BETALEVEL


The Things That Overpower Us

-things that overcome us-

The Things That Overpower Us
Thursday, November 7th 2013
Free

Kraig Grady’s microtonal visions have long been associated with the reverberant percussive and the shadow theatre with its malleted instruments of Anaphorian design.

In this concert, the composer’s works for European string instruments are presented – a string quartet written in a tuning system that speaks with the accent of an Anaphorian organ, and a violin solo whose rhythm is entwined in morse code. Both of these pieces are tribute pieces. The quartet, which is a resetting of an Irish tune, is a tribute to Grady’s colleague, Rod Poole, who was working on an arrangement of a set of Irish tunes before his tragic death. The violin solo is a tribute to Lou Harrison.

Grady’s music on this concert is joined by a string quartet written by composer and academic (and also Grady’s wife) Terumi Narushima, exploring the same tuning system that Grady uses. There is also a string quartet by Melinda Rice, which imagines five folk songs familiar in America in a watery landscape.