TUNING digest 899

David Jones wrote:

>I thought I would post a short message
>about a concert of [La Monte Young's] work "Chronos Kristalla" to be
>performed Sunday,
>Nov. 24, 1996 at 8pm at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley. Commissioned exclusively
>for Kronos Quartet.
>
>I have no idea what the piece sounds like (this is the West Coast Premiere
>of the work), but as someone who had the pleasure of seeing Kronos 7 times
>(including the entire "Salome Dances for Peace"), I heartedly recommend it.

A great opportunity for me to reminisce about this _great_ quartet! It was
commissioned by Kronos, but of course not -exlusively- for them (Kronos'
standard exclusive-performance rights are three years). I had the great
pleasure of attending rehearsals and a performance of this work, played by
the Klangforum Wien Quartet (part of a terrific new-music ensemble,
featuring a couple of former members of the Hagen Quartet), in a beautiful
and resonant church in early 1995. The subtitle is "The Magic Chord x4,"
and is based on the "Dream Chords" from the "Well-Tuned Piano", played as
natural harmonics of open strings. Very exact JI is required, and a Rayna
Synthesizer is provided with the part-rentals.

This was Young's first fully-notated work in about 20 years, and it is to
me (a classical-person at heart) his most beautiful work. Fans of the
Dream House and such computer-driven installations will most likely rejoice
in the respiratory phrases of this work, while sacrificing very little
tuning precision. A bonus effect, one not intended by La Monte, is the
subtle increase in harmonic beating as the 2-hour-plus work progresses,
simply due to the settling of strings and changing of temperature in the
cold church.

-Adam

_________________
Adam B. Silverman
153 Cold Spring Street; A3
New Haven, CT 06511
(203) 782-1765

abs22@pantheon.yale.edu



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Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 21:00:17 -0800
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