Dragons, Moods & Safaris
Guitarists love to play Spanish music like the two selections from Manuel de Falla and the two from Isaac Albeniz. This music sounds quite at home on guitar; and with a group of guitars, it’s even better. De Falla's Corregidor from El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three Cornered Hat) and the Danza del Juego de Amor from El Amor Brujo (The Enchanting Love) are from orchestral ballet scores. Canción de Cuna (a lullaby) and Córdoba (named after the famous Spanish city) are piano pieces by Albeniz.
Paul Hindemith, a giant among twentieth-century composers with an enormous list of compositions, wrote exactly one piece involving guitar, and it’s this short Rondo for Three Guitars. The Rondo was composed as a musical intermezzo for a music festival in Berlin in 1925. It’s a wonderful, chromatic little gem, which only leaves us wishing he had written more.
Stepan Rák, a guitarist-composer from the Czech Republic, has written numerous guitar solo and ensemble pieces. The Four Moods title is a bit deceiving. There are actually at least two moods per Mood — a real study in contrasts.
Evasion by Astor Piazolla is, of course, a tango. What else did he write? He’s the undisputed Tango King from Argentina. This was probably for some kind of bandoneon/tango band group. Piazolla’s tangos are very popular these days, being played by every sort of musical instrumentation one can imagine.
Baião de Gude is a thoroughly Brazilian piece by Paulo Bellinati, a celebrated guitarist-composer in that country. Baião is a dance from the northeast of Brazil, and “de Gude” refers to “Bolas de Gude,” a game of marbles played by Brazilian children. We just think it’s a cool piece.
Bryan Johanson’s music was a discovery for us. We were privileged to have the two pieces represented here sent to us by the composer in hand-written manuscript form. At the time of our recording this music, these pieces were not yet published or recorded. Johanson’s music is wild, crazy, fun, and challenging. Dragon Dance is a sharply rhythmic piece, full of dissonance and energy. It was written in the year 2000 — the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Sakura Safari, completed at the end of 2001 is in a class by itself. Going from “Bartok pizzicatos” to tremolo to rhythms and sounds which indicate rock ‘n’ roll roots, it weaves the Japanese Sakura theme in and out. A through-composed multi-section piece, the Safari gradually builds toward a rousing climax. It’s hard to describe this piece; but by the time we’ve finished playing it, it feels like we’ve been on a safari and back.
