Gracias a la vida (Thanks to Life) is one of the most important songs by a singer-songwriter of all time, and Violeta Parra’s best-known folk anthem. The Maureen Choi Quartet’s version begins with a sorrowful melody in the violin and evolves in an atmosphere of obsessive sadness, which is combined with the (notwithstanding) hopeful melody. This is a reflection of the contradictions that come to a head in the song, which Parra composed shortly before she committed suicide.