 PDF Score and Parts for download rental sets are supplied as digital pdf files, via download immediately upon purchase. You get to keep the printed score and parts and may mark them up at will (although there is a fee for any future performances. Transferring the files or printed score/parts to another party is not allowed.)
• The rental includes: License to print 2 score copies (please contact us if you need to print more)
• License to print 1 full set of parts for your ensemble
• Includes 1 performance (additional performances $100 each to be added as additional amount at checkout)
• Submission of all performance dates and locations prior to the performance is required
• Sharing of digital files is not allowed