Publisher's Synopsis
Composer's Note: This is a collection of original compositions for guitar that I composed over a time span of many years. The music embodies a wide variety of compositional styles - from romantic Spanish, to impressionistic, to Japanese traditional, as well as a group of atonal/12 tone works. A common element that they all share is an exploration of the virtually endless palette of color and timbre of the guitar. The pieces included in this collection are: 1. Sakura, Introduction, Theme and Variations on the Japanese folk song. This is a virtuoso concert piece that weaves a dreamlike tapestry of eight variations and a coda, full of mystical evocations of spring, clouds, misty landscapes and serene meditative solitudes. Based on the Japanese folk tune "Sakura," it means "Blooming Cherry Blossoms." Originally composed in the Edo period, its lyrics are translated as: Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, Blanketing the countryside, As far as you can see. Is it a mist, or clouds?.... Come now, come Let's look, at last! 2. Catalonian Reverie. This is a concert piece that is inspired by music of Spanish composers such as Albeniz, Granados, and De Falla, with a touch of flamenco as well. 3. Romance. This short work, based on the iconic Romance D'Amour, has a middle section where the melody is heard in the bass. 4. Hands of My Angel for Solo Guitar. I originally composed this music as an homage to Eric Satie and his Gymnopedie # 1, originally for piano. The harmonic language is somewhat jazz oriented, along with an influence of Satie's friends Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. 5. Hands of My Angel for Two Guitars. This is a two guitar version of the same melody that I composed for my "Hands of the Angels" CD. In the CD version the guitars are accompanied by pizzicato strings. 6. Double of Sarabande from J. S. Bach's Cello Suite # 6. In old French the term 'double' meant melodic variation, where the harmonic design was kept unchanged. Bach composed many doubles, notably in his violin suite in B minor, where each dance is followed by a double. This work is an impressionistic variation on the Bach Sarabande from Cello Suite # 6, with episodic reminiscences of Villa Lobos, Debussy and Baden Powell. 7. Ascent for Solo Guitar. Dedicated to my guitar mentor Theodore Norman, this work is inspired by the abstract paintings of Juan Miro, Wassily Kandinski and Paul Klee, as well as the 20th Century music of Anton Webern and Alban Berg. It is composed in a combination atonal/12-tone idiom and is a musical take on the inner experience of mountain climbing: dangling from ropes, suspended in space surrounded by primordial mountain peaks, amidst blue skies and fast-moving clouds. 8-12. Children's Games: Five Pieces for Guitar. Composed in an atonal/12-tone idiom, this suite of miniatures explores in musical terms memories of a child-like inner world. Before the regimentation and constraints imposed by the world of adults, children, particularly in play, express a rich world of activity and emotions, often without fixed or rigid boundaries. There is a free alternation, often rapid and instantaneous, between states of joy, exuberance, and sometimes foreboding and anxiety. Los Angeles, July 2012
