Stringsongs

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


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“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