Peter Garland has had a rich career that has straddled the worlds of new music, pop, musicology, and ethnomusicology, and the two string quartets recorded here show the imprint of his varied interests and pursuits. The string quartets of
Terry Riley are clearly an influence in the development of
Garland's material, which operates independently of the European conventions associated with the ensemble. The use of repetitive but varied patterns picks up on
Riley's minimalist tendencies, and the freedom with which
Garland uses daringly spare textures, relatively static harmonies, and surprising textural juxtapositions could also be traced to
Riley.
Garland's dancelike canonic figures are reminiscent of
Steve Reich, but he uses them with looseness not characteristic of
Reich.
The first quartet, written in 1986 in Santa Fe and subtitled "In praise of poor scholars," takes as its inspiration a poem by a fifth century Chinese poet.
Garland has delved deeply into the musics of East Asia, and he unselfconsciously and gracefully incorporates elements of pentatonicism into several movements of the quartet. He began the second in Japan and finished it in Germany in 1994. It, too, has a literary association; its subtitle, "Crazy Cloud," was the pen name of a fifteenth century Japanese poet, and it inhabits much the same varied musical landscape as the first.
Apartment House, a string quartet formed in 1995 and dedicated to new music, plays with commitment and understanding, making a strong case for
Garland's sometimes enigmatic musical logic. The group also has an exceptionally pure and clean tone and a beautiful blend. The sound is intimate and clean.