Last spring, Russell Rolen, cellist of the Spektral Quartet, thought of a creative way to replace the annoying default ringtones on his mobile phone. He decided to ask composers he knew to write short pieces of contemporary music to serve as ringtones, alarms and alerts.
Rolen was able to convince the other members of his Chicago-based ensemble that modern music for cellphones was a good idea. Together, they asked dozens of composers to write music, which the string quartet would then record and make commercially available.
As of November 27, more than 40 composers nationwide have signed on to the project, including David Lang, Shulamit Ran, Nico Muhly, Augusta Read Thomas and Jay Alan Yim.
As for the money, the quartet started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $8,000. They named their project "Mobile Miniatures." To encourage donations, the quartet asked potential donors to imagine "...waking up to the alluring melodies of David Lang, answering a call to the kinetic textures of Augusta Read Thomas or being alerted to a text message by the wry wit of Nico Muhly."
The group even filmed a silly video about bad ringtones, showing that the ringers of today would be vastly preferable:
The quartet met their $8,000 goal on October 3.
With the necessary funding--and dozens of composers committed to the project--the Spektral Quartet will soon head into the recording studio to capture these micro-masterpieces...and then trim 'em down for ringtones, alarms and alerts. The ringtones will be made available for purchase and download, either singly or as a set (like an album), to any device that supports custom notifications.
"We hope these itty-bitty string quartets will be conversation starters, and that people who previously had never thought to check out this music will have their ears perked," Rolen recently told John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune.
The quartet will hold a release party/concert at Constellation Chicago on March 29, 2014, featuring a live performance of many of these miniature masterpieces.
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