A number of years ago, in a secondhand bookstore, I found a book of watercolour paintings by the English painter J.M.W. Turner, called The Ideas of Folkestone Sketchbook 1845. This book contains 24 watercolour paintings, all variants of the view of the cliffs, sea and sky at Folkestone. Turner returned again and again to this same spot, reconsidering and rediscovering the landscape. My string quartet Folkestone is inspired by this process, though the piece is not an attempt to musically re-create his book. Instead, I have created my own sketchbook, viewing again and again the landscape of the string quartet, observing and discovering its terrain. The piece is in 24 sections, or panels, with space between them, like the turning of a page in a book. This string quartet, my third, was premiered by the Penderecki Quartet, and was composed with the assistance of a Canada Council Long Term Grant.
