The interesting thing about Robert Morris’s (b. 1943) remarkable career as a composer (and a theorist) is how free he is to move from composing works of great rigor with intricate integrity in his use of pitch-class design, to works of sonic beauty to be performed in a natural outdoor environment, to imaginative electronic/computer music, to the music of acculturation. Among the latter, his monumental Carnatic String Quartet is an outstanding example.

In his own words: “Carnatic String Quartet (2020) is my fifth string quartet. As the title might imply, there is a connection between this work and Carnatic classical music of south India. While I do not try to imitate the styles and performance practices of Indian music in the quartet, the piece is based on the 72 fundamental 7-note “melakarta” musical scales as set forth by Venkatamakhin in his treatise Chaturdandi Prakaasikaa as amended by Govindhacharya in the mid-17th-century. These scales include all Western scales and modes and are well known to every musician in south India. 

"My quartet presents these Indian scales over its three movements in an order that preserves the greatest number of common tones from scale to scale in the sequence. Therefore, the quartet is a series of 72 sections divided into three movements of 23, 25, and 24 sections each. The rhythmic language in the quartet has some connection to various rhythmic patterns in Indian music such as systematic permutation and repetition, especially in groups of five or seven units. Other rhythmic devices involve composed-out senza misura passages and parlando styles.”