| The highlight [of the Bath International Guitar Festival] was a world premier -- Barabas ... Tanenbaum displayed astounding mastery and skill, drawing a bewildering variety of tones and colours from his acoustic guitar.
--Bath Chronicle
Good guitar music is flying from the pens and computers of American composers at a furious pace. Terry Riley's guitar music is a case in point. I had gently nagged him about a piece for over a decade with no result, but when his youngest son took up the classical guitar and brought its world into their house, the tide turned. Terry wrote: "Barabas was the third piece written in a group of 24 pieces planned for guitar, multiple guitars and guitar in ensemble under the banner of Abbeyozzud. All these pieces have Spanish titles and take a different letter of the alphabet to begin their names. They are indebted to the great Spanish music traditions and to those traditions upon which Spanish music owed its heritage."
Aaron Jay Kernis and I have been close friends since we met in school in 1978. He wrote me a three movement solo guitar suite in 1981, and eventually in 1995 Aaron added a new movement, modified the opening and changed the name to Partita as each movement is based upon a Baroque form.
Alan Hovahness' Sonatas are the pieces with which I had the longest gestation period. They've never been recorded before and rarely have they been played.
Lew Richmond is the least known of the composers here. An amateur musician, Zen-priest and software specialist, Richmond's Preludes are inspired by the guitar playing of Alex de Grassi.
Steve Reich's Nagoya Marimbas is here transcribed with the help of the composer for two guitars, becoming Nagoya Guitars.
The earliest piece on the recording is a little serial exercise by Frank Zappa. At age 18, Zappa was experimenting with serialism and the guitar and tossed off Waltz for Guitar. It remained unknown until Keyboard and Guitar Player magazine published a Zappa celebration edition in 1992.
--David Tanenbaum |
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