CHILD'S PLAY for string quartet

Child’s Play for
string quartet was completed in January 2006, after a year and a half
of work. The piece may well be subtitled, “The Disney in my life,”
since the underlying programs of each of the three movements involve my
daughter’s interactions with some Disney product.
The first movement, Why Can’t the Sky be Pink? depicts the frustration
that Rebecca, age 3, felt while playing a Winnie the Pooh computer
game. She was told to help Piglet finish his paintings by matching
colors, seen in a small sketch, to the larger canvas. My daughter
disagreed with Piglet’s choice of background color. The music describes
the irritation and ensuing tantrum after each mouse click was followed
by Pooh-bear’s soothing comment, “I think there might be a better
choice.”
Rebecca Sings Like a Ballerina was a comment overheard after seeing the
stage production of The Lion King. Rebecca and her best friend Matt
were very excited by the spectacle and imagined how wonderful it would
be to perform in front of such a great audience, Matt on violin and
Rebecca singing and dancing. The title of the last movement is simply a
corruption of that now classic movie, Country Bears. I guess Crunchy
Bears make more sense to a two-and-a-half year old. The name has stuck
ever since.