Betwixt and Between, my fourth string quartet, is comprised of three contrasting movements of quite diverse character. Upheaval, the first movement, is rather volatile, traversing a wide range of moods and expressive “types.” The second movement, Sway, has the feel and the motion of a dance. In the score I marked it as “quasi Latin dance.” For me it was also about the compositional challenge of continuously varying extremely limited melodic and harmonic cells (first Eb-D, then C#-D-Eb, etc.) that gradually expand in scope and grow in excitement yet ultimately disintegrate. Concluding the quartet is Supplication, the work’s slow movement, part dark musings, part chorale, culminating in an intense plea.

There are some important recurring musical ideas that return at key points and function in ways that tie the composition as a whole. The first of these ideas occurs at the very beginning: the interval of a perfect fourth (B-F#) that undulates back and forth. It is both the interval itself but also very much the undulating motion that becomes recognizable when returning later on. The second is a brisk unison phrase for the four instruments notable for its decisive dotted rhythm. It appears at a key point in the first movement, opens the second, and returns toward the end of the quartet. It has an abrupt quality, and it is only in its last iteration that its function becomes clear. Finally there is a series of column-like chords (marked in the score as “Stately”) occurring late in the first movement, and evolving into a central element in the latter part of the last movement as it draws to its fervently pleading conclusion.

Betwixt and Between is not a programmatic work and was not intended to convey an extra-musical message. However, it was commissioned by the Jerusalem Quartet (for the occasion of its 30th anniversary) and composed in its entirety after the horrific events of October 7th 2023. Inevitably, the pain and untold human suffering of so many on both sides accompanied the process of creating this composition from its first to last note.

—Shulamit Ran