Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain

Terry Riley (Composer), Kronos Quartet (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Kronos Quartet
• Composer: Terry Riley
• Audio CD (January 31, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B000CR8RA6
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,012 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sunrise Of The Planetary DreamCollector

2. G Song

3. Mythic Birds Waltz

4. Cadenza On The Night Plain

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lush reimagining of the string quartet, July 30, 2007

By 

Jeff Abell (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain (Audio CD)

After years of composing for piano and electronic media and more jazz-based ensembles, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet convinced Terry Riley to try his hand at a work for the recently formed ensemble (DH is the 1st violinist). This marked the beginning of an astonishing series of works for string quartet, that far exceed anything produced for the medium by either Steve Reich or Philip Glass (who've both composed works for Kronos). This CD shows the earliest of Riley's music for Kronos. "G Song" is arranged from music Riley wrote for the film "Lifespan." Les Yeux Fermes and LifespanThe other three works were composed specifically for string quartet, and "Cadenza on the Night Plain" makes use of just intonation tuning. In essence, Riley really busted Kronos's chops, making them re-think the tuning of their instruments, and the amazing, spirtually and emotionally rich result transcends the notion of "minimalism" into a style uniquely Riley's own. I've been in love with this since it first came out on vinyl in the '80s. If this one grabs you, then move on to "Salome Dances for Peace"Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace and the achingly beautiful "Requiem for Adam." Riley: Requiem for Adam / Philosopher's Hand You'll see why I say that Riley's quartets are a unique and remarkable contribution to the string quartet repertoire.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who needs LSD when you can listen to Terry Riley?, June 25, 2006

By 

Sor_Fingers (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain (Audio CD)

Upon hearing Terry Riley's "In C," I officially dubbed him the ultimate musical acid trip. What he does is really pretty cool. The official genre of his music is minimalism, putting him in the same boat as Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. Minimalism is less about melody and more about texture and rhythm. The result is no better described than a musical acid trip. Each of his pieces are a journey through a musical kaleidoscope of texture, color, rhythmic motives and inter-instrumental conversation. When played by one of the best string quartets in the world, the result can only be pleasing.

The disc consists of four tracks, with durations no less than 10 and no greater than 40 minutes. The disc begins with "Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector," which is a rainstorm of staccato strings. Riley builds up excitement through rhythm and texture. There is constant dialog between the instruments. Riley paints a picture and a sunrise is seen very clearly. "G Song" follows with an more fluid texture. "Mystic Bird Waltz" is everything but a waltz in my mind with a texture similar to the first cut.

The highlight is the 40 minute title track which begins with long chordal sonorites from the quartet that weave between dissonance and consonance. Soon, the music gets more motion, but only for a little while and the long, whining notes return. The strings morn and croon with lament. Riley throws unexpected accents in that hit the listener like a pie in the face. The piece feels open and free, a huge refreshment from the other three tracks that are much more rhythmically bound. Soon the strings have a rich conversation under drones from their partners. Soon the music develops a more rhythmic aspect and more motion comes into the music. There is something almost primitive to the music, it's something like a very intricate tribal chant for strings. The piece alternates between an open cadenza and a frantic dance.

The only warning I would have about this disc is that it is not entirely accessable. There are many who will think that the four pieces on this disc make a four movement suite entitled "Random Notes," "Garbage," or "Bad Horror Film." So, if you are open to accept music that is slightly different than the norm, I invite you to investigate this album. It's very different music being played by incredible musicians.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riley closer to "World Music" than to "minimalism": immensely engaging works for string quartet, July 11, 2010

By 

Discophage (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain (Audio CD)

Despite being, with his seminal "In C" from 1964, the inventor of "minimalism" in music, Terry Riley hasn't really been the main exponent of that compositional style. He let that to Reich, Glass and Adams in the US, or to Gorecki, Tavener and Pärt in Europe, as well as to many Dutch composers, like Andriessen or Ten Holt (I don't know why the music has so much appeal in the Low Countries, but that is a fact of observation), and he moved on to night-long keyboard improvisation and North-Indian ragas, of which he became a great specialist, under the tutelage of Pandit Pran Nath.

I prefer to associate the term "repetitive music" to the brand of minimalism set forth by "In C" and illustrated by all the composers mentioned above, and based on the dogged and pulsating repetition of minimam cells. The basic cells may be minimal, but through complex processes of overlapping and delay the result can be all but "minimal", as exemplified by the lush orchestral music of John Adams.

The other branch, to which I would reserve the word "minimalism", is represented by composers like Morton Feldman and, in Europe, Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann and Gerard Pesson: their music is not repetitive but still based on truly minimal musical events, usually slow-moving, it is music that is content to remain at the threshold of silence and in which, consequently, each new event has tremendous impact, like a whiff of air in an enclosed chamber.

While I am very fond of "minimalism" so defined, "repetitive music" as I've described it doesn't usually appeal to me at all (for an exception, see my review of Ten Holt Complete Multiple Piano Works). It's not the repetition I take exception with (as everybody else I enjoy Ravel's Bolero), it's the tonal and even saccharine harmonies that usually go with it. I have no idea why they always seem to come together: is there something intrinsic to repetition that necessarily calls for those tonal and mushy harmonic underpinnings, or is it a choice - and a lazy one, too - from the composers, an eagerness to be commercial and appeal to wider, pop-bred audiences (and, at least in the case of many compositions by Phil Glass, I suspect that the former is the right explanation).

Anyway, those expecting a remake of "In C" for string quartet, be warned: Riley's string quartets are neither nor. Still, they are hugely appealing. The four quartets gathered here (but they may be viewed as a single work in four movements) were composed at the behest of and for the Kronos Quartet, which developped a close relationship with the composer during the second half of the 1970s, when they met at Mills College. The incentive came for Riley at the right time and the quartets, composed in close association with the performers (at least the three first of them, completed in 1980. The 37-minute long "Cadenza on the Night Plain" was composed in 1983), are infused with his fascination for many types of folk music: North-American Indian as well as North-Indian. The construction is very free and improvisational, there is no development of themes in the time-allowed manner so typical of western classical music, rather a juxtaposition of them, but it all feels very organic and never jarring. It is the harbinger of the kind of "World music" of which the Kronos became a major advocate, with other ensembles such as the Balanescu Quartet. The music is dance-like and dynamic, highly colorful, fully using the instrumental resources of the string quartets (ear-catching glissandos, mesmerizing cadenzas in the last and longest quartet, Cadenza on the Night Plain), immensely engaging, easy listening (at least to ears accustomed to contemporary classical music) but, I find, never facile or pandering (even to ears accustomed to contemporary classical music).

I've had this disc since when it was released in 1988, lent it once to a friend and it never came back, bought it again, and I am glad to see that it is still available for cheap (and as I write it can be found for even cheaper under Cadenza On The Night Plain). It must be completed with Riley's later and major work for the same ensemble, Salome Dances for Peace: Salome Dances.

TT 75 minutes (which is substantially more than the "over 63 minutes of music" boasted on the booklet's front cover!), excellent liner notes, great disc.