Nights in the Spanish Gardens. Meaning and inspiration
(2018)
author(s): Samuel Tirado Villaescusa
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Samuel Tirado Villaescusa
Main Subject: Classical Piano
Research Supervisor: Bart van Oort
Title of Research: Nights in the Spanish Gardens: Meaning and inspiration
Research Question: Which are the most important sources of inspiration in the piece Nights in the Spanish Gardens and how all of them affect the performance of the soloist and the orchestra?
Summary of Results:
Manuel de Falla's piece Nights in the Spanish Gardens has become popular during the last twenty years. Several of the greatest performers have recorded it achieving impressive results. However, the piece presents key aspects from the Spanish folklore and French impressionism that, usually, are not taken into account. Searching information for my research, I discovered that the most important sources of inspiration come from »cante jondo« (a Spanish primitive chant), the Spanish guitar and the music of Claude Debussy. Thus, I found several examples that prove the connection and help the performer to make the interpretation as coherent as possible. The research process changed my vision about topics such as the role of the soloist, the interpretation of ornaments, melodic lines and rubato as well as the imitation of the guitar in De Falla's music. Furthermore, this information could also help not only pianist performing Nights in the Spanish Gardens, but also any musician playing Manuel de Falla's music.
Biography:
Samuel Tirado begins his studies in Salamanca, where he completed a bachelor degree with Patrin Garcia Barredo. He has participated in masterclasses with teachers like Claudio Martinez Mehner, Ferenc Rados, Edith Fischer, Kennedy Moretti and Galina Eguiazarova among others.
He has performed as a soloist and chamber music member and in places such as the national auditorium in Madrid, auditorium of Cuenca and theaters in Salamanca, Ciudad Real and Ávila. He has also played in countries such as Holland, France and Austria.
Adapting Telemann’s unaccompanied violin fantasias to the guitar - an investigation of transcriptional methods
(2015)
author(s): Thomas Heimstad
published in: KC Research Portal
Name: Thomas Heimstad
Main Subject: Classical Guitar
Research Coach: Patrick van Deurzen
Title of Research: Adapting Telemann’s unaccompanied violin fantasias to the guitar - an investigation of transcriptional methods
Research Question: “Which considerations does a guitarist have to make when playing and transcribing G. P. Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for unaccompanied violin?”
Research Summary: Transcription is a very important part of the classical guitar tradition, as most of the original repertoire for the guitar has been transcribed from the manuscript. This is because the composers did not always have complete mastery of the guitar. The transcriptions of early music provided guitarists in the early 20th century, with a valuable addition to an otherwise sparse repertoire. This contributed to bring the guitar into the classical limelight, and its recognition as a serious instrument ensued. One genre of music which has been, and still is, popular to adapt to the guitar, is the unaccompanied solo pieces from the Baroque era. The implied polyphony of the solo violin music is often possible to realise on the guitar. This research investigates the different aspects of the transcriptional methods, specifically when working with music for unaccompanied violin. By using Carlo Marchione’s transcription of G. P. Telemann’s first Fantasia as an example, an analysis of and a comparison with the urtext sheds light on the different decisions, which are involved in the process of making a functional version for the guitar. The presentation will include visual and auditory explanations of the different possibilities, excerpts from an interview with Marchione, and examples from the score analysis presented through PowerPoint.
Biography: Thomas was born in 1989 in Bergen, Norway and started playing the guitar at the age of 7. His guitar lessons started with Tino Andersen, continued with professor Stein-Erik Olsen at the Griegacademy of Bergen, followed by one year of Erasmus exchange with professor Marco Socías at Musikene in San Sebastián, Spain, and finally he enrolled in the master class of professor Zoran Dukic at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag, The Netherlands.
In flux
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Tobias Andersson
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this research project, guitarist and improviser Tobias Andersson investigates compositional tools and techniques to create flexible harmonic frameworks for improvisation. In a strive for music that stays in an improvisational state the reseach project also adresses questions on the quality of coherence in the music. The research project investigates how the application of theoretical concepts associated to the 20th century western classical music and post-tonal theory can be useful when composing for improvisation. By taking a close look on the musical material itself, the author starts to compose music where all harmonic and melodic material is derived from a small original set.
The results of the investigation is a series of compositions for different ensembles, spanning from solo work, via smaller settings a large ensemble of wind instruments. The compositions are analysed in regard to the initial questions of coherence and harmonic flexibility, sharing insights to how the compositional approach influenced the musical results.
Source Signals 2 - Lecture Registration
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Kees Tazelaar
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This is a video registration of a lecture on the composition of the work "Source Signals 2" at Willem Twee, Den Bosch.
After the LP Source Signals was released, I had been playing guitar at home almost on a daily basis, initially without a concrete plan. Gradually, however, an idea developed to compose an acousmatic multichannel work in which guitar playing would be the only source. I deliberately say ‘guitar playing’ and not just ‘guitar sounds’, because I’m interested in guitar sounds produced with musical intentions, expressed through playing skills that are developed through practice. Nevertheless, these ‘played’ sounds still had to function in a larger, abstract musical construction. So, the question was: where lies the threshold between listening to recorded guitar playing and the perception of a higher-level musical construction consisting of played guitar sounds?