I am that anachronistic entity – a living composer who writes music that can still be called “classical.” I take pride, in fact, in being part of a centuries-old tradition that (for me and a select minority of music lovers) still has meaning and a sense of timeless beauty.

Why do performers receive the lion’s share of attention over the composer? Because it’s easy to understand what they do – they play their instruments superbly; everybody can see and hear them and judge them accordingly. The composer, by contrast, performs a mysterious act – discovering and writing down all those notes (there are usually many thousands) one after the other in an uninterrupted flow. And it’s all done in isolation.

Then the composer turns it over to the performer(s) to realize and interpret. A crude analogy I like to use: The composer is like an architect, drawing plans and blueprints for a building, while the performers are the contractors and trade workers, seeing to its construction, utilizing all their craftsmanship as artisans to realize the architect’s plan. The vision, though, belongs to the architect.

Arranging for players “after the ink is dry” to perform my music is a separate activity. This has nothing to do with the creative act – it’s more like a salesman making a pitch. And like any good salesman, the composer has to believe in his work, which is, after all, the “product”. Unless I receive an advance commission to compose a piece of music for specific performers, with up-front guarantees of fees and multiple performances, I must metaphorically don my salesman’s hat and create the performance opportunities: contacting prospective performers, finding the funds to pay for their time to learn and rehearse my music and to pay them for the concert; finding a performance venue; advertising the concert so that people will attend, etc. A lot of necessary legwork is involved, but when everything comes together, it’s ultimately worth all the stress and time commitment.

So much for my motivation to create music and to do what is necessary to get it performed by excellent players in concert for a hopefully receptive audience. I’ve been doing this for 55 years – composing music and laboring to get it performed by great players.

I’ll be doing it again, in a big way, in a couple of weeks, with a performance at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 225 South St.t, Williamstown Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Williams College, on Sunday, Oct. 12, at 3 p.m. Here’s how this came about.

The concert at The Clark will present the premiere performances of my String Quartets Nos. 14, 16 and 17. All were written during the first four months of 2013, and each is unique. No. 14 is the most classical; it’s in four movements and is powerful and extroverted. The slow movement is a testament to Professor Irwin Shainman, who taught music at Williams College for 40 years. Irwin hired me in 1973 to teach in the Music Department, and became my good friend and mentor. Irwin passed away in 2012 after a long and fulfilling life. The Quartet No. 16 is a pop/jazz concoction, and is in seven brief movements – all of which utilize pop and jazz dance forms. Quartet No. 17 is rather experimental and is, I think, pensive and strangely beautiful; it possesses a certain timeless quality.

The question of how to accomplish the goal of bringing these pieces to life in performance remained. In the spring of 2013, I conceived of a way: I would put on a concert in Williamstown where my friends from near and far, Clark patrons and area music lovers would be attracted by the novelty of hearing three premieres, comprising a full concert experience. Typically, a composer is offered only a single piece performed for the first time on a traditional classical program, with music from the standard repertory filling out the rest of the concert. To ensure diversity of programming, I selected three of my new five quartets that were vastly different from each other. In this way, each piece would stand on its own and would not compete with the other two.

To raise the funds to support the costs of hiring the Dover String Quartet, in July 2013 I launched an online kickstarter.com crowd funding campaign to have the three new string quartets performed in concert and recorded live. In two months, the project, dubbed “A Concert/Recording of Three String Quartet Premieres” raised $9,350, thus assuring the project’s viability. I owe a great deal to the 70 donors who financially supported my dream.

Why have I focused on the string quartet? I’ll tell you. The medium of the string quartet has become my chief mode of expression, especially suited to express personal, intimate or experimental musical ideas. Since 1991, I have composed 18 quartets. I’ve turned to this favored medium again and again with the conscious desire to say something new in each piece, since I see no point in repeating myself. But, it is always a challenge to say something new; it requires, with each work, a re-conceptualization of not only what two violins, a viola and a cello can do technically, but also more importantly, what they can express emotionally.

The string quartet medium is, to my mind, the purest and most elegant genre within classical music; it possesses a regal musical lineage that extends all the way back to Haydn, and stretches in a direct line through Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms into the 20th century, with Schoenberg, Berg, Bartok, Carter and beyond. For me, to attempt to follow in this tradition is what being a composer is all about; it is one of the supreme tests in music, and each time I undertake to compose a new quartet, I feel the presence of these revered masters looking over my shoulder.

Much of this music is confessional, as is appropriate to both the quartet medium and to my sense of myself as a composer. When one reaches the ripe old age of 70, it seems appropriate to do some summing up.

The ensemble with whom I will be collaborating is the young Dover String Quartet – Grand Prize winners in the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. They are the string quartet-in-residence at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

I invite all iBerkshires.com readers to come to this free concert at The Clark on Oct. 12. I think you’ll be intrigued by music that’s new, different and audience-friendly.

For audio examples of my recorded string quartets, visit my website www.stephendankner.com and double-click on any audio track from 16-56. Also, listen to the phenomenal Dover String Quartet online at www.doverquartet.com.