PELLE GUDMUNDSEN-HOLMGREEN (1932-2016): No Ground (String Quartet No. 11), Green for 4 Solo Voices, No Ground Green for 4 Solo Voices and String Quartet, New Ground (String Quartet No. 10), New Ground Green for 4 Solo Voices and String Quartet.

Description: Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen at play. But, this is playfulness in the sense of constructing an intricate puzzle box, or a new kind of Rubik's Cube, and then sitting back with a broad grin, watching what people make of it. He wrote two works for the Kronos Quartet, based on grounds, the second of which, 'Last Ground' was supposed to be his final quartet. But then he wrote another one, 'New Ground', based on the most overplayed ground of them all, Pachelbel's Canon, which is distorted, deconstructed, reassembled and subjected to all manner of indignities. Then he wrote yet another, 'No Ground', which is not only based on no ground, but in its wild juxtaposition of all manner of different material, stands on no solid ground whatsoever (though it does take flight in several of PGH's characteristic whirling propulsive episodes of overlapping fragments). Then he wrote Green, a madrigal which quotes and deconstructs one by William Cornysh, with raucous percussion punctuation. And, when Green is performed simultaneously with No Ground and New Ground, you get two completely new pieces, with different emphases, nuances and apparent meaning and dramaturgy. Kronos Quartet, Theatre of Voices; Paul Hillier.