Two years ago in Rome, I encountered a murmuration of starlings and I was amazed with its overwhelming beauty, changing shape as it moved. Moving of a fish school that you can watch in an aquarium, has the same beauty and the energy.

According to the scientists, their fine movement in a flock is based on the following three simple rules:

• steer to avoid crowding local flockmates
• steer towards the average heading of local flockmates
• steer to move towards the average position (center of mass) of local flockmates

The word “Boids” refers to bird-like objects (bird-oids), representing the beauty of their movements in a flock which is a result of balancing out with each other, following the principle of least effort.

I wonder if these rules can be applied to the way a string quartet is shaped.

“Boids again” has been written as a sequel to the piece “Boids” (2017), a 4 minute study for string quartet in the frame of the Kronos Quartet’s educational project “50 for the Future.”

(Misato Mochizuki, 2020)