"Normally my iPhone ringer is set firmly to "off," but I recently changed it to a new piece by the esteemed composer and one-time Pulitzer finalist Augusta Read Thomas. It's a 35-second, anxious tangle of pizzicato and odd-angled violin and cello lines called "You're Just About to Miss Your Call!" It really captures the existential panic that its title describes.
Thomas's piece was commissioned by the Spektral Quartet, an enterprising Chicago-based string ensemble that recently decided it wanted to populate the world's iPhones with contemporary classical music. For what they're calling the Mobile Miniatures project ("Your mobile phone is our newest concert venue"), they contacted 46 composers. For anyone who follows the world of contemporary classical, it's an embarrassment of riches: everyone from Bang On A Can co-founder David Lang to Nico Muhly to indie figures like Deerhoof's Greg Saunier and Julia Holter."
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