KRONOS presents a free library of fifty contemporary works designed to guide string quartets in developing and honing the skills required for the performance of 21st-century repertoire.
Marejada
Angélica Negrón
Puerto Rico / USA
“When Kronos approached me in March 2020 to write a piece for them to perform together during this difficult moment of social isolation, I wanted to create something playful and rhythmic yet flexible and malleable that would be fun to put together. Something that responded directly to the challenges during this time of performing music together while not being able to be together in the same room. Marejada is an invitation to sonically escape from your room and to actively imagine and immerse yourself in a different place and time.”
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Satellites
Garth Knox
Ireland
In this three-movement piece, Garth Knox takes us to outer space, exploring how the seemingly simple idea of standing still becomes a complex notion; the undiminishing wonder of witnessing sixteen sunrises per day; and the many possible dimensions which surround us, represented by the physical movements of the bow through space. The piece builds to a climax of spectacular bow techniques including the ‘whip’ and the ‘helicopter’, producing a huge range of other-worldly sounds.
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At the Purchaser's Option with variations
Rhiannon Giddens
USA
Rhiannon Giddens' At the Purchaser’s Option with variations is an instrumental variation of a song from her album Freedom Highway (Nonesuch, 2017), arranged by Jacob Garchik. She wrote the song after finding in a book a 19th-century advertisement for a 22-year-old female slave whose 9-month-old baby was also for sale, but “at the purchaser’s option.” This piece comes from that advertisement, and from thinking about what that woman's life might have been like.
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With each new piece, our tradition is to work with the composer to understand the work better and to get insight into how he or she has written the piece, and how to execute the ideas and characterizations behind it. Now, through 50 for the Future, we get to pass on that knowledge from the composer to the young groups that we coach. It's very exciting to see all this music come alive in the hands of young groups around the world."
Hank Dutt
Violist, Kronos QuartetFeatured Technique
Joan Jeanrenaud's Knock
Learn techniques for instrument tapping, snap pizzicato, col legno battuto, and more in Kronos' instructional video for Joan Jeanrenaud's piece, Knock.
What would happen if we could, through our years of working with hundreds of composers from many places, make a body of incredibly interesting, fun music that could serve the next generation as a launching pad to a world of discovery?”
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