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Recordings: Contemporary |
The Contemporary Classical Guitar: Recorded from the original vinyl issue. US $9.99 (plus shipping)
The Contemporary Classical Guitar
American composer James Marshall (b. 1941) was trained as a bassoonist, but has extensive credits as a composer as well. Consone For Guitar, written for and dedicated to Joseph Breznikar, is a substantial work in three movements which explores not only the various timbral and textural possibilities of the concert guitar, but also capitalizes on the intervallic relationships of the guitar's strings (tuned mostly in fourths) by using fourth chords and their inversion (chords made of superimposed fifths) extensively.
Ned Rorem (b. 1923) is, without question, America's leading composer of art songs. Included among his many compositions is Air Music for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976. Suite For Guitar, composed in 1980, represents Rorem's first contribution to the repertoire for solo classical guitar. It was given its world premier on July 25, 1980, by Joseph Breznikar at the Blossom Music Center, summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra, and was commissioned by the Musical Arts Association for that occasion. The work, in seven movements of great variety, is an essentially tonal idiom that makes excellent use of the guitar's expressive and technical capabilities.
Guitarist-composer Abel Carlevaro (b. 1916) was considered one of the world's foremost authorities on guitar technique and pedagogical approaches. The two selections presented here are from Carlevaro's Preludios Americanos, a series of five preludes. No.3 Campo (translates to Field) is in ABA form with a beautiful cello-like melody in the A section which migrates to the upper range in the middle section. Also in ABA form is No.5 Tamboriles which expressively captures the folk drum idiom and syncopated rhythms that are characteristic of music of the Rio del Plata in Uruguay.
Francisco Mignone (b. 1987) is considered a cultural institution in Brazil and his music is marked by strong romanticism in the Brazilian culture and folklore. Etude No.4 requires a thorough mastery of the left hand legatos all over the fingerboard. Its middle section is strongly romantic in character, serving to relax both listener and performer. Etude No.8 effectively works with the device of position shifts in arpeggiated chords while also putting optimal use of slurs and repeated notes in the right hand.
Guido Santorsola (b. 1904) was a distinguished composer, conductor, and teacher who composed many important works for the classical guitar including several concertos. After the successful world premier of Santorsola's Concerto a Cinque in April 1979, by Joseph Breznikar, the composer wrote and dedicated Dos Momentos Animicos (Two Moments of the Spirit) to him during his stay in the United States. The work was world premiered by Breznikar on October 11, 1979, at the Brazillian-American Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., and broadcast on national radio in Brazil. Contemplativo (Contemplative) is an unusually expressive work which captures, in the composer's words, "a mood of deep, searching thought under an evening's stars". Euforico (Euforic) is the releasing of emotion at the soul's illumination. Featured in this movement are various "tamboras" (percussive sounds) and special sliding effects.
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