Arbor Vitae

Music of James Tenney: String quartets (Disk 1), and string quartets+1 (Disk 2). Many tracks are characterized by long tones from the strings, creating drones that make for good late-night airplay or a complement to noise/experimental shows (1,8,10). But Tenney also shows off composing chops in minimalist and other modern styles (3,5,9,11). Instrumental; FCC clean.

DISK 1: String Quartets
1- Quiet buildup to long shimmery tones.
2- A drone of long overlapping tones. 24 minutes long, but the middle part makes a nice noisy excerpt.
3- Active, jumbly, slowly colliding. A good 3-minute short piece.
4- Busy, bustling. Even tuneful, at the end.
5- Minimalist, a rhythmic up-and-down bobbing that goes through multiple variations across 18 minutes.


DISK 2: String Quartets+ Guests
1- w/percussion (Rick Sacks): Slow, grim drama. Long tones and small flashes. Perc. ranges from clattery wood to soothing vibraphone near the end.
2- Dissonant, groany strings, tiny piano notes. Slowly builds into a grim intensity. (Eve Egoyan, piano.)

(3-8: With bass (Miriam Shalinsky); five movements showing off five distinct composing styles.)
3- Long tones, somewhere between lingering dread and shimmering peace
4- Blippy pizzacato bursts, long silences. Really cool.
5- Metallic, scraping. A noisy drone you wouldn't identify with strings.
6- Big rubberband sliding tones. Swooping, loopy.
7- A long, *very* quiet drone, heavy on bass.