Composed by:Philip Glass
Performed by: Kronos Quartet
Year: 1995
Genre:Neo-classical
Country:United States
String quartet No.2
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California.Kronos specializes in new music and has a long history of commissioning new works. In fact, over 600 works have been created for the Kronos Quartet. They have worked with many minimalist composers including Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Roberto Carnevale, Terry Riley and Kevin Volans.
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is a three-time Academy Award-nominated American classical music composer. He is considered one of the most influential composers of the late-20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the American public (along with precursors such as Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill and Leonard Bernstein).
His music is described as minimalist, from which he distanced himself in being a composer of "music with repetitive structures". Although his early, mature music is minimalist, he has evolved stylistically.Currently, he describes himself as a "Classicist", trained in harmony and counterpoint and studied Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.
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* "What's remarkable is how Glass's new musical language, shifting metres and triadic harmonies, suit the interaction of the bowing quartet. Buczak's funeral procession - reminiscent of Beethoven - serves as an elegy for a friend who died prematurely of AIDS. Over three movements Glass seems to turn his writing on its head, sounding more classical with each note. The freshest quartet, the Fifth, was specifically written for Kronos."Mark Prendergast
