Rhys Chatham: A Crimson Grail

"Mr. Chatham, who has been writing for electric-guitar ensembles since the late 1970s, composed 'A Crimson Grail' for an all-night festival at the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris in 2005 and reworked it in 2008, for Lincoln Center Out of Doors. The recording comes from a 2009 performance at Damrosch Park. In this three-movement work’s outer sections, Mr. Chatham expands his guitar army from a small ensemble to a roaring swarm, in which the sound of 200 picks on amplified steel strings creates a tactile, prickly surface. In the opening movement, overtones and shifting balances create an illusion of faint melodies. Mr. Chatham gives listeners more to work with in the finale … and his central slow movement is built of a wave of guitar chords that fade in and out in a hymnlike progression. … Yet the work’s greatest allure is in passages where melody, harmony and rhythm are virtually absent, when all you hear is the visceral roar of plucked strings" (Allan Kozinn, "Especially for the Inner Ear," New York Times, 10/31/10).
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