Michael Whalen (b. 1965) considered "The Gloaming" be an example of a "periodic breakthrough" that all composers want to have in their music, "... success translating the musical score of one's imagination onto paper ...." Whalen, a prolific composer who wrote over twenty published classical works, two hundred TV scores, and several film score before he was thirty-five, says that by habit he often works with mental images when writing even abstract classical music.

In this string quartet he continued an established evolution in de-emphasizing some earlier minimalist trends and re-introducing more sophisticated harmonic procedures and richer textures. While most string quartets are conceived of as a conversation among equals, in this work Whalen decided to let the first violin have a dominant voice in the music, almost as a "violin concerto" within the sound of a string quartet. The title represents the moment of twilight between day and night, "...bur more importantly between despair and one's self-loathing and the odyssey back to self-acceptance, according to the composer."



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