Douglas Weiland (b.1954) is a British composer and violinist, one of the founders of the Australian String Quartet. He is the composer who received the most commissions from The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Neville Marriner. It is easy to hear why.

String Quartets by Douglas Weiland

Weiland’s music is rigorous, skilful, taut in counterpoint, clean in texture, mellifluous, tonal but not in a dated or restrictive way, and structurally traditional. You might call it the relaxed version of Modernism. His quartets eschew the thick writing of an older generation, such as Tippett, but also lack the individual profile of Britten––yet Weiland is clearly British: The gentle second movement of Quartet No. 5, titled “Siciliana La Toscana” sounds much more English than Italian. Shostakovich has some influence, notably in the pizzicato Scherzo...