Unorthodox and daring, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet takes impeccably rehearsed classical string music, throws in musical influences from every corner of the globe, adds a bit of technology and refuses to let the bow part with the string until the sound created is one never heard before.
Kronos’ diverse repertoire and unapologizing sound got its start in 1973, when a young musician tried to find the right music to play at a difficult time in the Vietnam War era.
David Harrington, Kronos’ violinist and artistic director, heard “Black Angels” by George Crumb, a highly unusual and dark musical depiction of the war that used water glasses, electronic effects and spoken word.
“I was just trying to find what seemed to me was the right music to play at a difficult time in a difficult world,” Harrington said. “That night I heard it. I was going to have to form a group that would have to spend a lot of time together in order to play music like this.”
Calling on some colleagues in Seattle, Harrington got current members Hank Dutt on the viola and John Sherba on the second violin. A few cellists later, the final member of the quartet, Jeffrey Zeigler, signed on.
Since the conception of Kronos, the quartet has been putting forth an undaunted message in the music world that will continue Friday with the UCLA Live production of “Awakening: A Musical Meditation on the Anniversary of 9/11.” The performance offers the audience a night of musical healing following the seven-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
The concert moves through a Muslim call to prayer, featuring Osvaldo Golijov and Gustavo Santaolalla’s wordless requiem, “Darkness 9/11,” and Terry Riley’s modern innovation, “One Earth, One People, One Love.” Folk and traditional melodies from India, Iraq, Sweden, Afghanistan and Turkey also combine with modern sounds from the Americas and Europe to create a truly global sound.
The concert will center on the piece, “The Sad Park,” composed by Michael Gordon: a commentary on Sept. 11 through the eyes of youth. The piece channels the recorded voices of children who saw the planes hit the World Trade Center towers while walking to school in New York City.
“I think that it’s important to have the youngest members of our society commenting on this event,” Harrington said. “We’ve all heard plenty from adults and experts. The children’s opinions were something I really wanted to bring into the concert realm.”
“The Sad Park” is a striking commentary on the youth who experienced Sept. 11, combining their voices with the string quartet to perform a four-part composition without pause. Each part is titled by the children speaking about the event:
“Part 1: Two evil planes broke in little pieces and fire came.
Part 2: There was a big boom and then there was teeny fiery coming out.
Part 3: I just heard that on the news that the buildings are crashing down.
Part 4: And all the persons that were in the airplane died.”
Sometimes telling its stories frankly from the eyes of youth, other times through the mouths of people in war-town countries, Kronos invites the audience to experience different ideas and views from around the world.
“I would like our audience to keep their ears open, to be ready to experience something they have never heard before,” Harrington said. “Our concerts might be a reminder that there is amazing, challenging, wonderful music in different places and musical environments of the world.”
Though they have performed on every continent and used musical influences stemming from dozens of countries, the world is still on a platter for Kronos.
“Every part of the world we haven’t explored fully yet. But we are learning,” Harrington said. “Music is a great way to learn things about people and cultures. Sometimes it’s hard to define what you’re learning or absorbing, but musical resonance is something that is shared by every culture of the world. I find that continuously fascinating.”
Over 1,000 concerts, 700 commissioned songs, numerous Grammy award nominations and a Grammy for “Best Chamber Performance” after the birth of that fascination, Kronos continues to push the boundaries of the string quartet label, expanding both the context and range of traditional quartet music.
Hundreds of people are behind Kronos’ success. Dozens of composers attempt to commission their works to be played by Kronos at any given point in time, and the quartet has an impressive staff on their five-month-long tour. Nonetheless, they credit a huge portion of their legacy, as well as their aspiration to play every note meaningfully, to the audience.
“One never knows who that audience is. But you always try to make those notes as good as you can because someone out there might be affected by one of your notes or one of your phrases,” Harrington said. “I know that this happens, I am usually one of those people. We feel so related to the audience.”
With continuing support from audiences from around the globe, Kronos recently celebrated its 35-year anniversary. It won’t likely stop here either.
“I need another 50 years to perform, and it wouldn’t end there,” said Harrington. “Because by that point there would be more music I’d want to do. The bar would hopefully be raised even higher. Music is always young. It is the cleanest human substance there is in the world. None of us own it. None of us. We all share it with each other.”
The innovative music performed by Kronos today was not imaginable in 1973 when Harrington heard the Crumbs piece that would change the face of classical music. Whether they are working on their new project of a musical tapestry from China in the last 40 years or working with another composer via a translator during the commissioning of a new globalized Kronos work, the quartet are never afraid to rewrite the history of music.
“I’ve always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass and be absolutely beautiful and ugly if it has to be,” Harrington said. “But it has to be expressive of life. To tell the story with grace and humor and depth. And to tell the whole story, if possible.”