This piece was actually started for two specific reasons: 1) There was a performance opportunity given to me in Paris that required a string quartet, and 2) Arizona State University was having a composition competition offered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet that required a newly written string quartet with an approximate length of 8 to 10 minutes.

The approach was that I wanted to write something that was fast and exciting but that also broke a lot of boundaries as far as my standard harmonic language was concerned. I found myself sitting in a dark modal world, utilizing primarily the octatonic scale that was greately embellished by chromatic coloration, hence the subtitle, Chromo. From the start, the harmonic palette was saturated with all twelve pitches, so the evolution of the music had to be found within the texture, timbre, rhythm, and register of the works.