Quicksilver Serenade is a short piece for violin, viola, cello and double bass commissioned by Symphony Australia for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra String Fellowship. The work was composed in August 2004 and had its premiere at St James Church Sydney in October of that year. As the title implies, the piece has a volatile, unpredictable and mercurial quality but is also quite song-like and playful in mood. Unlike the ‘classical’ string quartet the ensemble of four stringed instruments used here has only one rather than two violins and a double bass rather than a cello. This means the sound of the ensemble covers a wide range and is differentiated in terms of variety of colour. Each of the instruments is soloistic at different moments in the piece with the viola part somewhat more prominent than in a string quartet.

© Andrew Schultz, 2004.