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PIECES OF AFRICA DAVID HARRINGTON VIOLIN (1992) JOHN SHERBA NIGHT PRAYERS VIOLIN (1994) HANK DUTT CARAVAN VIOLIN (2000) JOAN JEANRENAUD CELLO (1978–1999) NUEVO JENNIFER CULP (2002) CELLO (1999–2005) FLOODPLAIN JEFFREY ZEIGLER (2009) CELLO (2005–2013) “Stay close to any sounds When I was seventeen or eighteen, I basi- That make you glad cally knew almost every recording of string You are alive.” quartet music that was then available, and (Hafiz) I began to realize how much was missing. When Kronos first started, I made a great big list of things that I wanted to hear and In 1973 when you were twenty-three and play, and it had to do with bringing many living in Seattle, Washington, you decided different composers and musicians into the to form a string quartet and name it after medium. And what I found then, and am A CONVERSATION the Greek god of time. Time has certainly still finding, is that there’s no end to that. been on your side because during the Every composer we’ve ever worked with past forty years the Kronos Quartet has has said the same thing, which is that the WITH released more than fifty albums, commis- string quartet is infinitely moldable and sioned more than eight hundred musical malleable because in each person’s hands compositions and arrangements, given it sounds different. George Crumb does not more than three thousand performances, sound like Dumisani Maraire, who does DAVID HARRINGTON and sold more than 2.5 million records. not sound like Franghiz Ali-Zadeh or Astor To mark Kronos’ fortieth anniversary, Piazzolla, who do not sound like John Zorn Nonesuch Records is releasing a box or Laurie Anderson. And you therefore set of five CDs devoted to the quartet’s begin to realize that we’re all a part of an many extraordinary collaborations with astonishing and ongoing musical, social, performers and composers from all over and spiritual experiment. the world. The poet Rumi said: “The human I think that what Kronos has done in JONATHAN COTT being is a guest house. Every morning a the last forty years is to try to ask some new arrival,” and on these five recordings questions, such as: What is a musical expe- Kronos has welcomed into its musical rience? What is a concert? What is a string guest house some of the most inspired and quartet? And we’re still asking those same inspiring musicians of our time. When you questions. At this point I don’t think of first conceived of the Kronos Quartet could myself as a violinist – my instrument is the you ever have imagined that you would still string quartet, and I play the violin in order be keeping open house after forty years? to be in Kronos. Our music has been found in lots of places – the search has become when we’re on tour, it’s like, we do our listening to our music on records, and when could be said with regard to the American worldwide – and we love to play with differ- thing at night, we get up really early the I met her parents, they told me that they composers of string quartets. ent musicians and learn from them because next morning before everybody else, and had heard Kronos when we played in Korea by doing so we all become larger people, then we’re on to the next town [laughing]. for the first time. So it’s like a family. And I have to confess that when I formed Kronos more empathetic, more understanding, Janet Cowperthwaite has been our manager forty years ago it took several years for me to just…better. The craft of being a musician Kronos has had several lineups over for thirty-two years; our tour manager and even know a female composer. After the first every day is a source of growth, and I believe the past forty years. Since 1978, when lighting designer, Larry Neff, has been with concert Kronos played in November 1973, that musicians are in the position to create Kronos made its first recordings, you and us for twenty-seven years; and our sound my wife, Regan – and it was probably the first models of how things could and should John Sherba have been the quartet’s two designer, Scott Fraser, for twenty-two years, string quartet concert she’d ever attended – work in the world. violinists, Hank Dutt has been the violist, so we’ve all grown together. took a look at the program and said to me, and there are have been four cellists: Joan The music on these five CDs – as with so “Where are the women composers?” It On the first page of the manuscript of his Jeanrenaud, Jennifer Culp, Jeffrey Zeigler, much of our music in general – didn’t just didn’t make any sense to her, and of course visionary second string quartet, Charles and Sunny Yang. As the Roman poet Ovid fall out of the sky. Most of it was commis- she was right. Things have changed so much Ives described the piece as follows: “String wrote, “Everything changes, but nothing sioned through the Kronos Performing since then, and trying to create a balance has Quartet for 4 Men – who converse, discuss, perishes.” Arts Association, which is the not-for-profit taken a long time. argue (in re politics), fight, shake hands, shut umbrella organization of the Kronos The first female composer who wrote for up – then walk up the mountainside to view That’s right. Kronos has been totally Quartet, and it’s because of this association Kronos was Ann Silsbee. Since then we’ve the firmament.” invigorated by the immense talents of Joan, that we’ve been able to commission more commissioned quartets by, among many Jennifer, Jeff, and Sunny, and when I’m than eight hundred works with grants and others, Kaija Saariaho, Sofia Gubaidulina, Well, as far as Kronos is concerned, we try thinking about music it’s totally through funds provided by private persons, festivals, and Aleksandra Vrebalov. And it’s gotten not to fight because there’s actually not the lens of the possibilities suggested by the and concert halls around the world. to the point where there are now almost as a whole lot to fight about: The notes are members of our quartet. Very often today many women composers writing for Kronos either together or they’re not together, when we’re performing a concert, I some- In the Charles Ives comment about his as there are men, though it’s taken forty they’re either in tune or not in tune, they’re times look over at John, who’s been with the second string quartet that I quoted before, years for that to happen. But the important either too loud or too soft. So it’s like quartet for thirty-five years, and at Hank, he describes the piece as a “string quartet point is that if you cast your glance wide being in a laboratory, you’ve got to figure who’s been with us for thirty-six years, and for 4 Men.” And until quite recently in this enough, there are amazing people creating it out. There is a lot of experimenting and I realize that all of the commitment, energy, country, the makeup of the string quartet amazing music in many different places, and trial and error. Kronos is a little bit like a and expertise that they contribute to the has pretty much been the exclusive preserve I want the world to be represented in our guerrilla band. At various times I’ve said music in order to try to make it sound like of male musicians. And with the few notable music as it truly is, so I think there should be to the other members of the group, “It’s nothing else is truly unequalled. And now exceptions of persons such as Amy Beach music for Kronos from every country, every us against the universe” [laughing]. And we have Sunny, who actually grew up and Ruth Crawford Seeger, the same thing culture, all the religions… And all the genders… Who was the guiding force behind that music room? Right, and all the genders. I think that the music we play needs to reflect an aware- His name was Ronald Z. Taylor, and he was ness of the things that are going on in the the school’s orchestra conductor and band world, not only explorations of positive leader. I’ve said it before but it bears repeat- things but also of the tragedies as well. And ing: Every kid in the world needs to have I believe that women are perhaps even a Ronald Taylor in his or her life. He was more capable than men of intuiting lots of such a great force, he loved music, and he things that should and need to be part of loved the process of young people learning music. about music and being there for them. And when I first heard that African music, I just This fortieth anniversary, five-CD box set thought, Wow, I want my violin to have that is specifically devoted to Kronos’ collab- kind of a sound someday. orations with musicians and composers, When I was twelve I began playing both male and female, from all over the Beethoven and Haydn string quartets, world, and also presents arrangements and and that became my obsession. Later at transcriptions of many different kinds of fourteen, I remember looking at a globe world and realizing that all of the string quartet music.