What's interesting about the latest outing from this prolific chamber group is not so much that they've chosen to create string quartet adaptations of music from the late-Middle Ages and early-Renaissance -- after all,
the Kronos Quartet are folks who have commissioned arrangements of
Jimi Hendrix and
Bo Diddley, so their fans have learned not to be shocked by now -- but here, on
Early Music (Lachrymae Antiquae), they've chosen to juxtapose the works of Guillaume de Machaut,
Perotin, and
Christopher Tye with pieces by
John Cage,
Moondog, and
Harry Partch, among other 20th century notables. But maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise, either. It certainly makes lovely musical sense: the stark and static beauty of
Arvo Pärt's Psalom fits perfectly with
John Dowland's Lachrymae Antiquæ (did that man never cheer up?) and
John Cage's Quodlibet sounds just right next to
Perotin's Viderunt Omnes. Was
Cage poking fun at his composition teachers with a parody of the raw, open harmonies of the 12th century? If so, the
Kronos folks have turned his intent on its ear in a way that he himself would probably have loved. Puckishness, however, is not really on the agenda here: the overriding mood is one of sadness and devotion, as the album's subtitle (Latin for "ancient tears") makes clear. Like most of
Kronos' best work, this is dark, lovely, eerie stuff. ~ Rick Anderson