The Attacca Quartet chose works for this album to highlight the direct lineage of the madrigal and to challenge the notion that the church was the sole center of music and artistic life in classical music.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Philip Glass's String Quartet No. 3, titled 'Mishima,' was excerpted from his score for Paul Schrader's 1985 film "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters," which dramatized the life and death of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
Compositional Technique
Composer Philip Glass is noted for his ability to evoke a wide range of emotions using an extreme economy of means, creating moments from simple whole-number harmonic and rhythmic ratios.
Recording & Production
The Attacca Quartet, a Grammy Award-winning string ensemble, created this album to recapture the joy of making music together after the social distancing of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Interpretation
None of the works on this album, except for Philip Glass's String Quartet No. 3, were originally written specifically for string quartet.
Album & Artwork
The album title, "Of All Joys," is adapted from a lyric in John Dowland's "Flow My Tears," an instrumental version of which appears on this recording.
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Of All Joys
Hovhaness, A.: 4 Bagatelles / String Quartet Nos. 1-4 / Zhou, L.: Song of the Ch'In ( Spirit Murmur)
