Recently Heard: The Cusp of Magic

[ellyssian]

Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic

The Kronos Quartet always put together interesting discs exploring different styles of music, within the framework of an occasionally traditional string quartet. They've done everything from Purple Haze to Black Angels to a quintet with the dearly departed Charles Ives (They Are There! Fighting for the People's New Free World) to the Arabian Nightesque Gallop of a Thousand Horses to Bach, Monks and Shakespeare Meet in Water to the very nearly traditional Liszt piano quintet piece, At the Grave of Richard Wagner.

This is, really, the kind of contemporary classical that scares away people expecting the traditional. Give that Black Angels sample a spin - that's enough to scare anyone (then again, it's depicting the horrors of war, so it's supposed to do that). This is far more accessible, but might be better approached as world music rather than classical. Silly thing, labels. Really, what else could you consider a classical string quartet combined with Chinese pipa, performing music by a guy who mixes Oriental, Native American, blues, and more in with his classical compositions?

I haven't heard anything else by Terry Riley, but I'm likely to look into it. I was expecting some of the repetition-style minimalism that I love in Philip Glass' work but really could do without from anyone else. It is, by definition, repetitious. This, I was pleasantly surprised to find out, isn't. Wu Man - who I know they've worked before on Tan Dun's Ghost Opera - plays pipa (Wikipedia) on this recording, and, like on Ghost Opera, there's a definite eastern feel to this music. I'm very much a fan of that style of music, and that's what caught my attention with this.

There are some portions of this that wax more traditional, but for the most part, the tradition is not that of the western string quartet. There is a thematic story line to the piece, beginning and ending with a peyote ceremony, and traveling off in the middle, as those in such a ceremony are wont to do. This is more adventurous material, but worth a listen when you're in an exploratory mood.