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Kronos Quartet

Kronos Quartet

I::)AIVI bill Academy of 1996 Next Wave Festival

Jim Dine, The Heart of BAM, 1996, Woodcut, 26-1/4" x 19-3/8"

BAM 1996 Next Wave Festival and 135th Anniversary Season are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. The Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Harvey Lichtenstein President & Executive Producer

presents Kronos Qua rtet David Harrington- Hank Dutt- John Sherba-violin Joan Jeanrenaud-

BAM Carey Playhouse

Running time: Aural Histories Medieval to Modern American Mavericks approximately two November 13 at 7pm November 15 at 8pm November 16 at 8pm hours per program, including intermission Ken Benshoof St. Francis Climbs Mt. Amazing Grace Cat 0' Nine Tails* Diablo (on His Way to

Heaven) *:1: (Arr. Ben Johnston) Resident Alien* 0 Jack Body Two Studies on Ancient Tim Berne

Arum Manis * Greek Scales:t Dry Ink, Silence* 0 Mo Wuping 1.0Iympos' Pentatonic Lois V Vierk Village Ritua/:l: 2.Archytas'Enharmonk River Beneath the Istvan Marta Arvo Part / Psalom:l: River* Doom. A Sigh* Perotin (Arr. Kronos) Jon Hassell Viderunt Omnes t:l: Intermission Pano da Costa Judith Shatin (Cloth from the Coast) * Elijah's Chariot * :I: Cadenza on the Night Intermission Intermission Plain * Hildegard of Bingen/ The Dreams and Gerard McBurney Prayers of Isaac the Karitas Habundat t:l: * Written for Kronos Blind with special Henry Purcell tArranged for Kronos guest , Four Part Fantasia #2 :I: New York Premiere clarinets (June 11, 1680) o World Premiere (Arr. ) Totem Ancestor t :I: Henryk M. Gorecki Already It Is Dusk*

American companies participating in the Next Wave are sponsored by AT&T.

o Metropolitan ute Foundation is the exclusive sponsor of BAMradio. Ken Benshoof (b. 1933) Body writes of Arum Manis: St. Francis Climbs Mt. Diablo (on His Way to "This is the Indonesian term for candy floss and Heaven) (1996) means literally 'fragrant, sweet.' The original recording which forms the basis of the tape is Ken Benshoof, a and pianist, has lived the sound of a two-stringed fiddle played by an in since 1960. A Fulbright scholar in 1965, Indonesian seller of candy floss. I recorded him a Guggenheim fellow in 1976 and a resident in 1977 in Bangkalan, on Madura, the island composer for several seasons for the Old Globe adjacent to the port of Surabaya. Carrying the Theatre and the Seattle Repertory Theater, already made candy floss in a bin hung from his Benshoof cu rrently teaches com position at the shoulder, he played his so-called 'rehab' to University of . advertise his presence. The music was a medley, Benshoof's relationship with the Kronos Quartet sometimes recognizable tunes, sometimes mere extends back to the group's inception. In 1973, improvisation. Benshoof composed the first piece ever written "My piece, I hope, reflects something of the for Kronos, Traveling Music. Since then he has quality of candy floss-light and airy, not sub­ written several works for the Quartet including stantial food, perhaps, but pink and sweet and Flying Blackbirds (1983) and Song of Twenty leaving us with a pleasurable aftertaste." Shadows (1994). Arum Manis was written for the Kronos Quartet. St. Francis Climbs Mt. Diablo (on His Way to Heaven) was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Mrs. Ralph I. Dorfman. Mo Wuping (1959-1993) Village Ritual (1987)

Jack Body (b. 1944) Born in Hunan province in 1959, Mo Wuping Arum Manis (1991) spent six years at the Beijing Central Conservatoire, studying composition under Luo Zhongrong. Jack Body was born in Te Aroha in 1944. He Before joining the staff at the Central Conservatoire studied at the University as a teacher of composition, Mo Wuping was of Auckland with Ronald Tremain and Robin active as violinist, composer and orchestral leader Maconie, followed by further study in Europe of the Hunan opera. In 1988, his Sacrificial Rite with in Cologne and Gottfried in Village (now known as Village Ritual) won Michael Koenig in Utrecht. During 1976-77, an award at the ISCM World Music Days in he was guest lecturer at the Akademi Musik Hong Kong. Indonesia, Yogyakarta, and in 1980, was appoint­ Mo Wuping fell ill two years after moving to ed to the staff of the Music Department at Victoria and died in Beijing in June 1993. University of Wellington. Besides numerous works for conventional musical forces, Body has had a continuing interest in tape composition, mixed Istvan Marta (b. 1952) media works, music-theatre, etc., including new Doom. A Sigh (1989) formats for the presentation of contemporary music. Body's music has been influenced by the music Istvan Marta was born in Budapest in 1952. and cultures of Asia, particularly Indonesia, where He studied composition at the Bartok Secondary he has carried out several projects documenting School and is now a member of the faculty traditional music. His music has won many there. He composes for ensembles, theater, film awards and has been widely performed and and television. broadcast both in New Zealand and overseas. He has been represented numerous times at the About Doom. A Sigh, Marta writes: Unesco Rostrum of and at the Unesco "In the summer of 1973, I set out on a folk song Forum for Asian Music. collecting tour to Moldavia, . It was a hitchhiking expedition absolutely unique in its way, through time and space. It took me to a tiny Doom. A Sigh was commissioned for Kronos by village of four hundred people all belonging to a the Beigler Trust and appears on the Quartet's Hungarian folk group known as the Csangos. Nonesuch recording Black Angels. The village was called Trunk. With my rudimentary equipment, I recorded some folk music and took some pictures. Jon Hassell (b. 1937) "The village has been spared by civilization, the Pano da Costa (Cloth from the Coast) (1985) mass media and infrastructure. The people still speak an archaic Hungarian and hardly ever move Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1937, trumpeter beyond the confi nes of thei r settlement. They have and composer Jon Hassell earned several univer­ remained faithful to their roots partly thanks to sity degrees in music before studying in Europe their neighbors and partly to the strength of their with pioneer Karlheinz century-old traditions from which they have been Stockhausen. In 1967 Hassell returned to the able to draw security. This people is nevertheless and began performing and recording doomed to extinction. For political reasons known with Terry Riley and . all too well to the outside world, they are not Drawn to classical Indian music, Hassell allowed to use their native tongue. Lack of studied with vocal artist Pandit Pran Nath and schools and other circumstances force the children other masters. As a result of his studies he created to speak a language foreign to them. Csango a new vocal style of trumpet playing which forms Hungarians number some 30-40,000. They are the basis for what the composer terms "Fourth experiencing a loosening of family bonds, their World" music, a unified primitive/futurist sound sense of identity is weakening, their very existence combining features of various musical traditions is coming under a giant question mark. (Indian, African, South American) with advanced "The dirge on which Doom. A Sigh is based is electronic techniques. The 1976 release of the last signal of a unique genre, a century-old Hassell's Vernal Equinox album marked the first tradition. In the first half, Mrs. Pieter Benedek, 58 public appearance of this new genre, and exerted years old, evokes her long dead parents, tatikam, a strong influence on the later wave of ethnic­ s mamikam, in a crystallized over inspired music. Hassel has continued to perform, many generations. The second half is based on compose and record extensively, collaborating with a bloody ballad encompassing past and present artists such as Brian Eno and the Talking Heads. and sung by Mrs. Gergel Imre, 46 years old. It Pano da Costa refers to an African-based aes­ was one of the most terse songs she sang for me, thetic of pattern juxtaposition, resulting in the adorned with the finest ornaments. colorful "rhythmized" and "syncopated" textiles "The village welcomed and accepted me. I was from, in this case, a coastal region of Brazil. allowed to record in the courtyards, in the mis­ The work features Brazilian percussion instruments erable houses and even in the fields, their ancient called caxixi, which are small, bell-shaped stories, tales and songs all couched in a peculiar baskets filled with seeds. It is a long, colorful Hungarian preceding the language reform of the piece marked by darkly haunting bowed refrains early 19th century. I returned to Hungary at the and lively percussive passages. The dense textures end of August, having tramped about Bulgaria for conjure a sense of re-envisioned tribal ceremony. a few days. Half a year later, based on the pho­ tographs I sent my hosts at Trunk, the police Of Pano da Costa, Hassell writes: identified those who had sung for me and levied "My work on this quartet for Kronos represents heavy fines on them in punishment. an interesting challenge: writing music for other "... It is highly probable that the inhabitants of musicians to play after many years of having the village of Trunk were made to leave their modeled my musical style around the concept homes and were resettled elsewhere in the years of the inseparability of composer and performer, following 1973, purportedly because of the con­ as for example, in classical Indian music. struction of a power station .... in March 1974, "To create the composition I asked myself how I received a telegram in Romanian: 'Do not come a group of instruments like this might be used if again.' I have heeded the message." they were 'local', that is, if they belonged to a 'village' whose idea of music overlooked any notion Of The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac The Blind, of composer/performer roles. At the same time, Golijov writes: this thought must be seen within the reality of our "Eight centuries ago Isaac The Blind, the great 'village' and the historical 'text' of the classical string kabbalist rabbi of Provence, dictated a manuscript quartet, including its present embodiment in this in which he asserted that all things and events in group of superlative young musicians who have the universe are product of combinations of the such a wide range of dancing in their heads." Hebrew alphabet letters: 'Their root is in a name, for the letters are like branches, which appear in Pano da Costa was written for Kronos and the manner of flickering flames, mobile, and nev­ appears on the Quartet's Nonesuch recording, ertheless lin ked to the coa I.' His conviction sti II White Man Sleeps. resonates today: don't we have scientists who believe that the clue to our life and fate is hidden in other codes? Osvaldo Golijov (b.1960) "Isaac's lifelong devotion to his art is as striking The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac The Blind (1994) as that of string quartets and klezmer musicians. Prelude: Calmo, Sospesco. In their search for something that arises from I. Agitato-Con Fuoco-Maestoso-Senza Misura, ta ngi ble elements but tra nscends them, they are Oscilante. all reaching a state of communion. Gershom II. Grazioso, Teneramente-Ruvido-Presto. Scholem, the preeminent scholar of Jewish III. Calmo, Sospeso-Allegro Pesante. mysticism, says that 'Isaac and his disciples do Postlude: Lento, Liberamente. not speak of ecstasy, of a unique act of stepping outside oneself in which human consciousness Born in La Plata, Argentina, Osvaldo Golijov lived abolishes itself. Debhequth (communion) is a there and in before moving to the constant state, nurtured and renewed through United States in 1986. He studied with George meditation.' If communion is not the reason, how Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.DJ, else would one explain the strange life that Isaac and with and Oliver Knussen at led, or the decades during which groups of four Tanglewood, where he received the Koussevitzky souls dissolve their individuality into single, higher Composition Prize. He has been teaching at the organisms, called string quartets? How would one College of the Holy Cross since 1991. explain the chain of klezmer generations that, Golijov's work incorporates gestures and sound while blessing births, weddings and burials, were imagery from his background, which includes the tryi ng to discover the melody that cou Id be set Western repertory of many periods, Jewish folk free from itself and become only air, spirit, ruakh? traditions from different places, and the inevitable "The movements of th is work sou nd to me as Tango and other Latin American genres. These if written in different languages. They somehow various styles of music appear in his work in reflect the composition's epic nature. I hear the different stages of transformation, often metamor­ prelude and the first movement, the most ancient, phosi ng into someth ing else enti rely or even in Arameic; the second movement is in Yiddish, disappearing altogether from the surface. Golijov the rich and fragile language of a long exile; the has won many awards, and has twice won the third movement and postlude are in sacred Hebrew. first prize at the Kennedy Center's Friedheim "The prelude and the first movement simulta­ Awards competition for compo­ neously explore two prayers in different ways: sition: in 1993 for Yiddishbbuk; and in 1995 The quartet plays the first part of the central prayer for The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. of the High Holidays. 'We will observe the mighty He has received many commissions and per­ holiness of this day... ', while the clarinet dreams formers of international reputation frequently the motifs from 'Our Father, Our King.' The second present Golijov's music. movement is based on 'The Old Klezmer Band,' a traditional tune which is surrounded here by contrasting manifestations of its own halo. The third movement was written before all the others. It is an instrumental version of K'VAKARAT, a work that I wrote a few years ago for Kronos and (Tzadik); In the Fiddler's House (Angel), also a Cantor Misha Alexandrovich. The meaning of the PBS television special, in which he appears with word klezmer: instrument of song, becomes clear violinist Itzhak Perlman and the Klezmatics, and when one hears David Krakauer's interpretation : Orchestral, Chamber and of the cantor's line. This movement, together with Music (Musical Heritage) with Continuum. the postlude, bring to conclusion the prayer left He has also recorded for Nonesuch, Pirana, Flying open in the first movement: '...Thou pass and Fish, Eva, Green LinnetiXenophile, CRI and record, count and visit, every living soul, appointing Opus One. the measure of every creature's life and decreeing Under the auspices of the Affiliate Artists its desti ny.' program and the Concert Artists Guild Award, he has given numerous appearances and The Dreams and Prayer of Isaac The Blind residency workshops throughout the US. As a was commissioned for Giora Feidman and the member of the Aspen Wind Quintet, he won the by the Schleswig-Holstein 1984 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Krakauer Musik Festival, the University Musical Society is a member of the clarinet and chamber music at the University of Michigan, and the Lied faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Center at the University of Kansas. Mannes College of Music. He has composed works for Newband, Goliard, the AIDS Quilt The Dreams and Prayer of Isaac The Blind was Songbook, and his own improvisational! theatrical recorded by David Krakauer and the Kronos solo performances. Quartet for . It will be released in spring, 1997. Ben Johnston (b. 1926) Amazing Grace (Quartet No.4) (1973) David Krakauer Born in Macon, Georgia, Ben Johnston attended Internationally acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer the College of William and Mary in Virginia. After is known as a performer of many diverse musical Navy service in World War II, he received his styles, including classical chamber music, Eastern Masters degree in music from Cincinnati European Jewish klezmer music and the Conservatory of Music. His self-professed "fasci­ avant-garde. nation with sound from a scientific point of view" Recent major performances by Krakauer have was manifested in accelerating interest in acoustics. included New York appearances as a soloist with After reading a book by new music rebel Harry the performing Robert Partch, Johnston struck up a correspondence and Starer's Kli Zemer concerto; as a solo performer eventually moved to to study with the for 's 70th birthday celebration instrument inventor and designer of the 43-note concert at the 92nd Street Y; and as the leader scale. Through Partch, Johnston met Darius of his own klezmer/new music ensemble at John Milhaud at in Oakland, and received Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture Festival at Merkin a second Masters there. He went on to a position Concert Hall. Krakauer's 1996-97 season includes at the University of Illinois and for five years he recording a new CD for , a also acted as Chairman of the University's Festival European tour with his Klezmer Madness! of Contemporary Arts. Johnston began a friendship ensemble, and appearances with the Kronos with Joh n Cage, after Cage del ivered a lectu re at Quartet at Copenhagen's Art Projekt and the the University of Illinois in 1952, and later worked Theatre de la Ville in Paris. with Cage whi Ie on a Guggenheim Fellowship from Krakauer's musical affiliations have ranged 1959-1961. Johnston has received many from the New York Philomusica, Music from national and international grants and commissions, Marlboro, and the chamber music concerts of and in 1984 he retired from his long-held position the Philadelphia Orchestra, to the Klezmatics, at the University of Illinois to pursue full-time John Zorn, and John Cage. Notable recent CDs composing. Amazing Grace was commissioned include his own album, KlezmerMadness! by the . Of his work, Johnston writes: In 1920 Partch briefly enrolled in the University "One of the th ings that I've been tryi ng to do over of Southern California's School of Music. After a the years is to answer the question, 'What would couple of years, not feeling that he was learning this kind of music and that kind of music and this from his teachers, Partch left USC and moved to other kind of music and that kind of music have where he frequented Mandarin been like if had never been theaters. Giving up on both private music teachers adopted and instead had been and music schools, Partch began to read more adopted.' That's the reason for eclecticism when­ about music in public libraries and to compose ever it shows up in my work, and it does in the without academic restrictions. Around 1923 4th Quartet (for example, there's a direct quotation Partch began his rejection of European concert from Harry Partch in it). Based on the traditional music and its system of twelve-tone equal tem­ American hymn, 'Amazing Grace,' Quartet No. 4 is perament. Partch's rejection of the twelve-tone also a proliferation of gradually increasing propor­ system and adoption of the principles of just tional complexity of pitch and of metrical rhythm." intonation led him to use a scale with forty-three tones to the octave, which in turn forced him to Kronos' recording of Amazing Grace appears on invent new musical instruments. Partch's decisive the Quartet's recording, White Man Sleeps. break with European musical tradition came in .' 1930 when he burned fourteen years worth of his own music. Harry Partch (1901-1974) Partch's works from the 1930s and 1940s Arranged by Ben Johnston used his own instruments in small-scale, intimate Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales bardic settings of Chinese poems, biblical verses, (1946/arr. 1994) scenes and songs from Shakespeare and American 1. Olympos' Pentatonic hobo texts. As he invented original percussion 2. Archytas' Enharmonic and string instruments, Partch turned in the 1950s and 1960s to large-scale theatrical and dramatic Self-taught as a theorist, living on the margins of compositions that extended his concept of cor­ society and ignored by most musical institutions, poreality. Though Partch was met with enthusiasm Harry Partch sought musical inspiration and from audiences and support from university fac­ materials outside the European tradition and came ulty and students during his various associations to be recognized as one of the most innovative, with academic institutions, music departments iconoclastic and genuinely American composers generally remained hostile and unsupportive. As of our century. Partch's lifelong effort-begun in such, Partch's composing, writing, instrument the 1920s-was to create a monophonic music building and music promotion happened in that returned to what he believed was the primal, conjunction with or relied upon sales of subscrip­ ritualistic, corporeal state that music had long ago tions for his recordings, various temporary abandoned: a music arising from human speech employments, transience and the assistance of and the natural acoustic musical intervals gener­ friends and supporters. ated by sounding bodies. Partch grew up hearing music from many This arrangement of Two Studies on Ancient cultures. Born in 1901 in Oakland, California, Greek Scales was commissioned for the Kronos Partch's childhood was spent in California, New Quartet by Hancher Auditorium/University of Iowa. Mexico and Arizona. Along with his early intro­ duction to the local Mexican and Yaqui Indian music in southeastern Arizona, Partch's parents, former Presbyterian missionaries in China, shared with him Chinese folksongs and lullabies. Partch learned to play mail order musical instruments and by age fourteen, he was composing prolifi­ cally for piano. Arvo Part (b. 1935) Perotin was referred to as the "discanter optimus," Psal6m (1991, rev. 1993) or master of discant, the practice of measured polyphony or the repetition of rhythmic phrases Arvo Part was born in Paide, Estonia. He was in fixed meters. Perotin's music is made up of educated at Tallinn Conservatory, where he studied small groups of notes superimposed on each other, composition with Heino Eller, graduating in 1963. yet vertically aligned so that we hear not the He was staff member at Estonian Radio between counterpoint of individual voices so much as a 1958 and 1967. His early work-using serial and kaleidoscope of constantly shifting textures. As aleatoric techniques-caused difficulties with the such, Perotin is considered by some 20th-century authorities at various times, but even in his listeners to be a composer of minimalist music. Symphony No.2, composed in 1966, there is a stretch of tonal writing-a preference that was From notes by S. W Bennett and notes by to become overwhelming. The religious nature of Paul Hillier his work also offended the regime, but despite this he began an extensive study of Gregorian chant, the School of Notre Dame, Machaut, Ockeghem Judith Shatin (b. 1949) and Josquin. In 1980 he emigrated to the West, Elijah's Chariot (1996) settling in Berlin. Signing to ECM, the German jazz and new music label, has made his work Judith Shatin is Professor and Chair of the Music widely known. Department at the University of Virginia, where The composer describes his spare, searching she directs the Virginia Center for Computer Music. musical style as "tintinnabulation," from the Latin Her compositional interests focus on the extension word for "bells." "I have discovered that it is of timbres, using traditional instruments as well enough when a single note is beautifully played. as the joining of the acoustic and electronic. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of Shatin holds an AB from Douglass College, a MM silence, comforts me. I work with very few ele­ from , and a PhD from Princeton ments-with one voice, with two voices. I build University. Shatin's music has been commissioned with primitive materials-with the triad, with one by such groups as the Ash Lawn Opera, Barlow specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like Foundation, San Francisco Girls' Chorus and the bells. And that is why I call it tintinnabulation." National Symphony. She has held residencies at Psal6m was composed for the 90th birthday Bellagio, Brahmshaus, La Cite des Arts, MacDowell, of Alfred Schlee, former artistic director of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Yaddo. in Vienna. Schlee established Recent performances include those by the UE as a leader among music publishers in the Chamber Music Society of , New 50s and 60s by working with many post-war Music Consort and the National Symphony. European composers. Recorded on Opus 1 and CRI, Shatin's music is published by Arsis Press, American Composers Edition and C. F. Peters Corporation. Perotin (flo 1200) Arra nged by the Kronos Qua rtet About Elijah's Chariot, Shatin writes: Viderunt Omnes "The story of the prophet Elijah is fantastic: he did not die but was swept up to heaven on a chariot Little is known of Master Perotin (or Magister of fire drawn by horses of fire. Many tales have Perotinus) other than that he officiated at Notre grown up around the prophet Elijah: they focus Dame in Paris between 1180-1230. Though on his return to earth to help Jews and to musical composition for the church at that time announce the coming of the Messiah. Elijah also was always unsigned, the authorship of some of plays a role in the close of the Jewish Sabbath Perotin's pieces is known through a manuscript and the folk song Eliahu Ha NA VI, is frequently left by a travelling English musician who was full sung at this time. This melody forms a melodic of praise for the great Perotin and specifically thread in Elijah's Chariot, emerging clearly at one mentioned some of his works. In the manuscript, point, obliquely at others. "The scoring for and electronics struction of Shostakovich's lost 1931 Music Hall symbolically suggests the source of inspiration: Show, Hypothetically Murdered, has been per­ the four instruments represent the four wheels of formed in a number of countries and has now the chariot, the vehicle that moves between earth been released on CD. In 1994 his version of and heaven; they also represent the dialogue Shostakovich's 1958 musical comedy, Moscow, between Elijah and Elisha, the follower who does Cheryomushki, was given its world premiere at not wish to desert Elijah despite Elijah's pleas and the Lyric, Hammersmith, in a performance by forewarning; and they represent the voice of the Pimlico Opera conducted by Wasfi Kani. This people in prayer. The electronic portion represents event was also the subject of a documentary film Heaven's call to Elijah, projects the sound of the made by BBC Wales. McBurney composed this shofar associated with Elijah, and intimates the work using Hildegard of Bingen's Karitas Habundat ascent to heaven. as a point of inspiration. liThe electronic portion of Elijah's Chariot was realized at the Virginia Center for Computer Music (VCCM) at the University of Virginia. All electronic Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) lived all her sounds were produced by digitally manipulating life close to the river Rhine, in what is now shofar sounds recorded by Dr. Mel Sigel of Southwestern . She was a composer, a Minneapolis. They were transferred to a NeXT poet, a dra matist, and a mystic who saw visions computer and processed using the program HACK of the struggle between good and evil, of Judge­ (Hierarchical Audio Construction Kit) created by ment Day and of the Eternal City. She was also Pete Yadlowsky, Technical Director of the VCCM. a practical person of the world, an Abbess who I wish to thank Mr. Yadlowsky for his generous defended the interests of her monastery and her assistance as well as Rabbis Daniel Alexander of nuns, who wrote letters ,of advice and condem­ Temple Beth in Charlottesville and Harvey nation to bishops, popes, kings and emperors, Teitelbaum of Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York and books about medicine and the natural world. City for teaching me about the shofar. I am grateful to David Harrington for his suggestion regarding the use of the shofar and to Dr. Sigel and my Henry Purcell (1659-1695) sister, Deborah Shatin, for their help in recording Four-part Fantasia #2 (June 11, 1680) the sounds." Henry Purcell was born in England and was Elijah's Chariot was commissioned for the writing music by the age of eight. His father Kronos Quartet with funding from the National died in 1664 and he was adopted by his uncle, Endowment for the Arts. Thomas Purcell. Both his father and his uncle were Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal where he was a boy chorister and later, at the age of 23, was Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) appointed one of the organists. He gained expe­ Gerard McBurney (b. 1954) rience in tuning the organ while studying under Karitas Habundat (12th Centu ry /1996) John Blow and later succeeded Blow as organist at Westminster Abbey which entitled him to a salary. Gerard McBurney studied English at Cambridge At age 14, Purcell was admitted as assistant to University and music privately in London. In the his Godfather, John Hingeston, who was in charge 1980s, he spent two years at the Moscow of the King's keyboard and wind instruments and, Conservatoire and now divides his time between soon thereafter, retired as chorister from the Chapel composing, arranging, teaching, writing and broad­ Royal. Four years later, court composer Matthew casting about contemporary Russian and Soviet Locke died and Purcell was appointed to take his music. He has also written and researched tele­ place. His first full sacred works appeared in 1679, vision, documentary, and silent films. a year before he began composing his String McBurney has composed many pieces, includ­ Fantasias. When John Hingeston died in 1683, ing works for chamber ensembles, children's choir, Purcell was appointed organ maker and keeper of piano, percussion, theater and dance. His recon- the King's instruments. Married in 1680, Purcell's first four children, all sons, died as infants or young for his book, Twentieth Century Music, and his children. Only two children, a daughter and a son, writings for publications including Stereo Review are known to have survived him. and BBC Magazine. A pioneers of the new music Purcell wrote dozens of anthems and theater, he has written, composed, directed and religious services, devotional songs, secular produced over 60 major works and is working songs, music for plays and masques, "semi-operas" on a book on the subject for Oxford. like King Arthur and The Fairy Queen, the first real opera in English (Dido and Aeneas), organ Eric Salzman writes of Totem Ancestor: and harpsichord pieces and also chamber music, "Totem Ancestor is one of a series of pieces for including a number of "fantasias" for consort of keyboard written and performed in the 1940s by massed viola da gambas, an instrumental com­ John Cage as accompaniments to dance works bination that was disappearing at the end of the by Merce Cunningham and others. This period seventeenth century. Purcell provided music for of Cage's work is best known for his so-called many royal occasions, the final one being Queen '' in which a certain number of Mary's funeral in 1695. Eight months later, Purcell piano strings are 'stopped' by inserting various died, probably of tuberculosis or pneumonia, and materials between the strings, producing a per­ this same music was played at his funeral. He cussive or gamelan-like effect. Although the was buried at Westminster Abbey. technique emphasizes the piano as a percussion instrument (the invention of the prepared piano is often ascribed to Cage's desire to produce a John Cage (1912-1992) one-man percussion band), it should also be (Arr. Eric Salzman) (b. 1933) pointed out that some of this music is written for Totem Ancestor (1943) 'unprepared' piano and that Cage often referred to the prepared instrument as a 'string piano.' For decades John Cage was the foremost The composer's notion of percussion by no means adventurer in American music. Some of his early always excluded melodic or pitched elements; works in the 1930s were serial, but he soon most of his prepared pieces consist of a mixture abandoned tone rows in favor of percussion, of stopped and unstopped notes and, even where noises as music, found objects as instruments, heavy preparations are used, some pitch elements and his famed prepared piano pieces of the come th rough. 1940s. In 1942 Cage began a lifelong collabo­ "Another consideration influenced me as well: ration with choreographer Merce Cunningham, John's philosophical aversion to the idea that and in 1951 began using the I Ching (the Chinese musical performance of a work must always tend Book of Changes) as a tool for incorporating toward some single ideal of perfection and will. chance in his music compositions. In 1952 he Finally, I love this piece and I felt that transcribing composed 4'33", a silent piece in three move­ it from one string medium to another was a logical ments, a celebrated effort to expand the defini­ enlargement of its possibilities of which John tion of music. Influenced by an interest in Zen would certainly have approved. For centuries, music Buddhism, Cage was intrigued by the link between for dance was played by ; the modern string music and self-discovery th~ough meditation. In quartet can also be a rhythmic as well as coloristic keepi ng with the spi rit of Zen, he developed medium and the physicality and immediacy of methods of composition that would free his music Cage's early dance music works very well for the from the taste, memory and personality of its modern quartet. Totem Ancestor was written for composer. the Merce Cunningham's dance of the same name and was first performed by Cunningham and Composer and writer Eric Salzman was born in Cage at the Studio Theatre in New York on . He is the founder and former October 20 and 21, 1943. The score is inscribed Artistic Director of the American Music Theater 'for Merce Cunningham.'" Festival and is currently the Artistic Director of Music Theater/New York. He studied at Columbia, Princeton and in Europe. Salzman is well known Henryk M. Gorecki (b. 1933) John Zorn (b. 1953) Already It Is Dusk (1988) Cat 0 1 Nine Tails (1988)

Among the most accomplished of the Polish Over the last several years, John Zorn has developed composers who came to prominence in the a compositional method in which he jots down 1950s, Henryk Gorecki himself came rather late diverse ideas and images-musical "moments"­ to music, beginning his formal musical studies in on filing cards, which are then sorted and 1952, at the age of 19. By 1961, he had grad­ ordered to provide the composition's structure. uated with first-class honors from the Polish State Zorn's method of composition has been influ­ Higher School of Music and had won the first of enced by cartoon soundtracks and their composers, several important competitions. Since then, he particularly Carl Stalling (of the Warner Brothers has established himself as an iconoclast, and as a cartoons), whom Zorn equates with Stravinsky composer able to communicate an often startling for the ability to compose a piece from disparate emotional immediacy. musical elements. "The evolution of Gorecki's musical language Noteworthy too is Zorn's realization that, "like it has been a consistent search for the truthful or not, the era of the composer as an automonous expression of his musical roots," writes Adrian musical mind has just about come to an end." Thomas, who adds that, for Gorecki, "Poland's Born in New York City, Zorn played a variety musical past, its church and its folk culture (are) ... of instruments before studying saxophone and the unchallengeable rock on which both his and com position at Webster College in St. Lou is in the his country's identity and true heritage are early 1970s. founded." Six months each year he lives in Tokyo, absorb­ This work has a structure entirely derived from ing a culture he admires for its ability to borrow an old Polish folk melody. The opening section and and mirror other cultures, to devour and process finale are marked by Gorecki's use of canonic information with breathtaking rapidity. writing, while the second section-fast, loud Speed, the increasing rate at which the world tempestuous-features three initial dialogues changes, is a critical concern of Zorn's, and he between paired instruments, before climaxing expresses and also controls this concern via the with a wild and furious folk dance. And it is here pace at which his musical "moments" give way that Gorecki draws most strongly on the folk music to or collide with one another. of the Tatras, the Polish resort region that was also Marked at first by his own remarkably versatile a source of inspiration for the composer Karol alto saxophone, Zorn's music over the last Szymanowski (Gorecki's model). decade has incorporated other instruments, uncon­ Rooted in the history and experience of the ventional sounds, and musical "information" from Polish people, this first string quartet carrie~ forth around the globe. the fiercely nationalistic pride of a man who has From the example of (or to use said, "Folk music is everything." a more current example Sun Ra) Zorn thinks of the musicians who play his works as essential Already It Is Dusk was commissioned for the collaborators in his compositions-and also as Kronos Quartet by Lincoln Center and the Beigler an extended family. Trust. Kronos' recording of Already It Is Dusk is "Kaleidoscopic" has been used to describe available on the Nonesuch label. Zorn's approach to composition, because his pieces present a quick-changing array of disparate sound elements. Only Cat 0 1 Nine Tails takes as its specific inspiration the surreal music found in animated cartoons, which Zorn calls "the great avant-garde music of America, in that it doesn't make normal music sense" (designed as it is to accompany film images that are not themselves bound by physical laws). No less than 51 distinct musical "moments"­ Mark Feldman (b. 1955) drawn from five broad categories that include Resident Alien (1996) directed improvisation and collages of other composers' string-quartet writing-make up Born in Chicago, composer Mark Feldman performs Cat 0' Nine Tails. as a jazz and new music violinist and at festivals Noting the sadomasochism that informs the and concerts across Europe, Scandinavia, classic cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s, John South America and the United States. He toured Zorn has subtitled this piece Tex Avery Meets the Germany with the WDR Radio Orchestra perform­ Marquis de Sade; the violence of the Warner ing his concerto Naked Singularities and has Brothers cartoon guru and the unusual predilec­ appeared as a soloist with Basil Symfonetta tions of the infamous 18th century nobleman are (Switzerland), WDR Radio Big Band (Germany), fused in the music. UMO Radio Big Band (Finland). Before moving Remove Carl Stalling's music (argues Zorn) from to New York City in 1986, he was a member of its accompanying images and dialogue, listen to the ensembles of country and western singers it in the abstract, and you "enter a completely new Loretta Lynn and Ray Price. Feldman appears as dimension: you are constantly being thrown off a jazz soloist on more than fifty recordings. His balance, yet there is something strangely familiar compositions have been recorded on the JMT/ about it all." PolyGram, Enja, Avant and Tzadik labels and his Readily admitting he has a short attention span, own recording Music for Violin Alone is available Zorn constructs his music to reflect a mercurial on the Tzadik/Koch label. fascination with the fast-paced flow of information. Overall, the individualistic efforts of the per­ About Resident Alien Feldman writes: formers are essential to the success of each piece, "Resident Alien is my first piece for string quartet. as their personalities become discrete musical It is basically an Introduction and Rondo. In it I elements, like chord, meters, or themes, to be try to incorporate some elements of my own orchestrated by the composer. improvisational violin style, such as certain artic­ Of necessity, such a composition is difficult to ulations which displace the 'normal' accents in perform in concert, and in fact, most of Zorn's the 16th note passages. large compositions exist only in their recorded "After the Introduction the piece opens with a renditions, which are assembled, "moment" by and 'false' fingering effect that is remi­ "moment" in the studio. niscent of and the 'Texas Tenor' "In some sense," says Zorn, "it is true that my saxophone style. At the end there is an epilogue music is ideal for people who are impatient, which has a kind of Latin feel in the melody because it is jam-packed with information that coupled with an American minimalist approach. is changing very fast." "When I compose, I try to start with no ideas at all. Then in a free improvisational style I write Note by Neil Tesser hund reds of ba rs and at a certa in moment the piece starts to take shape, it seems to me, by John Zorn's Cat 0' Nine Tails was commis­ itself. Then at the end of the 'no idea' stage, sioned for the Kronos Quartet by Lincoln Center, usually half to three-fourths of the piece is done. New Music America Miami and Doris and Myron Then I work with the ideas present, concentrating Beigler and appears on Kronos' Elektra/Nonesuch strongly on transitions, orchestration and devel­ record ing Short Stories. opment."

Resident Alien was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tim Berne (b. 1954) excited enough to take some inspired liberties Dry Ink, Silence (1996) in thei r interpretation. That is not to say that my choices are arbitrary; only that they were made Tim Berne was born in Syracuse, New York. He to be interpreted by other humans with ideas, began playing the saxophone at the age of nine­ emotions and personalities. The music you will teen while attending Lewis and Clark College in hear is the culmination of this meeting." Oregon, being influenced early on by rhythm and blues music. In 1974, Berne moved to New York Dry Ink, Silence was commissioned for the Kronos and began an apprenticeship with jazz musician Quartet by the Meet the Composer/Reader's , who instructed Berne on the Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership many practical and spiritual aspects of being a with the National Endowment for the Arts and the band leader, including musicianship, composition, Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund in cooperation recording, record promotion and pasting up with Hancher Auditorium/University of Iowa and handbills. the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Berne began releasing albums on his own Empire label in 1979. Over the next five years, he recorded and distributed five albums under his Lois V Vierk (b. 1951) own name which featured musicians such as River Beneath the River (1993) , Olu Dara, , John Carter, and . Following two Lois V Vierk is known for her directional, devel­ recordings for Soul Note, Berne recorded Fulton opmental music that often builds to high climax­ Street Maul and Sanctified Dreams for CBS/Sony. es. Vierk studied composition with Mel Powell, These recordings coincided with an increasingly Leonard Stein and Morton Subotnick. In addition, active worldwide touring schedule. In 1988, Vierk spent ten years in Los Angeles studying Berne began a long relationship with the JMT Gagaku (Japanese Court Music) with Suenobu label with the first of two recordings with the Togi, formerly of the Emperor's Court Orchestra, cooperative Miniature (featuring and and two years in Tokyo with Sukeeyasu Shiba of ). In 1989, his Fractured Fairy Tales the same ensemble. Her works, including Hexa was hailed as a masterpiece by The New York for tap dancers, percussion and electronic pro­ Times. Followi ng th is debut, Berne's JMT legacy cessing, have been performed at the US ART climaxed with the historic bloodcount Paris Festival in Berlin, the Holland Festival and the Concerts in three volumes. These recordings American Dance Festival. Vierk has received received unanimous praise. Since 1994, blood­ commissions from Champagne Tattinger, Meet the count has performed over 200 concerts worldwide. Composer/Reader's Digest, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the About Dry Ink, Silence Berne writes: Arts and American Dance Festival, among others. "My goal with each work is to achieve a certain dramatic shape with the music that includes an About River Beneath the River Vierk writes: inherent structure which I've devised (and may "In this piece, currents of sound made up of only be known by me) that is often thematic, string phrases and textures of tremolos, , textural, emotional, irrelevant and occasionally sustained sounds, highly articulated passages, musical. etc. are constantly developed. The currents "I frequently write for improvisers with very alternately co-exist,. separate, coalesce, in their colorful musical personalities and enjoy the flow from a gentle beginning, through many challenge of trying to notate music that encour­ areas, to a fortissimo conclusion. ages their idiosyncracies in ways they haven't "The idea of interaction of two or more instru­ explored. At its best, my music enhances the ments forming one sound shape continues individuality of the performer, allowing their throughout the piece. The music unfolds slowly. creativity to co-exist with my notated guidelines. The constant transforming and developing of the "Though the music is specific in its notation, relatively simple sound shapes and relationships at I wou Id hope that the mem bers of Kronos are the beginning of the piece employ principles which I call 'exponential structure.' This refers to rates of Also in the early 70s, Riley began to devote change of musical materials, which in this piece himself to the study of North Indian vocal tech­ are constantly increasing by exponential factor." niques under the guidance of the legendary Pandit Pran Nath, and a new element gradually entered River Beneath the River was commissioned for the his music: long-limbed melody. From his work in Kronos Quartet by the Barbican Centre.in London. Indian music, moreover, he also developed an interest in the subtle distinctions of tuning that would be hard to achieve with a traditional clas­ Terry Riley (b. 1935) sical ensemble. Cadenza On The Night Plain (1984) Riley decided to notate music again in 1979 Introd uction when both he and the Kronos Quartet were on the Cadenza: Viol in I faculty at Mills College in Oakland. By collaborat­ Where Was Wisdom When We Went West? ing extensively with Kronos, with whom he soon Cadenza: Viola developed a close relationship, Riley began to March of the Old Timers Reefer Division discover the degree to which his various musical The Old Timers Throw a Spring Festival passions could be integrated, not as pastiche, Marching Off to More Serious Matters but as different sides of similar musical impulses Cadenza: Violin II that still maintained something of the oral per­ Tuning to Rolling Thunder forming traditions of India and jazz. Riley began The Night Cry of the Black Buffalo Woman to consider the string quartet in general, and the Cadenza: Cello Kronos Quartet in particular, as the ideal medium Gathering of the Clan for his evolving musical language. And that meant Captain Jack Has the Last Word approaching the string quartet in an entirely new way. Terry Riley, who studied composition at the Riley's first quartets were inspired by his key­ University of California at Berkeley, first came board improvisations, but his knowledge of string to prominence in 1964 when he found a way quartets became more sophisticated through his to subvert the world of tightly organized atonal work with Kronos, and as Kronos became more composition then in academic fashion. With the comfortable with the breadth of Riley's musical groundbreaking In C-a work built upon steady world, he was able to combine rigorous compo­ pulse throughout; short, simple repeated melodic sitional ideas with his more performance-oriented motives; and static harmonies-Riley achieved approach to music making. But Riley's quartets an elegant and non-nostalgic return to tonality in were also examples of his devotion to music as art music. He demonstrated the hypnotic allure a spiritual endeavor. A gentle and wise man, Riley of making complex musical patterns out of basic has an oracular presence. Storytelling is among means. And in so doing, he produced the seminal his gifts, and like his music, Riley's stories are work of the now popular Minimal school. cross-cu Itu ra I. Born in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Cadenza on the Night Plain is grand in scope, Northern California, where he still lives and having something of the cosmic quality of a raga. composes amidst surroundings of striking natural It is a work that combines a minimalist's love for beauty and spectacular night skies, Riley devel­ repeated figuration with Riley's Indian-trained oped pattern music in response to his love for ability to develop a piece over substantial time such natural design. But his facility for complex periods. It is dramatically evocative, programmatic, pattern making also proved the product of his philosophical and folksy at the same time. virtuosity as a keyboard improviser. Riley quit Although not written in direct collaboration with formal composition altogether following In C in Kronos, Cadenza is, nonetheless, a specific order to concentrate on improvisation, and in the response to the members of the quartet, and it late 1960s and early 70s, he built a reputation contains a cadenza for each player that reflects for weaving dazzlingly intricate skeins of music some aspects of his or her personality. during all-night improvisations on organ and In Cadenza, Riley goes further than he had in synthesizer. previous quartets in exploring the spiritual quality of various tunings. The titles of the separate In the end, Cadenza is about balance, and Since its inception in 1973, the Kronos Quartet has emerged as a leading movements sometimes refer to the composer's the balance of spirit which should be able to voice for new work. Combining a unique musical vision with a fearless personal fantasies and sometimes are philosophical soar ecstatically, while remaining connected to dedication to experimentation, Kronos has assembled a body of work unpar­ or humorously indicated in the music. The reefer the simplest human pleasures. Riley's homey alleled in its range and scope of expression, and in the process, has captured division, for instance, refers to old, veteran hippies vision of sonic utopia is a kaleidoscopic balance the attention of audiences world-wide. off to save the world, and they are portrayed of musics. Naive ideas become transformed, with a sort of Ivesian humor in a 10/4 march­ Bach-like, into the transcendental without losing The Quartet's extensive repertoire ranges from Shostakovich, Webern, Bartok as if the stoned old timers all had two left feet. their innocence in the process. and lves to , John Cage, and Howlin' Wolf. But Cadenza is primarily a work of profound In addition to working closely with modern masters such as Terry Riley, spirituality. The achingly lyric, canonically flowing Note by Mark Swed John Zorn and Henryk Gorecki, Kronos commissions new works from today's Where Was Wisdom When We Went West? most innovative composers from around the world, extending its reach as represents Riley's interest in Western spirituality. Cadenza on the Night Plain was commissioned far as Zimbabwe, Poland, Australia, Japan, Argentina and Azerbaijan. The The movement recalls the unenlightened aspects jointly by The Kronos Quartet, Hessischer Quartet is currently working with many composers, including Franghiz of the pattern of Western migration over the last Rundfunk (Radio Frankfurt), and Gramavision Ali-Zadeh, , , , Unsuk Chin, several hundred years. In the consoling Tuning to Records of New York. The work is dedicated to Linda Bouchard, , P.Q. Phan, Osvaldo Golijov, Brent Michael Rolling Thunder, Riley uses an expressive musical Dr. Margaret Lyon, retired chair of the music Davids, Tim Berne, Gabriela Ortiz and Ben Johnston. tuning to tune-in to the ideas of Rolling Thunder, department at Mills College in Oakland, where a medicine man in Nevada. the composer taught for more than a decade. Kronos performs annually in many cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, and tours extensively with more than 100 concerts each year in concert halls, clubs and at jazz festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia. Recent tours have included appearances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Kennedy Center, Montreux Jazz Festival, , Sydney Opera House, Tanglewood, London's Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Theatre de la Ville in Paris and Chicago's Orchestra Hall.

Kronos Quartet David Harrington, violin John Sherba, violin Hank Dutt, viola Joan Jeanrenaud, cello

Larry Neff, Lighting Designer Jay Cloidt,

For the Kronos Quartet: Janet Cowperthwaite, Managing Director Laird Rodet, Associate Director Kelly McRae, Production Manager Sandra Schaaf, Business Manager Leslie Mainer, Administrative Assistant

The Kronos Quartet records exclusively for Nonesuch Records.

Photo: Horst Wackerbarth Howl, U. S. A.: Works of Daugherty, Partch, Black Angels: Works of Crumb, Tallis, Marta, Johnston, Johnson, Hyla and Ginsberg Ives and Shostakovich *NONESUCH 79372-2 * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79242

Released 1985-1995 Kronos Quartet plays Terry Riley-Salome Dances * NONESUCH 9 79394 For Peace * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79217 Kronos Quartet Performs * NONESUCH 9 79356 : Works of Sallinen, Riley, Part, Webern, Zorn, Lurie, Piazzolla, Schnittke and Night Prayers: Works of Yanov-Yanovsky, Barber Ali-Zadeh, Gubaidulina, Tahmizyan, Golijov and * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79181 Kancheli * ELEKTRA / NON ESUCH 9 79346 White Man Sleeps: Works of Volans, Ives, Hassell, Coleman, Johnston, Lee and Bartok All The Rage: by Bob Ostertag * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79163 * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79332 _ Kronos Quartet: Works of Sculthorpe, Sallinen, At The Grave of Richard Wagner: Glass, Nancarrow and Hendrix Works of Liszt, Berg and Webern * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79111 * ELEKTRA / NON ESUCH 9 79318 Terry Riley, Cadenza on the Night Plain Piano and String Quartet: by and Other String Quartets * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79320 * GRAMAVISION 18 7014

String Quartets No. 1 and 2: Steve Reich / Kronos Quartet by Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79176 * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79319 Music of Bill Evans: With special guests Eddie Short Stories: Works of Sharp, Dixon, Oswald, Gomez and Jim Hall Zorn, Cowell, Mackey, Johnson, Gubaidulina * LANDMARK LLP-1510 and Pran Nath * ELEKTRA / NON ESUCH 9 79310 Monk Suite-Kronos Quartet plays music of : With special guest Ron Carter Pieces of Africa: Works of Maraire, Hakmoun, * LANDMARK LLP-1505 Suso, Tamusuza, EI Din, Addy and Volans

* ELEKTRA / NONESUCH r 9 79275 Mishima: Soundtrack by Philip Glass * ELEKTRA / NON ESUCH 9 7911 Already It Is Dusk: by Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79257

Five Tango Sensations: by Astor Piazzolla, with Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79254

Hunting:Gathering: by * ELEKTRA / NON ESUCH 9 79253

String Quartet: by Witold Lutoslawski * ELEKTRA / NONESUCH 9 79255

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