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| The Notes Between Kronos Quartet strikes a different chord with ‘Visual Music’
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF hho@media.ucla.edu Music takes time to impact the eardrums. The Kronos Quartet ("kronos" being the Greek word for "time") has been making its impact across the world for 30 years. But the culmination of those decades of experience has moved beyond sonic experimentation and into the realm of visual imagery. Playing at Royce Hall on Saturday at 8 p.m., Kronos Quartet's "Visual Music," a set of 10 pieces by composers such as Sigur Ros, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Bernard Herrmann, Scott Johnson and John Zorn, infuses theatrical stagings of music with overarching philosophical musings. "Hopefully, a sense of the past and the present and maybe even the future will be a part of this experience," said David Harrington, founder of Kronos and violinist for the string group. Kronos is UCLA's second and current artist-in-residence, a role it is fulfilling through "Visual Music," which is having its premiere at Royce. This is its third appearance at UCLA this academic year: Last month the group collaborated with the visiting Merce Cunningham Dance Company and last September they brought their Mexico-inspired album, "Nuevo," to life in Royce. In the "Nuevo" concert, various lighting effects recalled the Mexican landscape. With work on film scores such as "Requiem for a Dream," Kronos is not new to the idea that visual stimulation can often help musical digestion. "The lines between music and visuals and politics and poetry, hopefully they all merge at 'Visual Music,'" Harrington said. "The overriding experience will be musical, and the visual elements will propel the musical elements to an even more far-reaching place." Harrington's vision found its way to I.F. Stone, a progressive anti-war journalist who intrigued Harrington. At Harrington's suggestion, composer Scott Johnson sampled a speech Stone made 20 years ago and fashioned a "Visual Music" piece around the rhythms and musicalities in it. What resulted was not just a distinct sound, but also a political statement. "When you hear the Stone piece, there's no question he's talking about events, and even though they happened 20 years ago, it sounds like they're happening today," Harrington said. No doubt war is on the musicians' minds as they've lined up pieces which ask philosophical questions related to destruction. Even minimalist Steve Reich's "Pendulum Music," featuring four microphones which swing like pendulums in front of speakers to cause feedback noise patterns, imitates the delicate balance of war and peace. "I find myself thinking about it a lot right now with what's going on in world events," Harrington said. "It's the idea that we would activate these pendulums and then we set in motion these events, and how carefully you have to think about what you set in motion." Similarly, Kronos is doing a segment of Bernard Herrmann's theremin-infused score to 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still." A classic science fiction film about an alien who comes to Earth in a flying saucer and warns humanity to make peace or else face annihilation. "We thought one of the reasons we wanted to do 'Day the Earth Stood Still' was because of the times we're in," said John Sherba, Kronos' second violinist. "It felt like the right thing to do as an individual piece in these times. This message will interweave with the entire program." To top it off, Kronos is playing a piece by longtime collaborator and composer Terry Riley. From "Sun Rings," Riley's "One Earth, One People, One Love," whose title comes form a post-Sept. 11, 2001 statement by writer Alice Walker, brings together space sounds generated by a plasma wave receptor gathered by NASA spacecraft with a message of hope. "I think in our music, we do what we consider to be the ideal world," Riley said. "Rather than go out and look for enemies in my music, I'd rather try to harmonize the atmosphere through music." Behind each piece's philosophical attitudes lies a different, more liberal way to think of sound. Human speech or space sounds are not considered music that usually generates any accompaniment, let alone a full-fledged piece. Screeching feedback is generally a mistake, not the focus of a piece as in "Pendulum Music." In fact, the string group won't even be playing strings for some of the pieces. "Pendulum" uses microphones as instruments. Violist Hank Dutt gets to solo on the theremin and piano for "Day the Earth Stood Still." Everyone gets to play the Harry Bertoia sound sculptures, long metal rods connected at the base which are used as instruments via sampler technology and infrared sensors. Yet these ideas are staples of Kronos' work and the reason for its being. Kronos is still going strong with relatively new cellist Jennifer Culp added in 1999, and "Visual Music" is both a look back at the past 30 years and a preview of those to come. "What we're doing is creating a new concert that uses things we've learned from our other visualizations," Harrington said. "Definitely, 'Visual Music' is a part of the way we feel about celebrating 30 years of playing concerts and making musical experiences." For tickets to "Visual Music," call the Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2101 or go to www.cto.ucla.edu. This article contains interviews compiled by Dan (mixtape maker/Adir Levy admirer) Crossen, Daily Bruin Reporter. |
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