‘Three Visitors to the Royal Court’ is a set of three works for string quartet following the narrative of these aforementioned visitors over the course of an unspecified amount of time. This piece was written for an undergraduate assesssment. The first piece (I. The Jester) is a light-hearted fanfare of a fool visiting the court. The motif of the descending chromatic line feels quite silly in this context (intentionally, as it is mean to be a fun piece). The second piece (II. The Plague) is meant to be a stark contrast from the first movement. Very slow moving and ambient, this represents a malaise that has befallen the court. Lots of dissonance and an unresolved ending illustrates the suffering brought on by this plague. The ending is left uncertain as the listener is left unsure of what happened to the court – whether they were all taken by the plague or if they perhaps fled. Either way, the court remains abandoned. The final movement (III. The Nomads) represents new settlers from afar taking over the ruins of the court. I wanted this to sound like a foreign dance of sorts.