Torque - n. Necklace of twisted metal; the twisting or rotary force in a piece of mechanism.

In this piece the conventional grouping of the string quartet is driven through a number of different moods in a single movement. Performance directions include ‘glassy’, ‘as if remembering’, ‘irritable’, ‘aggressively’ and other indications of an underlying tension. The
homogeneous nature of the strings is both acknowledged and challenged as the piece moves between light and dark shades while retaining a sense of unease and instability.