[brooklyn_ashey]

wait... you contacted the cellist???? wow, ok. I'm impressed with your research! Who was the cellist? That might help me. If it was something he had with him, it was more likely for a gig or a student. I did a quick check of all Dvorak Quartets- but didn't hit upon the passage. I chose Dvorak because of the pre-copland what would become the American vibe. Don't you think? The reason I don't think it's by Ry Cooder is because not in his composing purview- also not by a film composer there probably because would not want to be caught bringing in something from another gig, no? I'm sticking w Dvorak for the moment- I must have just missed the passage- major key at least...

[StavrosK]

It was Marston Smith: http://lordofthecello.com/

It's definitely not by Ry Cooder, we contacted him and he said he hadn't composed it. It sounds a lot like Glazunov, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_05mIC3BIBc#t=2m10s

[brooklyn_ashey]

Ok! I put the clip out to my many professional musician friends, and we discussed it. Everyone agrees that it's probably a clip from a Dvorak imitating composer or a wedding gig book. None of us has played it. Everyone was stumped. We all thought it sounded like a cross between the Glazunov you mentioned and Dvorak. Since your cellist plays a ton of weddings and parties (from his website) I'm going to guess it is from a gig book. If it were an actual Dvorak or Glazunov, he'd remember it, or at least one of my string playing friend would recognize it. Shoot- I really thought we were going to solve this for you. Oh well- I guess you should dig into some Dvorak. I can recommend Goldmark- he wrote some beautiful quartets and work in film scoring in Hollywood for a long time. I think you'd love his string pieces. Cheerio!

[StavrosK]

Thank you, I'll look into Goldmark! I didn't even know there existed "gig books", I thought they were just playing pieces by well-known composers. Thanks again!

[brooklyn_ashey]

Glazunov is an excellent guess! I remember playing a student quartet by him when I was a student, and it totally had that modal parallel melodic/harmonic movement in 4ths and 5ths. It is so Dvorak though, minus his noodly viola jamz under the melody. Hint of Ravel, but not French enough- maybe Chopin too. Will be thinking on it this week. I'd like to hear the whole piece too now!Update: I just watched the first few seconds of your clip- and that is the exact piece I played as a student that reminded me of it as I mentioned above. Listening now.