100 Greatest Dance Hits

Aaron Jay Kernis likes to get inspiration from the past, whether it's medieval music (as in the string quartet, “Musica Celestis”) or Bach (the 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner “Musica Instrumentalis”). “100 Greatest Dance Hits,” a four-movement work for guitar and string quartet, is named after a late-night television infomercial. Each movement pays homage to a different musical style — disco, salsa and “MOR,” (the “middle of the road” radio format) — the composer encounters on the streets of his Washington Heights neighborhood in New York. The fourth movement, “Dance Party on the Disco Motorboat,” pays homage to the long-running r&b TV show Soul Train, and has the musicians vocalize funk rhythms and shout "Dance party!" Also on the album is “Superstar Etude,” a three-minute study based on Jerry Lee Lewis's exuberant, hammering piano style.