“Kronos”
Some 40 years ago, I said to anyone who would listen that classical music will die unless. performers come along who wear leather jackets and shades, and play brilliantly, not in concert halls, but in prisons, shopping malls and senior centers. Music that annoys, angers, incites, provokes, eg, music that makes us feel again. Many people (girls particularly) said I was weird. Some of them I am FB friends with now! (I won’t out you — don’t worry.) Then came the day I first heard the Kronos Quartet in person , and I felt like holding a press conference aboard a fighter ship with a banner in the background exclaiming. “Mission accomplished!” Not a day goes by when I don’t appreciate them and what they have wrought/incited/provoked yada yada.
It’s hard to pick just one album of theirs to highlight. I listen to all their stuff (I don’t buy CDs anymore but man oh man do I burn through every neighborhood library). “Floodplain,” more than any other, stopped me in my tracks when it came out about four years ago. It is a study of. ethereal music from the past 700 years that has its roots in South Asia, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Ethiopia… The songs they choose to bring to life via string quartet instruments (with an occasional traditional instrument added here and there) are part of the magic. They don’t choose music based on the first thing they hear, or hear about. I am guessing that they really delved into music history to pluck absolute gemstones, with brilliant facets that ignite upon hearing. Searing. Soaring. This album will turn you into a PhD wannabe candidate in music history at a prestigious university. Because the catalogue of moving music is far deeper than we thought.
I will briefly highlight two songs. Wa Habibi is a Christian hymn that I guess is sung on good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter. I actually believed that the Jewish High Holidays produced the most spiritually uplifting music of all time, but this song is every bit as worthy as the music we hear on, say, Kol Nidre. Who knew? There is a longing in the music. An older person reflecting back on a lost love. The rain is falling, and life is slipping away. That’s just the feeling it gives me. But I must be on the right track, because there are technically lyrics to this song (the Kronos version is instrumental), and the lyrics include lines like “O my beloved, what a state you are in, He who sees you grieves for you…”
But the album’s tour de force is Mugam Beyati Shiraz, a piece that is 700 years old and which originates in Azerbaijan. That country has a form of classical music called Mugam, which is related to the Shashmaqam tradition of Central Asia and the Turkish Makam and Arabic Maqam. David Harrington plays violin like you have never heard it before, that absolutely destroys the playbook as to what the violin is “supposed” to play. It is some of the most passionate string instrument playing I have ever heard. The music makes you sit at the edge of your seat, wanting to know the next musical thought, the next detail, anything. The violin is telling a story and the story is so riveting that you can’t even wait for the next musical phrase. The various melting pot of influences in Central Asian music assure that, if Gregg hadn’t spoiled it for you by telling you precisely where the music was from, you’d probably have no idea at all.
By the time the album ends, I find myself wanting more. I promised I’d only focus on two of the tracks, but gotta squeeze one more in: a Lullaby from Iran. If the music sounds like a rough mixing of influences, it’s because that is exactly what it is. The cultures found on Iran’s southern coast are a true melting pot (cities like Bandar Abbas). Not just in terms of Arab culture and nearby India, but also due to its location along what was once African slave routes. Members of the group Jahle, who wrote this song, are actually descendants of African slaves and Arabian traders. I wanted my wedding suit to be really subtle in terms of its coloring. Not simply grey green, but a color that combines those colors and far more, to the point where you’re not even sure what it is you’re looking at. That is the palette we’re talking about on this track.
This is an album shooting for the spiritual jugular. It seeks, and finds. inspiration, sorrow, passion, depth of feeling, in music from all corners of the world at any point in history. This music is a thread that connects the dots of our common humanity, and as such, has the power to bring peace. Cultures that build friendships, linkages, networks, bridges, don’t go to war with one another. Cultures that are awed by other cultures’ rich cultural histories don’t go to war with one another. Listening to that “other” can be very difficult to do. Kronos makes listening a pure joy.
