Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain
Encyclopedia
Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet
, the first album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley
.
"G-Song" and "Cadenza On The Night Plain" were re-recorded for the quartet's 25-year retrospective collection, Kronos Quartet: 25 Years.
Kronos began playing Cadenza On The Night Plain in 1984, with an early performance in Darmstadt
, Germany
; it remained on the Kronos playlist for a long time, and was performed as late as 1996.
) and allows for a significant amount of improvisation: players are free to choose their own modules.
and keyboard; the original saxophone melody was transcribed for viola
. "G-song" has a jazz chord progression over which is played a 16-bar theme in G-minor.
player Krishna Bhatt
.
.
, improvisation
, and Hindustani classical music
at Mills College
in Oakland, California
, and the quartet were artists in residence. Both parties benefitted from the exchange. In the words of Joan Jeanrenaud (Kronos cellist until 1998), "Terry shaped how Kronos shaped the music we played"; the Kronos Quartet, in turn, helped Riley "to move beyond the minimalism
of his early period," an observation made also by K. Robert Schwarz in a long piece in the New York Times on the occasion of an overview of the composer's career: "By 1984, when he completed Cadenza on the Night Plain, he had turned his back on the Minimalism of In C, instead exploring sonic realms stretching from the long-breathed lyricism of North India to the spiky, fragmented development of Bartok."
Riley has composed many works for the quartet, including the four 1986 compositions released in 1989 on the double-CD Salome Dances for Peace and the compositions on the 2001 album Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam
.
listed the album as a "Critic's Choice" in November 1985, and in February of the next year John Diliberto reviewed the album for the same magazine. Of a 1984 Carnegie Hall
performance, Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "There are many lovely moments in this imaginative piece and one particularly interesting section in which series of rhythmic patterns pass slowly by us, one by one, as if on parade." Kyle Gann, in a review of Kronos Quartet: 25 Years, called Riley's compositions for the quartet "masterpieces," and referred to Cadenza as "the archetypal Kronos piece." Both TIME Magazine and Newsweek
placed the album in their top ten of classical albums of the year.
in 1985 (Grammavision #7014-1, as compact cassette
#7014-2), the album was released again in 1988 (Gramavision 79444). It was re-released as a CD (Gramavision #18-7014-2) on 1 August 1992, on compact cassette (Rhino
) on 1 August 1992, and again on CD (Hannibal
#1509), on 31 January 2006.
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, the first album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
.
Genesis and performance
The music on this album was recorded in 1984, and was conceived or adapted in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet. "Sunrise Of The Planetary Dream Collector" and "G-Song" had been composed in 1980 and "Cadenza On The Night Plain" in 1983, and were adapted for the quartet. The cooperation between Riley and the quartet is described as a truly collaborative effort, specifically in the case of Kronos Quartet Plays Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace and Cadenza on the Night Plain. According to Riley, "When I write a score for them, it's an unedited score. I put in just a minimal amount of dynamics and phrasing marks. It's essentially a score like Vivaldi would have done. So when we go to rehearsal, we spend a lot of time trying out different ideas in order to shape the music, to form it.""G-Song" and "Cadenza On The Night Plain" were re-recorded for the quartet's 25-year retrospective collection, Kronos Quartet: 25 Years.
Kronos began playing Cadenza On The Night Plain in 1984, with an early performance in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
; it remained on the Kronos playlist for a long time, and was performed as late as 1996.
Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector
The title is derived from Riley's "whimsical notion" of a "collector who came around every day on the planet and collected all dreams so that they could be redistributed the next day." The composition is written in 14-beat modules (in Dorian modeDorian mode
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
) and allows for a significant amount of improvisation: players are free to choose their own modules.
G-song
This is the first composition Riley wrote for the Quartet, but it is based on an earlier composition by Riley, a 1973 composition for saxophoneSaxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
and keyboard; the original saxophone melody was transcribed for viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
. "G-song" has a jazz chord progression over which is played a 16-bar theme in G-minor.
Mythic Birds Waltz
Parts of this song come from a larger composition intended for sitarSitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
player Krishna Bhatt
Krishna Bhatt
Krishna Mohan Bhatt is a sitar player, teacher and scholar from Jaipur, India.He comes from a family of musicians in Jaipur. His father, the late Shashi Mohan Bhatt, a sitarist of great repute and a professor at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur trained many musicians in the family including...
.
Cadenza on the Night Plain
"Cadenza" was written in 1984 and first performed by the Quartet in Darmstadt, Germany. The longest work on the album, at 37'10", it contains thirteen separate sections, some with whimsical or humorous titles such as "March of the Old Timers Reefer Division." Riley's interest in spirituality is evident in sections such as "Tuning to Rolling Thunder," inspired by the ideas of Native American medicine man Rolling ThunderRolling Thunder (person)
Rolling Thunder was a Native American medicine man. He was born into the Cherokee nation and later moved to Nevada and lived with the Western Shoshone...
.
Terry Riley and the Kronos Quartet
Terry Riley and the Kronos Quartet have been collaborating since 1978, when Riley taught compositionMusical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, improvisation
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
, and Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
at Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, and the quartet were artists in residence. Both parties benefitted from the exchange. In the words of Joan Jeanrenaud (Kronos cellist until 1998), "Terry shaped how Kronos shaped the music we played"; the Kronos Quartet, in turn, helped Riley "to move beyond the minimalism
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
of his early period," an observation made also by K. Robert Schwarz in a long piece in the New York Times on the occasion of an overview of the composer's career: "By 1984, when he completed Cadenza on the Night Plain, he had turned his back on the Minimalism of In C, instead exploring sonic realms stretching from the long-breathed lyricism of North India to the spiky, fragmented development of Bartok."
Riley has composed many works for the quartet, including the four 1986 compositions released in 1989 on the double-CD Salome Dances for Peace and the compositions on the 2001 album Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam
Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam
Terry Riley: Requiem for Adam is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet. The music was composed by Terry Riley, commissioned by the quartet; the album is a requiem for Adam Harrington, the son of Kronos co-founder David Harrington.-Genesis and composition:...
.
Critical reception
Critics have responded positively to Cadenza On The Night Plain, as performed and as recorded. Down BeatDown Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
listed the album as a "Critic's Choice" in November 1985, and in February of the next year John Diliberto reviewed the album for the same magazine. Of a 1984 Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
performance, Bernard Holland wrote in the New York Times: "There are many lovely moments in this imaginative piece and one particularly interesting section in which series of rhythmic patterns pass slowly by us, one by one, as if on parade." Kyle Gann, in a review of Kronos Quartet: 25 Years, called Riley's compositions for the quartet "masterpieces," and referred to Cadenza as "the archetypal Kronos piece." Both TIME Magazine and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
placed the album in their top ten of classical albums of the year.
Track listing
(all compositions by Terry Riley)Releases and format
Originally released as a double LPLP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
in 1985 (Grammavision #7014-1, as compact cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
#7014-2), the album was released again in 1988 (Gramavision 79444). It was re-released as a CD (Gramavision #18-7014-2) on 1 August 1992, on compact cassette (Rhino
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
) on 1 August 1992, and again on CD (Hannibal
Hannibal Records
Hannibal Records was a record label and one of the first to work with the World music genre.Hannibal was started by Joe Boyd in 1980. Boyd had produced records by artists such as Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention and released recordings by these artists as well as...
#1509), on 31 January 2006.
Musicians
- David Harrington - violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
- John Sherba - violin
- Hank Dutt - violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- Joan JeanrenaudJoan JeanrenaudJoan Jeanrenaud, née Dutcher , is an American cello player. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she played with the Kronos Quartet from 1978 until 1999, when, after a sabbatical, she left to pursue a solo career and collaborations with other artists, in part due being diagnosed with multiple...
- celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
Production
- Recorded 21–23 October 1984 at Gramavision Studios, mastered by Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
at MasterdiskMasterdiskMasterdisk is an audio mastering and multimedia company in New York City, located on West 45th Street in Manhattan. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production....
- Timothy Martyn - producer, engineer
- Ernst Haas - photography
- Neal Pozner - design
- Jonathan F.P. Rose - executive producer
- Mark Swed - liner notes