Robert Crawford

Programme Note

I first met Robin [Orr] about 50 years ago, in 1956, when he arrived in Glasgow as he was appointed to the chair of music at the University of Glasgow, returning to his native Scotland after many years in Cambridge. I was asked to write a string quartet for the annual commission from the University, under the terms of the McEwen Bequest. This received its first two performances there in May 1957, and it has had over 100 performances and broadcasts world-wide since then.

In "Elegy for Robin" written at the request of John Turner for the Memorial Service at St. Johns, I felt that it was appropriate to quote a short passage fromm the first movement - the Ground upon which the whole movement is based.

Little did I know at that time that I was to marry his daughter, Alison, some twenty years later, about 3 years after my first wife, Stephanie, died in 1974.