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Scoring

string quartet

Abbreviations (PDF)

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

Availability

World Premiere
1/22/2005
Barbican, London
Kronos Quartet
Composer's Notes

In Stringsongs, my first piece for string quartet, I explored using instruments to create unexpected textures and sounds in much the same way that I have worked with the voice over many years.  I was inspired by the profound musicianship and passionate commitment of the Kronos Quartet. During the rehearsal period, as I got to know the players, the music came to life in surprising ways, colored by the distinctive „voice“ of each musician.


Meredith Monk


Reproduction Rights
This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer

Press Quotes

“The piece is cast in four parts, and the Kronos players relished the gentle dissonances of the first part, Cliff Light, and its passages of edgy, rhythmic energy… Her music may be made of minimal materials, but the effect in this performance was of maximal power and range. Tendrils, the second part, embodied the work’s structural objectivity and emotional clarity, as lines of delicate melody were woven… Monk demonstrated her ear for drama and paradox in the third section, Obsidian Chorale, a slow procession of chords that suggested a static timelessness… The final section, Phantom Strings, was a mercurial, open-ended conclusion to this enigmatic new quartet.”
The Guardian

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