The Kronos Quartet and their Contributions to Filmic Media

This article explores the many contributions of the Kronos Quartet to the filmic arts, ranging from films for which they recorded original music to media in which only a few selections of their music appear. The Kronos Quartet has recorded the majority of original music for full-length narrative films with prominent scores by composers including Philip Glass and Clint Mansell, as well as for several documentaries and short films. Like their concert music, their film music projects include collaborations with a diverse group of musicians and demonstrate fluency in a wide range of musical styles, albeit with an emphasis on (post)minimalism. Although the Kronos Quartet is best known among classical music audiences as a champion of new chamber works, it is their recordings for films that likely have the broadest cultural reach; even listeners who do not seek out contemporary classical music are likely to have encountered one of Kronos’s recordings composed for or used in a filmic context.