Actually there had been a sole, isolated movement for string quartet, written back in 1994 for a memorial concert to David Huntley, widely respected promotions man at the New York office of Boosey & Hawkes, celebrating his eclectic diversity with a playful garland of quotations, held in a serious hymn-like frame.  Divested of those occasional references, this movement now became the basis of a full-length second quartet.  Its finale, in fact:  the preceding four movements growing retrospectively towards it, all sharing the same two-note figure (D / H=B) as starting-point, and all dedicated to friends new and made in the US.