Laurence Sherwood wrote:

>...comments have stirred me to want to make an effort to listen to
>the 8th quartet more- it's one to which I have not gravitated.  Musical
>renditions of buzzing insects- Simpson also did that in his enormous 9th
>quartet- just don't whet my interest.
>
>He claimed that music was about "form", yet in no way did that
>preclude strong feeling.

Don't you think the 'insects' concentrate into form too?  It would not
be easy to miss the second movement's subtitle ("Eretmapodites gilletti"),
but it is perhaps in part thanks to the idea of a mosquito's "formidable
delicacy", as Simpson put it, that the music is so exquisitely structured
- as it is throughout.  I don't know.  Perhaps I am just refusing direct
images as usual...  They would be in my mind, not Simpson's - so, without
"precluding strong feeling", I just listen to pure music, I suppose...

The quartet was commissioned by Brunel Philharmonic Society and was first
performed at Brunel University where Professor Gillett directed Bioligical
Science - and it was dedicated to Professor Gillett and to his wife.
That widens the field a little ;-)

>But take the time to listen to him, and I cannot imagine that people
>on this List would not find him worth the trouble.

You are amongst those who convinced me, even if it took me time to decide
to listen.  Thank you.

Regards

Christine Labroche