ABSTRACT

It is clear that, for many composers in the second half of the twentieth century, the nature and function of beginnings and endings became a great deal less self-evident than was formerly the case, and nowhere more so than in the works of Brian Ferneyhough. In Ferneyhough's earlier pieces there are already various speculations at work which naturally affect the way that works open, but not necessarily in a sense that invites or obliges the listener to perceive them in a special light. In the case of the String Quartet No. 2, the genre itself appears to have played a decisive role: 'In contrast to many works of the last decade, in which the author undertooks an "aesthetic investigation" of several areas of musico-cultural interaction, the medium of the string quartet has imposed its own rules of play, forcing him to reorientate himself entirely within the boundaries of what might be termed the "purely musical"'.