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Aldo Clementi's Fantasia Su Frammenti Di Michelangelo Galilei. A six-string guitar and another guitar (or perhaps a more than six-string guitar). The piece is musing yet uses a second voice that provides a tension that makes it resonate
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Eric This is a new piece for me. BTW the version I listened to was for just 1 guitar - perhaps there are different versions? I think it will require more listenings for me to get a better feel for it.
I always like being exposed to new works - even if they don't work for me. Thanks.
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Hi, everybody!
Mh,... it's a difficult question because i dedicate myself mostly to music from 1900s to today, specially with my quartet Nuntempe.
I have played many weird and fun stuff both with classical & electric guitar but these two pieces were a surprise to me, early on when i was starting my path in contemporary music:
The first is Ko-tha by italian composer Giacinto Scelsi. It's really unusual in the sense that the guitar is turned into a percussion instrument. https://youtu.be/-PsP57gM41c?feature=shared
The second is Salut fur Caudwell by Helmut Lachenmann, a masterpiece and the first to surprise me with, among other things, spoken parts while playing. https://youtu.be/aMTB7ctffNE?feature=shared
Since i discovered these two 25 years ago, many new things have found their place on my stand but the first surprise is already muted under the amount of pieces.
An unusual piece from the musical point of view would be the Nocturnal by Britten. It's unusually well composed, unusually deep in spirit and unusual in the way that is one of the few pieces of the traditional repertoire written for guitar by an incredibly important non guitarist composer! I love the Nocturnal and you can listen my rendition, if you wish, here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0Iel4khTjVW6p37QgCnl8F?si=yg5Kb67TSESVoMdpe8TjdQ
Another surprise for me was when i first heard Angelo Gilardino's 2nd Sonata (also in my cd in the link above). I was in a summer course in Italy and from somewhere the melodies and harmonies surged and it became a hunt to discover who was playing that amazing music and who was the composer and the name of the piece. It had a surprising impact on my soul. All of Angelo's music, i think, has contributed to make the guitar a different instrument.
So, that's it. Four unusual and surprising pieces for different reasons.
And here is, for your own amusment, a playlist of some of my quartet's recordings (both guitars). Very unusual music for sure :-)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/47urgV1RskX78PKKiOdYR5?si=8DzlxcqxQpGmGCXclWGisA&pi=hD43WehRStuFe
I hope you'll find the links interesting and thanks a lot for listening!!
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Ariel Elijovich The 'Salut fur Caudwell' by Lachenmann was wonderful. I had a recording of his (one of ?) string quartets years ago but didn't like it. I listened to other compositions by him but found my interest waining after a while. Probably required too much concentration. I didn't care for the Scelsi piece.
Britten's Nocturnal has been one of my favorites since getting the Bream album with it in the 1970's. I agree with your assessment whole-heartedly. I also really liked the Gilardino Sonata #2. Gilardino is an amazing composer that doesn't get the 'air time' he deserves. His Mozartiana No.1 is really fun (though it does wear thin over time - at least for me).
BTW your album is very impressive - great selections and playing! Your guitar quartet has some interesting pieces.
Thanks for these mentions - great exposure.
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Jack Stewart thanks, Jack, for taking the time to listen!
For my CD i thought of gathering my most beloved pieces of all times, so i'm glad to share them with you!
For me, Lachenmann has a great emotional impact. His quartets are incredible but you may have to listen to them live. I had such a pleasure with the Maurice Quartet (from Italy) and it was overwelming. I also had the enormous pleasure to participate, playing electric guitar, in "The little Match Girl", a symphonic piece by him and it touched my heart.
Angelo was a great teacher to me, and a friend. I love his music and consider it deserving of full atention. Many and more people are playing his pieces nowadays . Mozartiana is fun and tough!
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At my senior recital in college (over thirty years ago), I played Richard Rodney Bennett’s Impromptus, why are pretty out there. I also played a bizarre piece that I wrote for tape and guitar, full of all kinds of strange noises I found by splicing reel-to-reel tape fragments together, playing them at different speeds, etc. The guitar part was half written out and half improvised. I never played it at all after the recital. That feels like a lifetime ago!
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Eric Phillips Well aren't you a bundle of surprises! I would have no idea how to approach composing a piece with splicing taped recording and improvisations, I like the Bennett Impromptus. I first heard them on Julian Breams album bake in the 70s.
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Eric Phillips Bennet's piece is beautifull. I find it very romantic! As Jack, i knew this thru Bream.
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I have attempted (unsuccessfully at this point) a couple of pieces that (sort of) fits the bill. Gilardino's Prelude from the Tambeau de Ravel (studio #24) It has a structure that is fairly recognizable that has very dissonant harmonies disjointed melodic phrases that all seem to work. BTW Gilardino has an impressive, and massive, body of works in a wide range of styles.
Another of my thwarted attempts was Mario Lavista's Natarayah. This is structured with alternating segments of music, a muted irregular ostinato pattern with a melodic/ harmonic fragments that map out an extended melodic structure throughout the piece.
A couple other pieces that I find interesting for different reasons.
Bartok Roumanian Folk Dances #3 Pe Loc Emre Sabuncuoglu. Sabuncuoglu transcribed this work for guitar using a bottleneck in a very effective way.
Le Gibet de Ravel (12 Studies for Guitar: No. 10) Tilman Hoppstock. This is essentially a recomposing of Ravel's 2nd movement of Gaspard de la Nuit. It is a stunning and haunting work (both this version and Ravel's originial). It depicts a hanging with chilling effect. Hoppstock is able to translate this piece wonderfully. His use of harmonics is amazing.
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Jack Stewart Thanks for sharing!
I have played a duo by Lavista but didn't know this solo piece! It's wonderful and a real challenge! The piece i played, called "Cante" was very different more calm, also using structures but more minimalistic. https://youtu.be/zdXlnxmk1vI?feature=shared
And now that you mention Tilman, i jumped from my chair when I first heard about Allan Willcocks studies! It was quite a turmoil to discover that there had been a composer writing for guitar in a way so reminiscent of Debussy and that he was just being discovered ...!! Only to find out that those beatiful pieces were written by Tilman himself. They are wonderful and i don't think there's anything like that written originaly for guitar excepted Poulanc's Sarabande. https://youtu.be/x_yvi8hduCo?feature=shared
And, by the way, Lukasz Kuropaczewski has a beautiful rendition of Poulenc piece. (there's a threat about Lukasz in General Discussion)
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I have not played this piece, but really would like to. There is a popular song. "Alfonsina y el Mar"; based on the suicide of Argentinian poet Alfonsina Storni. She was born in Switzerland, but grew up in Argentina. She was recognized along Gabriela Mistral, and Juana Ibarbourou as the great poets of the modern epoch. Some say she had terminal cancer, others that she suffered from depression, or that there was a forbidden love. She committed suicide by walking into the sea. A gentleman composed a poem to honor her, and that is the popular song "Alfonsina y el Mar". The lyrics are sad, but beautiful. Now I believe somebody has composed a classical guitar piece based on that melody. The first line "Te vas Alfonsina con tu soledad, que poemas nuevos fuiste a buscar?..." sets the tone. Does anybody has the classical guitar piece, and let me know where I can get it? Thanks, José
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Jose Hola, José! Alfonsina threw herself from a cliff in Mar del Plata. Mar del Plata is a coast-line city in the Province of Buenos Aires. It's got very nice beaches but also some cliffs that fall rigth into a rocky sea. Alfonsina y el mar is a song composed by Ariel Ramirez (pianist and composer) and Felix Luna (poet, writer andf history researcher).
We have many transcriptions and arrangements for this song, from the most loyal to the actual song for piano and voice to more "fusioned" arrangements with more jazzy harmonies.
It's a matter of finding the arrangement that you like most and ask the arranger for it. I'm sorry to say that, as i don't play many argentine music (some Piazolla now and then) i don't have any score of this piece.
I can recomend three arrangements, from people that i know: Gustavo Fogiel, Martin Fedyna and Leonardo Bravo. Check them out on Youtube and if you like some of those i can put you in contact with any of them.
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Thanks Ariel, you know the story of Alfonsina better than I do. I was able to download the arrangement by Ariel Ramirez and Cesar Luna, with the score and tablature. I cannot read music sightseen, but I can do it slowly, so I use both the score and the tablature. This one is only missing the lyrics, that I have separate. I am a beginner at my 80 yrs, so it takes me a while to learn a piece. On this one the lyrics are just phenomenal, I am going to give it a try.
I am from Puerto Rico and know "Argentina, Mexico, Cuba y Puerto Rico son grandes centros de la música latinoamericana". Desde los tangos de Gardel, hasta las Milongas de Borges me encanta la música Argentina.
Saludos y Gracias
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Long time ago, in conservatory in Bonn, Germany, I played a composition by Wolfram Fuerstenau, a German 20th century composer. The piece was Homage a Jean Cocteau, published 1970 by the Dutch Van Teeseling music publisher. It's a great piece, perhaps someone will have heard of it? I cannot find a recording on YouTube....
Peter
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Off the top of my head it was in a Contemporary Music course and the piece was Bruno Maderna's «Serenata per un Satellite»... here's an image of the score... it was an uncommon experience!
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
