James MacMillan

Visions of a November Spring

Composed in 1988 and revised in 1991, this 28-minute work was commissioned by the University of Glasgow's McEwen Bequest. The composer stated in 1991, \"My first string quartet, Visions of a November Spring, is the peculiar 'odd man out' in my work since it is the nearest thing to an autobiographical statement. The title is an indication that the piece is a celebration of (or comment on) a newly emerging fecundity of expression which seemed to absorb me in the latter part of 1987, and which extended itself through more recent pieces, Bùsqueda (1988), Into the Ferment (1988) and Tryst (1989). As well as marking the beginning of a particularly prolific time for me, it also marked a fusion of earlier influences and a departure in a style of writing which is both naturally and deliberately more direct and explicit.\"