Based upon musical motives inspired by the pugnacious mechanical sputtering of my computer printer (first movement) and a jingle at a Tokyo subway station (last two movements). Three highly concentrated inter-related movements played without interruption. A challenging piece, no doubt, but still very playable. The Second String Quartet was a finalist in the 2002 International Contemporary Music Contest of Undine, Italy.

REVIEWS

“The evening's pleasant surprise was the premiere of Elias' own Second String Quartet. The piece was every bit as witty as Elias' program notes, in which he told his two sources of inspiration to show ‘just how perverse the workings of the human mind can be.’ The one movement work was based the ‘insulting’ noise his printer made in Italy and the ‘jingle’ signaling a specific Tokyo train stop. The urban-sounding piece had a quality of childlike wonder mixed with good-natured angst. The phrasing and articulation accentuated this mood, the one movement (‘Furioso-Adagio-Allegretto-Furioso-Prestlo’) was a delight from start to finish.”

Deseret News 3/1/99