Friction Quartet musicians Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor, Doug Machiz, and Jessica Folson (guest artist) recording “The Knight’s Tour” at Skywalker Sound
Early this afternoon I had an opportunity to listen to the Friction Quartet through a YouTube video released late yesterday afternoon. The performance consisted of a single-movement composition by David Garner a little over ten minutes’ duration entitled “The Knight’s Tour.” The music was named after a chess problem: Put a knight on a chess board; then, using only knight moves (two forward and one to the side), visit every square on the board exactly once. (This sometimes appeals to mathematicians more than chess players!)
I am not sure that the music itself has much to say about chess, but it definitely has a rhythmic flow with intimations of a journey. One might even say that the music that Garner composed for Marcus Finnie, playing a drum kit, establishes a sense of forward motion, which then “drives” the string players in the ensemble. They are the members of the Friction Quartet: violinist Kevin Rogers, Mitso Floor on viola, and cellist Doug Machiz, joined by guest violinist Jessica Folson. Scott Pingel’s joins them on bass with jazzy rhythms. It would be fair to say that Friction provides a steady sense of flow, which is driven forward by both the bass and the drum kit.
On first encounter, I did not know what to expect. However, I enjoyed the rhetorical framework of that sense of flow driven by the quartet musicians, who, in turn, are driven by the “rhythm section” of both bass and drums. The brevity of the composition allows the user to enjoy the overall flow without the least sense of tedium. Hopefully, I shall have an opportunity to listen to a “live” performance during a Kronos recital.
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