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1 result
for:
The Giant Guitar
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Composer:
Miguel del Aguila
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Duration: 6:00
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Instrumentation: 3-3-3-3; 4-3-3-1; timp-3 perc; str
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Commission: WNED Radio, Buffalo and the 2nd JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Festival.
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Premiere: June 2006, Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnn Falletta.
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Theme:
Latin Americana
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Availability:
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Having lived the first twenty years of my life in South America I can't think of a guitar without associating its music to my early memories. I often view South America as a "giant guitar" ... friendly, sentimental, nostalgic, and yet concealing a great powerful secret, only suggested by occasional "rasqueado" chords or historical revolutions. Unfortunately, I can't think of this "giant guitar" without remembering conflict and the dramatic political events of the 1970's. Thus this work starts in a somewhat nostalgic mood, beginning with a theme based on the six open strings of the guitar (E A D G B E). After these few introductory bars the flutes re-introduce the guitar theme now in a very rhythmic pattern resembling an Inca-Andean flute chant. The strings accompany the melody through rhythmically complex pizzicati, imitating a giant guitar or South American charango. The drama begins almost unnoticed as the originally delicately strummed chords turn into violent bass drum and timpani hits. A final chord, a third higher then the rest of the piece, offers a last note of defiance as it confronts a police siren, only to be quickly crushed by the overwhelming percussion.
-- Miguel del Aguila |
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