Composer Derek Charke's Tundra Songs tapping a northern cool
30/01/10 08:36 Filed in: Press
Composer Derek Charke headed to the ice floes to create Tundra Songs for the Kronos Quartet and throat singer Tanya Tagaq By Alexander Varty Georgia Straight in Vancouver.
"When he was asked to write a new piece, Tundra Songs, for the Kronos Quartet and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, composer Derek Charke knew that he'd have to make the physical presence of the North a central feature. So he donned a parka, hopped a flight, and got busy.
The end product, Tagaq reports, has lived up to Charke's hopes and exceeded her expectations.
"Derek gives me cues throughout the piece about when to sing, " she says, on the line from Yellowknife. "But he doesn't really tell me what to sing, so it's pretty open. I'm really fortunate that way, in that most people allow me to have my artistic freedom.
"I can really feel my home in the piece," she adds. "He nailed it on the head. He's brilliant."
The Kronos Quartet's leader and first violinist, David Harrington, agrees. "It's really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos, I would say -- and I think it's a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too," he offers, reached at the quartet's San Francisco office. "It's fun to play; I think there's kind of an elemental quality to the music, and to the collaboration. It feels really great, to me."
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"When he was asked to write a new piece, Tundra Songs, for the Kronos Quartet and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, composer Derek Charke knew that he'd have to make the physical presence of the North a central feature. So he donned a parka, hopped a flight, and got busy.
The end product, Tagaq reports, has lived up to Charke's hopes and exceeded her expectations.
"Derek gives me cues throughout the piece about when to sing, " she says, on the line from Yellowknife. "But he doesn't really tell me what to sing, so it's pretty open. I'm really fortunate that way, in that most people allow me to have my artistic freedom.
"I can really feel my home in the piece," she adds. "He nailed it on the head. He's brilliant."
The Kronos Quartet's leader and first violinist, David Harrington, agrees. "It's really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos, I would say -- and I think it's a breakthrough piece for Derek Charke, too," he offers, reached at the quartet's San Francisco office. "It's fun to play; I think there's kind of an elemental quality to the music, and to the collaboration. It feels really great, to me."
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