The following is taken from the programme note I wrote for Quartet: For Violin, Violoncello, Trombone and Piano:

'Quartet was written as an exploration into serial composition. The genesis of this work began with creating a scale which was unrelated to the standard tonal scales of Western music:

The inclusion of the tritone interval, together with a grasp of the tonal relationship of the first and fifth degrees of the Western key scale yielded the melody exhibited by the Violin in bars 1-4 of the score.

Upon the advice of my lecturer John Croft, I decided to develop this melody into a serial composition for the instruments stated in the score. The Trombone may be seen as an unusual inclusion. My reasoning for this was in the Trombone’s timbre and ability to perform glissando- a technique I use in the central section of this composition (marked Agitated).

After completing the score, I remain awestruck by the scope of material that the serial method evokes. Techniques such as transposition by the tritone interval and retrograde-inversion have greatly influenced my insight into music composition. I certainly would be interested in exploring this method further.

I would like to thank John Croft and Matthew London for their help with a compositional process that I was previously unfamiliar with.'

Below is an excerpt of the score for my Quartet: