The death of Peter Cropper in May 2015 was an immeasurable blow to the musical community, especially to those of us who knew him not only as a wonderful, wise musician but also as a warm colleague and friend. His unceasing devotion to the cause of music and to the promotion of excellent standards in performance was, in my experience, beyond compare. The finest tribute we can pay him is to continue to make music to the best of our ability and to go on reaching out, to continue to explore and learn.

I always felt that I would need to commemorate Peter in a piece for string quartet, the medium he was most obviously associated with, and in Salut it is understandably the first violin part that has pride of place. The piece develops contrasting textures and registers, and above all it is concerned with the influence of the extremely high violin writing at the beginning on the rest of the ensemble.

© George Nicholson