Electric Counterpoint (1987) was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival for guitarist Pat Metheny. It was composed during the summer of 1987. The duration is about 15 minutes. It is the third in a series of pieces (first Vermont Counterpoint in 1982 for flutist Ransom Wilson followed by New York Counterpoint in 1985 for clarinettist Richard Stolzman) all dealing with a soloist playing against a pre-recorded tape of themselves. In Electric Counterpoint the soloist pre-records as many as 10 guitars and 2 electric bass parts and then plays the final 11th guitar part live against the tape. I would like to thank Pat Metheny for showing me how to improve the piece in terms of making it more idiomatic for the guitar.

Electric Counterpoint is in three movements; fast, slow, fast, played one after the other without pause. The first movement, after an introductory pulsing section where the harmonies of the movement are stated, uses a theme derived from Central African horn music that I became aware of through the ethnomusicologist Simha Arom. That theme is built up in eight voice canon and while the remaining two guitars and bass play pulsing harmonies the soloist plays melodic patterns that result from the contrapuntal interlocking of those eight pre-recorded guitars.

The second movement cuts the tempo in half, changes key and introduces a new theme, which is then slowly built up in nine guitars in canon. Once again two other guitars and bass supply harmony while the soloist brings out melodic patterns that result from the overall contrapuntal web.

The third movement returns to the original tempo and key and introduces a new pattern in triple meter. After building up a four guitar canon two bass guitars enter suddenly to further stress the triple meter. The soloist then introduces a new series of strummed chords that are then built up in three guitar canon. When these are complete the soloist returns to melodic patterns that result from the overall counterpoint when suddenly the basses begin to change both key and meter back and forth between E minor and C minor and between 3/2 and 12/8 so that one hears first 3 groups of 4 eighth notes and then 4 groups of 3 eighth notes. These rhythmic and tonal changes speed up more and more rapidly until at the end the basses slowly fade out and the ambiguities are finally resolved in 12/8 and E minor.

Steve Reich

This week, we feature Andrew McKenna Lee performing Electric Counterpoint.

Just for fun, here is also a video of the Fugata Quintet performing the piece as well.  It’s great to hear the piece in it’s original setting.

There are many more videos from this interview, check them out on my new YouTube “Inspiration Corner” Playlist.

Towards the middle of the video, Celin speaks about inspiration.  Most of us think that students need to find their inspiration, but we have to remember that the teacher must be inspired as well.  Celin says something quite interesting about this, mainly about how the student must inspire the teacher.  I think this is very true at a certain point, the student must inspire the teacher.  Myself, I find I get really excited when the student starts taking responsibility for their musical and technical development.  They won’t find all the answers, that’s why they are taking lessons, but at the same time if they are unwilling to go on that musical exploration, it makes teaching very difficult.

Dale Kavanagh briefly goes on to speak about sound and how you need to be able to make an ugly sound.  The ugly sound allows the audience/performer appreciate the beautiful sound that much more.

2012 brings many good things including more performance dates!  Recently, I’ve been hired at the Manchester Community College in Manchester, CT.  I am teaching a guitar class there, Introduction to Classical Guitar.  Also, 2012 bring the beginnings of the New England Guitar Quartet which is comprised of myself, Daniel Hartington, Jeremy Milligan, and Christopher Ladd, more one the group and future concert dates later.

Finally, the summer of 2012 will be a time of recording, first with Tempo del Fuoco as we record our CD of tango and tango-inspired music, then later in the summer I plan on recording a short CD of solo music.

In 2011 I started several different multi-part articles covering different topics including Practicing, and Left Hand Technique.  Due to things coming up over the course of the end of 2011, I was unable to finish these series, so I plan on concluding them as well as adding new topics to them.

This upcoming year proves to be a very busy one — stay tuned!

Saturday at UConn

Sarah arrived to my place around 12 in the afternoon.  Fresh from our rehearsal last weekend, we both decided to arrive at UConn early to do our sound-check/rehearsal.  Arriving at CSA around 1:30, we set up our things and started rehearsing.  Over the past few performances I’ve started to use amplification when playing with Sarah.  I find that using the amp as a slight sound reinforcement allows my sound to to feel “fuller” for lack of a better word.  The Violin soaks up so much of the sonic range, that the amp helps out the guitar.  It doesn’t make it sound “fake” but just adds a bit more.  However, on Saturday we left the amp equipment in the car, and it was too late to set up.  Even without the amplification, the concert went quite well and was well received by the audience.

I was glad to see my boss in attendance of the the concert.  Afterwards, Sarah and I spoke with him about some interested possibilities for the future.  As details solidify I’ll post more.

Sunday at SMSW

Sunday afternoon was our concert on the Pillow Concert Series at SMSW.  Having played a concert the day before, Sarah and I felt ready for the concert today.  After packing up the cars, we headed down to Westport.  After arriving at the school we unloaded the cars, this time I made sure that I took out the amp/equipment.  We set up and did a quite sound check, and by 2:30 students and families started showing up.  By 4:30 we were done with the concert and finished our first two performances.

I am glad that both concerts were well attended by students at both CSA and SMSW.  Unfortunately, there is only one picture from the past two concerts, the start of our concert at SMSW.

Next stop, Virginia!  TdF will be doing 2 day long residencies at two public schools in Virginia.  Then back up to New Jersey for our concert on October 30th.  See you on the road!