Mark Maxwell, Director

Sunday, June 4, 2017 • 2:00 P.M. GUITAR SHOWCASE Mark Maxwell, director DePaul Recital Hall 804 West Belden Avenue • Chicago Sunday, June 4, 2017 • 2:00 P.M. DePaul Recital Hall GUITAR SHOWCASE DePaul University Guitar Ensemble and students from the studio of Mark Maxwell PROGRAM Michael Praetorius (1571-1621); arr. Gilbert Biberian Four Dances from Terpsichore (1612) Galliard Courante Bransle de la Rayne Ballet des Coqs DePaul University Guitar Ensemble Joaquín Malats (1872-1912); arr. Francisco Tárrega; rev. Mark Maxwell Serenata Española (1903) Amon Sahelijo Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) Capricho Árabe (1892) Zachary Roth Francisco Tárrega Lágrima (ca.1889–1909) Daniel Irani Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) Sonatina (1926) Allegretto Andante Allegro Benjamin Sullivan GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM INTERMISSION Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) Sonata, Op. 61 (1931) Allegro Andante Allegro vivo Roland Dyens (1955-2016) Tango en Skaï (1985) Cameren DeCaluwe Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) L’Histoire du Tango (1986) II. Café 1930 I. Bordel 1900 Diana Ortiz, violin Benjamin Sullivan, guitar Roland Dyens Austin Tango (2006) DePaul University Guitar Ensemble GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) Four Dances from Terpsichore (1612) Duration: 12 minutes In the winter Guitar Showcase concert, we performed Four Dances from Terpshicore by Michael Praetorius from a collection of eight arranged for guitar ensemble by Gilbert Biberian. These ”other four” from that same collection are less frequently performed but are charming dances nonetheless. We decided to complete the cycle this spring quarter. The Galliard is a typical renaissance dance with its two-bar “cinque-pace” dance step culminating in a short leap on beat one of the second bar and landing on beat six – five steps. The Courante looks ahead to the early French baroque with its hemiola (6/4 – 3/2) metric shifts. One can imagine the costumes for such a dance. The Bransle de la Rayne or “Queen’s Brawl”. A Bransle (pronounced brawl) was a peasant dance, in duple meter. This small “proto-suite” finishes with the Ballets des Coqs or “Rooster Dance” which is filled with rhythmic repeated notes that must have suggested a fast prancing step. Joaquín (Joaquím) Malats (1872-1912); arr. Francisco Tárrega; rev. Mark Maxwell Serenata Española (1903) Duration: 4 minutes Piano virtuoso Joaquím (Catalan form of Joaquín) Malats was the person to whom Isaac Albéniz dedicated his suite Iberia. The Serenata Española is Malats’ best-known composition. Malat’s contemporary Francisco Tárrega arranged it for guitar and produced many changes that went beyond adapting the score from a piano to a guitaristic idiom. Tárrega re-composed the final coda as well as altering the piano’s “left hand” accompaniment figures, putting the ornamented accent often on beats other than Malats’ original beat two. This past year I studied the piano score intently with the idea of producing a guitar arrangement, built on Tárrega’s original plan, but revising it to be a more faithful rendition of the piano score. This I did, but I kept a few of my favorite Tárrega-isms. The result is a score that is actually easier to play, in many areas clearer for melodic content, and with fuller, richer accompaniment figures. Finally, I created a guitaristic rendition of the original coda. GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) Capricho Árabe (1892) Duration: 5 minutes One of Tárrega’s most beloved compositions, Capricho Árabe holds a place in every guitarist’s repertoire. It was even recorded (perhaps the earliest) in the second decade of the 20th century by Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios on wax cylinder. The “Arabic caprice” starts with a melisma that suggests Arabic “call to prayer” such as Tárrega might have heard during a visit to Tunisia. He also composed “Danza Mora” (Moorish Dance) inspired by this trip. The augmented second between the lowered sixth and raised seventh scale degrees creates the “Hijaz” found in middle eastern modes as well as in Flamenco music. Tárrega’s use is, however, still grounded in western romanticism in his interpretation of the Phrygian flamenco scale and resulting harmonies is often found as a properly prepared and inverted Neopolitan sixth. This is a further demonstration of his profound influence by the music of Chopin. Tárrega arranged many of Chopin’s preludes and the Nocturne for solo guitar. In Tárrega’s own compositions we find the use of the same forms as Chopin with a similar tonal language. Rather than as could be expected from a Catalan guitarist creating a piece of Arabic influenced music following flamenco traditions, Tárrega relied on harmonic practices found in European romanticism. Notes by Mark Maxwell. Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) Lágrima (Unknown. Between 1889 and 1909) Duration: 2 minutes This short prelude for solo guitar, marked Andante, whose title in Spanish means “teardrop”, is one of Tárrega’s most well-known compositions. Despite its simple nature, it is somewhat difficult to play, a common trait in Tárrega’s guitar music. His desire for certain tonal effects on the instrument led him to use challenging voice-leading an its consequent challenging fingerings. Lágrima’s A-B-A structure features the melody in 10ths first in the key of E major, suggesting a fond remembrance. The central section supplies the “sadness” or regret in the form of a more sweeping melodic phrase in the parallel minor key. The piece closes with a restatement of the theme in the major key now possibly in a tone of “acceptance” of the cause of the tears. GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Frederico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) Sonatina (1924) Duration: 12 minutes Spanish composer F.M. Torroba never played the guitar, but his extensive works for solo guitar are some of the most beautiful and charming music written for the instrument. He was best known for his writing of zarzuelas, a Spanish light opera that combines elements of comedy, and dance. He owned a zarzuela company that toured throughout the world, but extensively through South America. Sonatina in A major, composed in 1926 for Andres Segovia (1893- 1987), is among his earliest of many works for guitar. He was a very prolific composer of guitar music writing many solo works for Segovia such as Suite Castellana, Nocturno, Madroños, Castles of Spain, Pieces Caracteristiques, as well as music for guitar quartet such as Rafagas and Estampas, and chamber music with guitar and guitar concertos with orchestra. Torroba composed his solo guitar music with the colors of the orchestra in mind. Segovia described the guitar a “miniature orchestra.” Torroba’s Sonatina certainly confirms his narrative. Many shifts in range and timbre portray different instruments of the orchestra. The first movement’s opening fanfare suggests brass instruments. A “string section” follows with the contrasting lyrical “B” theme. This type of orchestration occurs in each of the three movements. His extensive experience writing for voice gives him a lyrical touch in his long-breathed melodic writing, which is especially evident in the second movement Andante. Formally the Sonatina is in classic sonata-allegro form: sonata first movement, aria for the second and rondo for the third. Notes by Benjamin Sullivan. Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) Sonata Op. 61 (1931) Duration: 12 minutes Joaquin Turina was born in Seville, Spain in 1882. As a young man, he became an excellent pianist and composer and wrote in a variety of forms including opera, chamber music, and symphonic works. Eventually he gained reknown in Spain and was awarded the Composition Chair at the Madrid Conservatory in 1931. The Sonata Op. 61 was written in 1931 for Andrés Segovia who gave its first GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES performance at the Academy of Saint Cecilia in Rome on January 29, 1932. Though not a guitarist himself, Turina’s writing for the guitar employs flamenco idiom in the way that the other “Spanish Nationalist” composers such as Pedrell, Falla, and Torroba did; that is with a strong influence of French impressionism. The form of the work follows the standard sonata-allegro format. The first movement has two contrasting themes: the first is rhythmic and powerful, opening the piece with force and grandeur, the second provides contrast with an ethereal lyricism, featuring a melismatic linear style supported by a chorus of background harmonies. The third movement bursts forth with a vigorous restatement and reinterpretation of the first movement themes in quasi-rondo form, working toward a dramatic final flourish. Roland Dyens (1955-2016) Tango en Skaï (1985) Duration: 3 minutes Roland Dyens was a Tunisian-French guitarist, composer, and arranger. As a performer, Dyens was known for his extraordinary capacity to improvise elaborate and complex pieces. In his improvisations, he drew themes from his seemingly endless vault of internalized pieces from a wide variety of styles such as classical, jazz, Argentine tango, and world music, Tango en Skaï is said to have originated as one of Dyen’s improvisations that he later notated. The “Skaï” in the title refers to a slang term for “fake leather” suggesting that he intends to parody the tango style with guitaristic idiomatic hyperbole. The opening of Tango en Skaï sounds like a tango written by Astor Piazzolla. Then it diverges from the path by including multiple cadenzas: long sequences of slurs, arpeggios and extended passages of diminished inversions that nonetheless are maintained over the meter of the tango. Tango en Skaï is a charming, witty piece, indicative of Dyens’ virtuosity and passion for improvisation within numerous musical styles. Notes by Cameren DeCaluwe. GUITAR SHOWCASE • JUNE 4, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) L’Histoire du Tango (1986) Duration: 12 minutes Hailing from the southern regions of Argentina, Astor Piazzolla is known worldwide as the greatest composer of tangos in history.

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