In Search of the Great American Guitar Concerto

concertos. While this collaborative work strikes a In Search of the Great bold new direction for finger-style guitar and American Guitar features Kottke in a setting listeners haven’t heard since his first Chrysalis LP (Leo Kottke) in 1976, it Concerto is clearly an adaptation of the orchestra to the Minnesota guitarist’s existing work, not a series of by John Stropes and Jim Ohlschmidt compositions with orchestral intentions at the In 1814, Mauro Giuliani was the first of the onset. The results of these adaptations are great virtuoso/composers of the guitar to write a mixed–sometimes the orchestration that Paulus concerto for guitar and orchestra. Andrés Segovia, adds to Kottke’s highly rhythmic and harmonically in his time, encouraged many prominent jaunty style is striking, beautiful and right. At other composers to write additional works for classical times, it sounds as if the two are at odds as the guitar and orchestra in order to provide substantial rhythmic undercurrent that makes Kottke’s guitar new repertoire for his chosen instrument. playing so fascinating is buried beneath the Concertos by Manuel Ponce, Heitor Villa-Lobos, orchestra. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joaquin Rodrígo and French guitarist Jean Felix Lalanne’s others can be directly attributed to Segovia’s Symphony for a Country Gentleman, on the other influence. hand, pursues a much more traditional course with In the past twenty-five years there have been a four-movement work that owes more more than a dozen new works for classical guitar compositional influence to classic European styles and orchestra written by such composers as Leo of the last century than to any of the present. Brouwer, Lucas Foss, Giampaolo Bracali, Richard Recently premiered with the Symphony of the Rodney Bennett, Ivana Themmen, Stephen Shores in Evanston, Illinois, Lalanne and second Dodgson, Toru Takemitsu and others. But guitarist Muriel Anderson rendered a sparkling problems in balancing the volume of even a performance of the work using two amplified chamber orchestra with the intimate sound of the classical guitars which helped create a guitar either by careful writing or electronically near-perfect balance between their instruments amplifying the instrument have persisted. and those of the 40-piece orchestra. A variety of Ultimately Segovia had to admit that this quest had musical settings featured Lalanne and Anderson in not been particularly rewarding. both a solo and duo capacity, although Lalanne most often played the principal guitar role with Recently, two new works for guitar and Anderson supporting and adding ornamentation. orchestra have attempted to address these Yet while the two occasionally demonstrated the shortcomings. They offer two very different kind of precision and intuition guitar duos strive for, compositional perspectives. what Lalanne has achieved compositionally is Ice Fields, by Leo Kottke and Stephen Paulus, more of a stylistic test-drive for two guitars and a suite for amplified acoustic steel string guitar and orchestra than it is a musical impression or portrait chamber orchestra which premiered with the Fort of the country gentleman in question, Chester Wayne Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra under Burton Atkins. Paulus’ direction, is a milestone for guitar Ice Fields by Leo Kottke The first movement, based on the tune “Times Twelve” (from My Father’s Face, Private Music), Article by John Stropes builds and elaborates on the playful, dance-like Leo Kottke, finger-style guitar spirit of the original recording. The second virtuoso/composer, has inspired a whole movement, “Griddle Slide” (from Paul Bunyan, generation of guitarists. Since 1969 he has Windham Hill), features a lush, pop-style composed and recorded hundreds of instrumental arrangement that provides a handsome backdrop solos and songs with guitar accompaniment on for Kottke’s animated, percussive guitar. more than 25 albums. He has charted his own Compositionally the third movement, “Ice singular, creative course since he began to Fields” (from A Shout Toward Noon, Private redefine the style with major technical innovations Music), seemed to offer the most potential for and compositional beauty, and he continues to orchestration, but received only minimal treatment probe the boundaries of his approach to the from Paulus. “Summer’s Growing Old,” the fourth instrument. movement, is based on a very recent and as yet While his live performances have been almost unrecorded Kottke composition. Opening with a entirely as a solo guitarist (not to mention his highly duet for guitar and trombone, it is solemn and entertaining role as a Midwestern, self-effacing nostalgic, and is an outstanding example of skillful, humorist), his recordings have often included other lovely interaction between the guitar and the instruments–from the simple bass, drum and piano orchestra. combo on Mudlark (Capital), to the elegant tenor The final movement, based on Kottke’s and bass trombone backing on his recent LP high-powered “Air Proofing Two” (from A Shout That’s What (Private Music). “Range,” a Toward Noon) was, at least in it’s premier twelve-string guitar bottleneck piece recorded in performance, troubled by problems of harnessing 1976 with a small orchestral ensemble arranged by an orchestra to one of Kottke’s most complex, Jack Nitzsche was an early glimpse of the potential layered compositions. Played on a 12-string tuned for pairing Kottke’s amplified steel string acoustic well below concert pitch, Kottke’s own sound was guitar with orchestra. sometimes unclear while the orchestra sounded Kottke’s music has often been described as like they were struggling to catch their breath. orchestral. His ability to project two or three voices The premiere of Ice Fields was aggressively coherently in his solo playing, his enormous sound, played and warmly received by the audience, but it the range of his twelve-string, the expanded range needed more rehearsal time. However, while of his guitars when low or alternate tunings are classical guitarists have historically had difficulty employed all seem to make his work ripe for this playing loud enough to be heard over an sort of musical experimentation. In Ice Fields, each orchestra–even when the most adventurous of of the work’s five movements is based on an them used sound reinforcement–this was not an existing guitar solo chosen by Kottke and Stephen issue for Kottke, who has for years used an Paulus during planning sessions earlier this year. ever-changing variety of microphones and pickups Paulus is an internationally acclaimed composer to produce the sound of what you might imagine to who is currently Composer-in-Residence with the be a very large acoustic guitar. The imbalances Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Working from tapes between Kottke’s amplified acoustic guitar and the of Kottke’s playing, Paulus created orchestral chamber orchestra in this performance were more settings for these pieces, providing not only an issue of rehearsal than a tragic flaw. accompaniment but introductory and closing Ice Fields is a ground breaking work for passages, occasional interludes and amplified acoustic steel-string guitar and orchestra. embellishments of the tunes. Paulus’ score The powerful combination of Kottke’s highly maintains Kottke’s original musical language while original playing and composing styles with the attempting to extend the vocabulary. musical colors and immense dynamic range of the orchestra is a natural joy. It is an idea whose time has come. Symphony for a Country became imminently predictable, Lalanne surprised listeners with a 4/4 section featuring himself and Gentleman by Jean Felix-Lalanne Anderson in a harmonically attractive, delicately Article by Jim Ohlschmidt played guitar duet clearly one of the symphony’s guitaristic highlights. The waltz melody returned Jean Felix-Lalanne holds several top awards before the movement was finished. from French guitar competitions in the 1970’s, The fourth and final movement, “Andante including a 1978 First Place in France’s National Presto,” featured a variety of themes, marked by Classical Guitar Competition. Lalanne toured with the return to a plaintive, D minor color, which French fingerpicker Marcel Dadi in 1982, and evolved into a tremolo duet section, providing began composing French film scores soon after. A another highlight of Lalanne and Anderson’s single released from his score for Le Passage technical mastery. In another section, Lalanne became a Number One Top 40 hit in France. In executed some quick fingerpicking in an alternating 1987 he composed a work called Romantic thumb style, although–as with the Kottke suite–the Symphony for the International Festival of the rhythmic effect was obscured somewhat by the Guitar at Liege, and since then he has released orchestra, which swelled behind him and three French discs of guitar music in various styles. intermittently overcame his playing. Yet another The premiere performance of Lalanne’s section of this movement offered one more very Symphony for a Country Gentleman offered a pleasant pop melody which alternated with several palette of familiar musical colors owing influence to guitar duet passages. With its different motifs, this both European and American compositional styles section stood out as the most satisfying of the four, ranging from Baroque and Romantic themes to the pace was interesting and the ending seemed to melodies and chordal devices bordering on come a bit too soon. contemporary mainstream pop–a pleasant, What does all of this have to do with country occasionally pastoral journey through changing gentleman Chet Atkins? Many of Chet’s records, diatonic colors and familiar tempos. as early as the 1950’s, show an eclecticism similar A “Largo Allegro” began the piece with a to what Lalanne suggests with Symphony for a plaintive D minor motif stated by Lalanne (with Country Gentleman, and at moments Lalanne ornamental harmonics by Anderson) and then by achieved the kind of melodic beauty and harmonic the orchestra.

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