Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Terry Riley The Cusp of Magic (2008)
  
Floodplain (2009)

Release date
  
1 February 2008

Artist
  
Kronos Quartet

Label
  
Nonesuch Records Inc.

Released
  
4 February 2008 (2008-02-04)

Genres
  
Classical music, Contemporary classical music

Nominations
  
Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Classical

Similar
  
Kronos Quartet albums, Classical music albums

Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, an album-length recording of a collaboration between the quartet and American composer Terry Riley.

Contents

Terry Riley and the Kronos Quartet

Terry Riley and the Kronos Quartet have been collaborating since 1978, when Riley taught composition, 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, starting in 1985 with Terry Riley: Cadenza on the Night Plain, 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.

Track listing

All music composed by Terry Riley, except as noted.

Notes

1.^ Track 7 is a bonus download on iTunes and, in MP3 format, from the Nonesuch website.

Musicians

  • David Harrington - violin
  • John Sherba - violin
  • Hank Dutt - viola
  • Jeffrey Zeigler - cello
  • Wu Man - pipa
  • Production

  • Recorded 7–12 August 2006 at Skywalker Sound, Nicasio, California, mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering & DVD
  • Scott Fraser - engineer
  • Dann Thompson - assistant engineer
  • David Dvorin - electronic music, compiled and mixed
  • Songs

    1I The Cusp of Magic (feat Wu Man)10:04
    2II Buddha's Bedroom (feat Wu Man)10:28
    3III The Nursery (feat Wu Man)5:03

    References

    Terry Riley: The Cusp of Magic Wikipedia