4 novembre 1990: Kronos Quartet plays LaMonte Young's "Time Crystals" (Chronos Kristalla)
Including the full program notes, a short (en français) documentary with interview, a radio capture of the performance and much said about the work afterwards
Kronos Quartet, Le Spectrum, afternoon concert, November 4, 1990
I’m also pretty sure that I’ll be able to add more to this as time goes on…
LaMonte Young is (en français) being interviewed by Jean Lesage (first part which includes a profile) about Time Crystals performed by the Kronos Quartet at New Music America 1990 Montréal Musiques Actuelles on a program .
Radio capture of the work:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Composer Hildegard Westerkamp (who also had a work performed at the Montréal festival) wrote of the work in her blog:
https://www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca/writings/writingsby/?archive=1999-01
During Montreal Musiques Actuelles 1990, the Kronos Quartet played Chronos Kristalla (Time Crystals) by LaMonte Young in the Spectrum, a one-and-a-half-hour-long quartet of slightly amplified sustained harmonics in a large dark space that throbbed with air-conditioning and electrical hums, where people sat at tables and talked, where drinks were served, where human commotion was part of this social scene.
I loved the experience. But most people hated it, including the composer. For them the space interfered with their ability to fully enjoy the music. I loved it precisely because of the way the sounds of the piece occupied this space. The high harmonics, sustained over 90 minutes, gave a somewhat ethereal focus to this hollow, dark space. In fact, it seemed to brighten it with some warm, shimmering light. With my ears drawn to the ever-changing high frequencies, I was fascinated by how this focus shifted my perception of the air-conditioning and the people's sounds. I don't usually like the sound of air-conditioning in concert situations, but here it was almost as if the soundscape and the music never interfered with each other. They not only existed quite peacefully side by side but they actually enhanced each other. The music seemed to happen on an entirely different plane than the rest of the sounds, and yet it carried my ears safely, as if on a small light beam, through all the dark corners of the Spectrum's soundscape.
Chronos Kristalla also offered breathing room from the aural overload so typical for most music festivals. It "spoke" to an area in my psyche that had been screaming for space, and it seemed to cleanse that area in my brain that resonates most strongly when I sing high tones. It offered an acoustic/musical balance to everything else that was happening around it.
*
Kronos' premiere of a new work by La Monte Young was a singular high concept dud that no amount of karma could save.
- Andrew Jones "New Music North America, 1990: Musique Actuelle comes to Montréal', Option, 1991
*
On peut penser, également, que plusieurs formations n'ont pas bénéficié d'un temps de réglage suffisant de la sonorisation. Le Spectrum a présenté, de ce point de vue, des prestations tout à fait inégales: certains concerts, comme la création de LaMonte Young, ont bénéficié d'une belle présence du son.
…
Hors du débridement sonore de la musique improvisée, les voies de l'écriture musicale semblent étroites, car les musiques répétitives et minimalistes imposent leurs contraintes en agissant comme modèles.
On retiendra, parmi les créations du festival, les pièces de Terry Riley ("Cactus Rosary" par Arraymusic) et de LaMonte Young (Kronos Quartet) qui contiuent d'innover en ce domaine, c'est-à-dire de surprendre l'auditeur et de traduire un sentiment profond.
LaMonte Young rappelle, dans les notes du programme, qu'il s'agit en fait d'une oeuvre complètement écrite, peut-être plus aboutie que des travaux précédents fondés sur une notation algorithmique. Le message est passé: "Chronos Kristalla", moment fort du festival, suspendit le temps pour un très large public qui retint sa respiration pendant l'heure et demie que dure cette oeuvre strictement minimale.
Performance des interprètes du Kronos Quartet, mais aussi démarche exemplaire du compositeur dans sa plus grande simplicité.
- James Giroudon, "Un état des lieux, vivifiant" Circuit vol. 1 no. 2, 1991
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- Sophie Galaise, "Les concerts de musique 'sérieuse' et quelques autres" Circuit vol. 1 no. 2 1991
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- Jean Lesage, "Réflexions en marge d'un festival" Circuit, vol. 1 no. 2, 1991
♪
Though my copy of this document had a handwritten name of Robin Minard at the top (I’ve removed it because it also had his address), I am pretty sure it was part of the large press material package I was able to take home with me… needless to say I don’t believe any of this made it into critic Robert Everett-Green’s paltry Globe and Mail article(s).