Rod Sinclair: Submittedin Fulfillment of the Degreeof
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Title: Acoustic Guitar Practice and Acousticity: Establishing Modalities of Creative Practice. Volume 1: Thesis Rod Sinclair: submittedin fulfillment of the degreeof PhD. Newcastle University, December 2007 NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ---------------------------- 206 53423 0 ---------------------------- ABSTRACT The contemporaryacoustic guitar has developed from its origins in the 'Spanish' guitar to become a global instrument and the musical voice of a wide range of styles. The very 'acousticity' of the instrumentpositions it as a binary oppositeto the electricguitar ano as a signifier for the organicand the naturalworld, artistryand maturity,eclecticism and the esoteric.In this concept-rootedsubmission, the acousticand guitaristicnature of the instrumentis consideredin relationto a range of social, cultural and artistic concerns,and composition is used primarily to test a thesis, wherein a portfolio of original compositions, presentedas recordings and understoodas phonograms,comment upon and reflect uponmodes of performativity: instrument specific performance, introspection, virtuosity, mediation by technology and performance subjectivities. p.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledgethe supportand inspirationoffered by Dr JamesBirkett, Dr Ian Biddle, Dr Will Edmondes,Tim Brookes,Mick Wright, MauriceSummerfield and particularly Maureen Scott and Gerry Richardson. I am indebtedto the following musiciansfor their musicalcontributions: Andy Champion: double bass,Freeze: vocals, Stuart Hardy: violin, Neil Harland: double bass,Dave Hignet: flugel horn, Roger Hempsall: percussion,Jim Hornsby: Dobro guitar,Andy Lawrenson:violin, GarryLinsley: saxophoneand flute, Jamie McCredie: guitar, Gerry Richardson: Hammond Organ, Adam Sinclair: drum kit, and Paul Smith: drum kit and percussion. p. 2 INTRODUCTION Ask a contemporary guitar player to describethe acoustic guitar and their responseis likely to consistof a seriesof adjectiveswhich describethe physicalnature of the instrument;interrogate them furtherabout acoustic guitar practice and the namesof particularperformers often appearin an attemptto describeby associationthe nature of acousticguitar styles.This is not unusualand I-recognisein my own development as a guitar player that prior to carrying out this research,I would also find it difficult to respond in a meaningful way. Of course as guitar players we all know what an acousticguitar is, how it feelsto play andhow it sounds,but what is acoustic practice? What is meant by the term acoustic? What is the nature of contemporary practice and how has it evolved? Many books have been written on particular histories of the guitar but they don't clearly succeedin articulating the inherent acousticnature of the guitar, its sound,its musicalstyle and performance characteristics.This researchtherefore, has developed out of a desireto attemptto answerthese questions in a focussedand detailed way by engagingin a broadrange of performanceand compositionalpractice. The researchis presentedin two sections,a written dissertationwhich examinesthe multifariousarticulations of style andpractice that havecoalesced to inform contemporarypractice, and a recorded portfolio that engagescomposition, performance and recordingin the realisation.of real musical events. Combined, the two approachesprovide a comprehensive picture,textual and aural,of the natureof contemporarypractice. The written researchengages with a discourseof eclecticismand the esotericthat reflectsthe guitarsglobal distribution,its appropriationinto localizedpractice and its adaption to technologicalchange, and the recordedportfolio providesa body of compositions p.3 that placethe instrumentwithin variouscreative modalities - combinedthey aim to createa deeper,more clearly articulated understanding of the musicof the acoustic guitar. p.4 CONTENTS 1. THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR: AN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE. 1.1 History and culture context: an overview. 1.2 Historiographic themes. 2. DIGITISATION AND ACOUSTICITY. 2.1 Digitisation. 2.2 Acousticity. 2.3 Digital Recording and its impact on the practices of the acoustic performer. 2.4 Digitisation and practice. 3. ACOUSTIC PRACTICE. 3.1 Contemporary practice: an historical and cultural overview. 3.2 Pedagogy. 3.3 Notationalsystems. 3.4 Acoustic guitar/ Electric guitar. 3.5 Performancestyle: virtuosity andrepertoire. 4 PERSONALCREATIVE PRACTICE 4.1 Formativedevelopment. 4.2 Currentpractice. 4.3 Acoustic Guitar Practice. 4.4 Compositionalpractice. p.5 4.5 Modalities of creative practice. 5 The recordedportfolio andcommentaries. 6 Summary. Tunings. 8 Glossary. 9 References. 10 CD Contents II Appendices p. 6 1. THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR: AN HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE. 1.1 History and Culture Context: an overview This chapter will consider the nature of the primary cultural movements that are concurrentwith the emergenceof the modem acousticguitar, those of modernism and postmodernism, and to interrogate the extent to which these discoursescan be seen to be evident in the development of acoustic-guitar practice. Whilst it is not intendedto debatethe characteristicsof the broadercultural conditions, it is an essentialpart of this processto clarify the over-archingconcerns of postmodemism and modernism.While this will be initially limited to an elaborationof the general principles, an unavoidablereductionism, a more subtle and nuancedinterrogation will take placewhen consideringhistoriographic themes and contemporarypractice in chapters#3, #4 and #5. The emergenceof the modem form of the acoustic guitar, the Americanl guitar (which is later discussedin detail) is concurrentwith a movementtowards science, rationalism, and industrial isation; a period of modernity, modemisation and the cultural responseof modernism: I The instrumentis referredto asAmerican, to differentiatebetween the Spanish guitar (and its derivatives)and the steel-strungcontemporary instrument. This is discussedin more detail later. p.7 The modemmovement in the artstransformed consciousness and artistic form just asthe energiesof modernity- scientific,technological, philosophical, political - transformedforever the nature,the speed,the sensationof human life. 2 Modernismwas driven by an attemptto rationalisethe immediaciesof a rapidly modernisingand changingworld. This emphasison the rational and the scientific privileged the avant-gardeover tradition, repudiatingthe past and establishinga drive towards a continuousforward movement.The desire for rationality would encouragethe establishment of singular universalising artistic theories, over-arching philosophies(metanarratives) and a superimposedcultural hierarchy:the elite (the modernist) who pursued the new and the popularists who produced music for consumption. Postmodemism emerged as a reaction to and development from modernism, at differing rates, in differing times, practices and locations. Lloyd Spencerconsiders that, 'Modernism and postmodernismare intimately interrelated responsesto the crises of modernity,13 and the two 'movements' are not disassociatedentities as the impulseof both is to solve the problemsof modernity. Joakim Tillman in 'Postmodemismand Art Music in the GermanDebate, ' whilst consideringthe ideasexpressed by Danuser,asks the following question: 2 Bradbury,Malcolm. & McFarlane,James, (eds. ), Modernism,A Guideto EuropeanLiterature 1890-1930(London: Penguin, 1991), 23. 3 Spencer,Lloyd, 'Glossary' in Sim, Stuart (ed.), The RoutledgeCompanion to Postmodernism(Routledge: London and New York, 2005),272. p. 8 regardsthe relation of postmodernismto modernism:is it a continuanceof modernism,a discontinuousopposite of modernism,or somethingelse? 4 Danuser questions whether the prefix 'post' implies a continuation of sorts, or a rejection of modernism. If modernism is viewed as a particular responseto modernity,then postmodernismcould be seenas a continuingbut differentresponse. To view postmodernismas a substantialposition, it cannotsimply exist as a passive rejection of modernism,to be worthy of considerationit must possessits own internal dynamic, with its own insistences. Bradbury and McFarlane consider that: Modernism was an art of an age of growing cultural relativism and growing communications;what hasfollowed it, the art of the Postmodern,is in a sense simply a yet more multi-varied replay, often in highly parodic form, of that rise in relativism and cultural pluralism.5 If modernismis perceivedas a heightened,more radical, more utopian form of the 'modem', seducedby a final vision of universaltruths, postmodemismcould be seento havegiven up the hopeof any finality. If a dominantnarrative of modernism is the pursuit of rationality, singularityand the establishmentof universalaesthetic values,then a dominantdiscourse in postmodernismis a recognitionof plurality and diversity; a condition driven by the rapid development of communication technologiesand the resultantease of accessto a diverserange of cultural practices. Any attempt at understanding postmodernism however, must remain provisional becauseof its ongoing nature and the 'fogging' produced by living in a period of 4 Tillman, Joakim, 'Postmodernismand Art Music in the German Debate' in Lochead, Judy and Auner, Joseph (eds.), PostmodernMusic and Postmodern Thought (New York and London:Routledge, 2002), 77. P.9 postmodernity,as the disadvantageof not possessinga detachedlong view makes the ascribingof characteristicsproblematic. When considering the concerns of these two positions, it could be argued that a third position emerges,that of anti-modernism,a