Elliott Miles McKinley's String Quartet No. 5

Elliott Miles McKinley’s String Quartet No. 5

Performed by the Martinu Quartet There’s a real smorgasboard of musical styles in the string quartets of Elliott Miles McKinley, which is as fitting for someone who studied with William Bolcom as it is for the son of William Thomas McKinley who, according to the booklet notes accompanying this CD, was named after Elliott Carter… Read more »

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

Performed by the Martinu Quartet

There’s a real smorgasboard of musical styles in the string quartets of Elliott Miles McKinley, which is as fitting for someone who studied with William Bolcom as it is for the son of William Thomas McKinley who, according to the booklet notes accompanying this CD, was named after Elliott Carter and Miles Davis! The fifth quartet, an uninterrupted flow of music that is conceived in three large sections which further subdivide into twelve parts, is jam-packed with everything from ritornellos and a chorale to some ragtime, a tango, and a movement with the attractive title of “With a Touch of Swagger.” But as could be expected from a collusion of Carter and Miles, rhythms are invariable skewed into something extraordinary.