Frederick May. String Quartet in C Minor. With a Tribute by Hugh MacDiarmid. Dublin: Woodmartin Music Publications, 1976. First Edition, Limited Issue. Pp 54. Publisher’s large white wrappers lettered in red & black. A fine bright copy.

Limited Edition of 500 Numbered Copies. Printed by The Dolmen Press & with a frontispiece ‘Image forming in a red ground from the colour etching by Louis Le Brocquy.

Frederick May’s masterpiece. In 1936, Frederick May (1911-1985) composed his String Quartet in C Minor, described in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as “one of the most individual statements from an Irish composer in the first half of the 20th century”. May composed the quartet as his hearing was beginning to deteriorate and he later described it as “an appeal for release”