This string quartet is in one continuous movement of fifteen sections, with each section being a ’transcription’ of the music in a previous section. In these transcriptions the changes can be somewhat minimal – a slight altering of register, dynamics, rhythms, or more radical resulting in new harmonic and contrapuntal relationships. With this compositional method Rands aims to create a continuous self-referential musical discourse that allows for recall and even repetition. String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned for the Ying Quartet by the Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music.