Chronos Kristalla

Legendary American composer and pioneer of minimalist music La Monte Young composed Chronos Kristalla in 1989 / 1990. This two-hour reflection on justly tuned microintervals, haunting natural harmonics and uncanny resonances has not been heard publicly in more than twenty -five years.

Chronos Kristalla takes its pitch content from Young’s magnum opus, The Well Tuned Piano. Transferred to the sustaining sonorities of string instruments and raised by two octaves, a new dimension of suspended, crystalline timbre emerges. All the performed pitches are played as natural harmonics; the richness of harmony and the immateriality of timbre create an other-worldly atmosphere. The title refers to the crystallization of time into minute particles, such that the passing of time is paradoxically experienced as “time standing still.” The original instrumentation for string quartet has been expanded to string octet, in order to further clarify the tunings and to allow even greater sustain over longer durations. The performance will take place in a lighting design created by the artist Marian Zazeela.