In the style of many 20th Century composers who dangled their toes in the waters of ethnomusicology, this movement is a theme and variations of the traditional Irish jig “Scatter the Mud.” After a pizzicato introduction, the jig is played by the 2nd violin with simple accompaniment. The introduction is repeated (this time bowed), and the jig is translated into duple time from its original triple meter. This variation dissolves into a shortened, slower one with brief snippets of thematic material, and leading to a 3rd slight variation of the theme in its original key, but now mostly pizzicato. A return to the intro closes the movement.
The keys cycle upward via major 3rds, from A minor, C# minor, F minor, and back to A minor.
Jeffrey L. Jones, Composer 