String Quartet No. 4

String Quartet No. 4 is a work in seven movements, composed as a reflection on the last seven words of Christ in the cross. These are the titles of the movements:

1. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
2. Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.
3. Woman, here is your son.
4. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
5. I am thirsty.
6. It is finished.
7. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

The work is based on four sonorities, which represent the pillars of the Passion and Death of Jesus: Sin, Suffering, Repentance, and the Vision of Paradise. Each one of these sonorities plays a different role in each movement, unifying all seven movements in one only structure, which creates the dramatic line of the work. String Quartet No. 4 could also be defined as an “Oratorio Without Words.”