|
|
Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4072
Location: Utah | I am in a guitar ensemble which plays original compositions of a local composer. We had our debut performance this week in a nice concert hall inside a very upscale piano store in downtown Salt Lake City. Somewhere over 200 people filled the room to overflowing.
The music is impossible to categorize. The composer calls it Post Modern Classical. He has no formal theory education but is a very gifted musician. His stuff is very different and very difficult to play, though on paper it doesn't look difficult. The biggest challenge is keeping in sync because there is little to no anchoring with beat 1.
Movement 1 is in A Dorian mode, Movement 2 is G Ionian. There is a metric modulation in Movement 1 from 4/4 to 5/4 and back to 4/4. He has no idea what he has done, but it is very interesting to play it.
We played Movement 1 pretty well. Movement 2 nearly became a train wreck when the bassist skipped one measure early on. Since he is the foundation of the whole piece, each of the other 5 of us were trying to figure out if we should join up with him or if we would stay together and let him figure it out. It wasn't played anything as written but we managed to pull it off.
I'm sitting second from the right as you look at the screen, playing my Hamer Newport Pro through a Fender Super Champ XD amp.
Eric Rich Guitar Ensemble on Youtube |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Aha!!! PROOF that it does take at least 5 guitars to play one of AlanM's compositions! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2009
Posts: 686
Location: Route 66, just east of the Cadillac Ranch | The beginning of the first movement made me think of some of Perfect Circle's work.
"Movement 2 nearly became a train wreck when the bassist skipped one measure early on." Had you not said anything, I don't think anyone would have noticed (no, I'm not trying to be a smart-ass).
Though I don't see myself ever playing something like this, at least on purpose (okay, that was a smart-ass remark), I'm envious of you for being able to play it. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | seems like the drummers or bass players always get the blame whether deserved or not.
Interesting gig. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 4535
Location: Flahdaw | Smart ass remarks aside, I am unable to wrap my mind around that style of playing. I'm probably just too anal...I need structure, and the (seemingly) random hitting of notes by 5 different people is too much for my pea-sized brain to bear. It's like an Ovation gathering, where initially everyone's just warming up and playing different songs....I just go crazy with that. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | there are no wrong notes |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4072
Location: Utah | Originally posted by dark bar:
Smart ass remarks aside, I am unable to wrap my mind around that style of playing. I'm probably just too anal...I need structure, and the (seemingly) random hitting of notes by 5 different people is too much for my pea-sized brain to bear. It's like an Ovation gathering, where initially everyone's just warming up and playing different songs....I just go crazy with that. That is what made it so difficult to play. Each individual part is not terribly difficult, but getting it in sync with the others is tough. There's no strong anchor beat or repeating phrases to latch onto, so if you get at all lost it is game over.
In the second movement the bass player was our main timekeeper. He was super reliable in all the rehearsals, too. If anybody else had goofed it would have been easy for the rest of us to keep on playing, but when the bass skipped a measure we all wondered if we should join him or let him join back with us. He didn't know he was off, so we all wandered back to him by the last 4 measures.
This composer's other stuff is better than what we played. His other ensembles are less unusual. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
July 2005
Posts: 3410
Location: GA USA | Hooray for pulling something like that off live. It had to be a thrill for the composer. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 1330
Location: ms | I don't think its weird at all. Looks like fun and no better way to get better than doing different things.Life would be a little boring if we were all Stevie or Eddie. |
|
| |
Weird gig this week. Fun, but different. Video.
