Open
Strings, a Voyage of Discovery, for Modified Guitar Quintet
(requires 96kbps data stream for best audio)
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| Open Strings, a Voyage of Discovery
is the culmination of several musical thoughts that were stewing in my
head between the fall of 1998 and the spring of 1999. The first thought
was to write an ensemble piece for steel string acoustic guitar.
As a guitarist and composer, it seems logical that I write for guitar,
but prior to this piece I had only written one piece for solo guitar.
My second thought stemmed from my new found appreciation of the music of
Django Reinhardt. Django's swing band of violin, three steel string
acoustic guitars and bass was a potent ensemble, especially for an unamplified
group playing jazz. The final thought was inspired by the southern
rock band the Allman Brothers. Two aspects of the Allman Bros. music
are appealing to me, first the combination of slide guitar and picked guitar
and second the way the band "jams" with relatively independent parts and
then coalesces in tightly orchestrated sections.
The result of all these thoughts stewing together is Open Strings. Besides a lot of the stylistic elements gleaned from the aforementioned ideas, there are two other important concepts at work in this piece. The first is a scale, derived from the open strings of the instruments, hence the name of the piece. This scale also provides the two main melodies in the work. The first melody, heard in the cello at the beginning of the piece uses the notes in order from lowest to highest, but compressed in range. The second melody is heard about halfway through the piece played by the slide guitar, which uses the notes, again in a compressed range, in the reverse order. The second concept is that of a serial rhythm. This rhythm is manifested as four different durational units, a, b, c, d, where a is the base unit, b=2a, c=3a and d=4a. These units are always presented in groups of four where all units are present. The serial approach alters the order in which the units are presented. Other alterations come in the form of augmentation, diminution and equal durations added or subtracted to each unit. The subtitle, a Voyage of Discovery was inspired by my wife. Upon hearing it, she commented that it had a narrative quality, perhaps describing an ocean voyage and the various experiences one might encounter on such a journey. |
pdf Download a .pdf file of the score (image quality suffers from pdf translation)