Gloria Coates: String Quartets Nos 1, 5 & 6 [CD]

A first listen to the music of Gloria Coates is a breath of fresh air. Here is a genuinely contemporary sound, one that emerges naturally from our time and culture. Here are sounds to express our sense of time, space, movement and activity. There is no sense of is referentiallism. What a relief! There is no rehashing of someone else's style , whether from 10 or 500 years ago. There is no wilful difficulty to this music or the collaging of disparate influences. This music emerges fully formed with its own confident voice, it means to communicate and it does so, while being a language unto itself.

Gloria Coates primary musical means is glissando, the blending of one note into another. She uses this continually to create a music of incredible spaciousness where the four instruments of a quartet can create a whole orchestra, or perhaps in this case, buzzing beehive, of sound.

String Quartet No 5 is something of a musical summation for the composer as she explores the possibilities of her chosen means. The first movement 'Through Time' searches a way out of nothingness with increasingly surety, from the vaguest tonal probings to the makings of an icy melody. The second movement 'Through Space' is an exploration of the experience of modern travel. It is something of a classical version of Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn', but far more elemental as the strings summon up something like the sounds of Jet Engines, passing cars, trains and high velocity elevators. The final movement 'In the Fifth Dimension' warps this into a revolving flux of sound that is genuinely unsettling. While listening to it I experience a kind of sonic sea sickness. Composers often talk of wanting to create an unsettling music for a violent and uncertain age. Gloria Coates actually delivers.

String Quartet No 1 'protestation Quartet' is a single 6 minute movement of more conventional sounds with arpeggios as well as glissando. The music gradually builds up the tension as if it has a premonition that something terrible is about to occur.

Quartet No 6 is very much a combination of the means of Quartets 1 and 5. It repays being listened to separately to be appreciated on it own terms, but even then its central movement 'Meditation' is rather too close to 'Through Space' from the 5th Quartet. The last movement 'Evanescence' is a celebration of subtleties of deep, rich tones. The nearest music I can think of to this is Arvo Part's classic Tabula Rasa and Fratres, if they were stripped of every last historical reference. This is pure and primal music in the most absolute sense.

The playing is of amazing quality throughout. The Kreutzer Quartet sound as if they are relishing the language of the music. Couple the music itself with the performance and what is an excellent recorded sound and this is a very special disc indeed.

Having been a fan of the Naxos recordings over the years I was interested in hearing some American composers. I heard some of the tracks thanks to the Naxos website which allows you to listen to each track briefly.
This is nothing like Bach or any of the older composers so this may be a shock to the system to anyone that may think this is full of melody. The album has more sounds than harmony and will not be to everyone's taste.
I would compare this music to a modern painting which is full of abstract colours and makes little sense to the eye.
However, there is something that makes me drawn to the sounds of this recording, and is much more appealing than senseless, abstract sounds.
The first 3 tracks are my personal favourites and although there are many glissandos in them they are played wonderfully throughout by the quartet.
This is not something I would play on a regular basis but is definitely something I would play from time to time.
This recording has started something off with me now, wanting to hear more from Gloria Coates. Oh, and the abstact painting on the front cover of the cd is one painted by the composer herself, who also paints when not composing. Please listen to something different, you may well like it too!