(1999)
for string quartet

mp3s
Click on the version you want to download
without chorus
with chorus

Death and the Iron Maidens
Anja Rohn - violin
Cordula Merks - violin
Evrim Bastas - viola
Jeff "Death" McAuley - violoncello

Kurt's Recording Comments:
This is by far the worst recording available for download. There are some intonation issues and sloppiness, but this was meant to be a joke and let's face it, the people involved are otherwise serious musicians who had better things to be doing. The comedy factor of the live presentation ended up having more impact than the actual performance, which went over very well! This recording was made just hours before the premiere. With the exception of the fast guitar-like solos, much of this performance was strictly sight reading after a rehearsal or two. Some of this piece is very demanding and it is hard to expect a violinist, for example, to put hours into learning a joke like this when they should be working on their Brahms concerto. Since the performance quality of this recording is not the best, I feel it is important to point out that the musicians here are all very excellent. They attended Northern Illinois University to study with the Vermeer Quartet, most of them coming from outside the USA (Rohn-Germany, Merks-Holland, Bastas-Turkey). Death and the Iron Maidens does not really exist and was fabricated to further the joke of a heavy metal string quartet. Their name is parody of Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet. I thank these otherwise very serious players for letting their hair down and fulfilling my silly whim. As there is an optional chorus in the middle, there are two versions of this piece. Essentially these are both the same recording with different middle sections spliced in. The version with the chorus is sloppier and there are more tuning issues, but the comedy factor is greater. The version without chorus is better performed and the subtleties of the Maiden/Mozart fusion are more audible. In these recordings you can hear Evrim laughing and making comments at certain parts. We all had so much fun doing this silly piece.

program notes
score

You must download the mp3s to listen to these recordings.

You will need an mp3 decoder on your computer to listen to these files. If you do not have one, you can download Winamp (a popular shareware mp3 player) from Nullsoft at their webiste http://www.winamp.com/.

Please note that these are personal recordings made by the composer and while the quality is generally quite good, they are not of a professional nature.

If you have any problems with these files, contact:

Kurt Mortensen
kurt@kurtmortensen.org

Recordings Copyright ] 1999 by Kurt Mortensen
All Rights Reserved