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Canadian Works Written for the TorontoInternational Guitar FestivalChristopher Boston

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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

CANADIAN WORKS WRITTEN FOR THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL GUITAR

FESTIVAL

By

CHRISTOPHER BOSTON

A Treatise submitted to the

College of Music

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Music

2020

ii

Christopher Boston defended this treatise on November 10, 2020.

The members of the supervisory committee are:

Bruce Holzman

Professor Directing Treatise

Jane Piper Clendinning

University Representative

Mary Roman

Member

Corinne Stillwell

Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and

certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. iv

List of Musical Examples ............................................................................................................... v

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER 2 JOHN WEINZWEIG ............................................................................................. 16

CHAPTER 3 HARRY FREEDMAN .......................................................................................... 37

CHAPTER 4 HARRY SOMERS ................................................................................................ 49

CHAPTER 5 R. MURRAY SCHAFER ...................................................................................... 75

CHAPTER 6 SRUL IRVING GLICK ....................................................................................... 102

CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................... 118

APPENDIX A COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR JOHN WEINZWEIG’S CONTRASTS AND

EIGHTEEN PIECES FOR GUITAR.......................................................................................... 120

APPENDIX B COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR SRUL IRVING GLICK’S DANCE SUITE

FOR TWO GUITARS ................................................................................................................ 121

APPENDIX C COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR R. MURRAY SCHAFER’S LE CRI DE

MERLIN AND GUITAR CONCERTO ..................................................................................... 122

APPENDIX D COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR HARRY SOMERS’ CONCERTO FOR

GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA AND SONATA FOR GUITAR ............................................... 123

APPENDIX E COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR HARRY FREEDMAN’S IMPROMPTUS

FOR MEZZO-SOPRANO AND GUITAR ................................................................................ 124

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 125

Biographical Sketch .................................................................................................................... 130

iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Complete Toronto Guitar Festivals Overview ................................................................ 4

Table 1.2 Guitar ‘75 ........................................................................................................................ 5

Table 1.3 Guitar ‘78 ........................................................................................................................ 7

Table 1.4 Guitar ‘81 ........................................................................................................................ 8

Table 1.5 Guitar ‘84 ...................................................................................................................... 10

Table 1.6 Guitar ‘87 ...................................................................................................................... 12

Table 5.1 The Organization of Motives in Le Cri de Merlin ........................................................ 78

v

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example 2.1 Source, Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and his Music: The Radical Romantic of

Canada, pg. 228. Example XII: 1. Six motifs used in Contrasts: First Piece. .............................. 19

Example 2.2 Contrasts. Middle of system 1. ................................................................................ 19

Example 2.3 Contrasts, movement I, the first half of system 13.................................................. 19

Example 2.4 Contrasts, movement II, m.1 ................................................................................... 20

Example 2.5 Contrasts, movement III, the first half of system 1 ................................................. 20


Canada, pg. 229. Example XII: 3. Basic motifs of Contrasts: third movement. .......................... 21

Example 2.7 Contrasts, movement IV, the second half of the 9th system .................................... 21

Example 2.8 Contrasts, movement V, the first half of the first system ........................................ 22

Example 2.9 Contrasts, movement VI, last quarter of system 3 .................................................. 22

Example 2.10 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Rocking, m. 3 ............................................................. 24

Example 2.11 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Rocking, m. 1 ............................................................. 24

Example 2.12 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Rocking, m. 22 ........................................................... 24

Example 2.13 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Glissade, m. 1 ............................................................ 25

Example 2.14 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Promenade, m. 1 ....................................................... 25

Example 2.15 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, mm. 1-4 .................................................. 25

Example 2.16 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, m. 5 ........................................................ 25

Example 2.17 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, mm. 6-9 .................................................. 26

Example 2.18 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, mm. 41-42 .............................................. 26

Example 2.19 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, mm. 1-2 ................................................. 26

Example 2.20 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, mm. 4-5 ................................................. 27

Example 2.21 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, m. 6 ....................................................... 27

Example 2.22 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Carillon, m. 3 ............................................................ 27

Example 2.23 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Strumming, m. 17 ...................................................... 28

Example 2.24 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Strumming, m. 1 ........................................................ 28

Example 2.25 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Strumming, m. 15 ...................................................... 28

Example 2.26 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Oscillation, mm. 90-91 .............................................. 29

Example 2.27 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Manor Road Blues, mm. 1-2 ..................................... 29

Example 2.28 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Manor Road Blues, mm. 5-7 ..................................... 30

Example 2.29 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Dialogues, mm. 1-2 ................................................... 30

vi

Example 2.30 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Arioso, m. 1 ............................................................... 30

Example 2.31 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Questions-Answers, mm. 1-2..................................... 31

Example 2.32 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Questions-Answers, m. 23 ......................................... 31

Example 2.33 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Fragments, first system ............................................. 31

Example 2.34 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Soliloquy, m. 4 ........................................................... 32

Example 2.35 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Soliloquy, m. 7 ........................................................... 32

Example 2.36 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, City Blues, mm. 13-14 ............................................... 32

Example 2.37 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, first quarter of system 1 ................................ 33

Example 2.38 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, first half of system 3 ..................................... 33

Example 2.39 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, second half of system 5 ................................ 33

Example 2.40 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Lamentation, first system .......................................... 34

Example 3.1 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, mm. 35-36 ................... 38

Example 3.2 Source Gail Dixon The Music of Harry Freedman, pg. 154 ................................... 38

Example 3.3 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, m. 3 ............................. 39

Example 3.4 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, m. 75 ........................... 39

Example 3.5 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, mm. 1-3 ....................... 40

Example 3.6 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, mm. 9-10 ..................... 40




Example 3.10 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, mm. 10-11 ................. 42

Example 3.11 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, m. 75 ......................... 42



Example 3.14 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, m. 1 .......................... 43

Example 3.15 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, m. 2 .......................... 43

Example 3.16 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, mm. 3-4 ................... 43

Example 3.17 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, mm. 12-14 ............... 44

Example 3.18 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, m. 1 motive 1: voice

and guitar measure 1 ..................................................................................................................... 44

Example 3.19 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 8-10 motive 2:

Voice, measures 8-10 .................................................................................................................... 45

vii


Guitar, mm. 12-13 ......................................................................................................................... 45

Example 3.21 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 1-4 .................. 45

Example 3.22 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 64-67 .............. 46

Example 3.23 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 68-70 .............. 46


Example 3.25 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 110-111 .......... 47

Example 3.26 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, m. 2 ........................... 47

Example 4.1 Sonata for Guitar, movement I, m. 1 ....................................................................... 52

Example 4.2 Sonata for Guitar, movement I, m. 10 ..................................................................... 52

Example 4.3 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, mm. 1-7 ............................................................... 53

Example 4.4 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, mm. 34-36 ........................................................... 53



Example 4.7 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, m. 85 .................................................................... 54

Example 4.8 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, mm. 99-104 ......................................................... 54

Example 4.9 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 1-5 antecedent phrase ................................. 55

Example 4.10 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 6-8 consequent phrase .............................. 55

Example 4.11 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, m. 4 ................................................................... 55

Example 4.12 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 11-13 ........................................................ 55

Example 4.13 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, m. 41 ................................................................. 56

Example 4.14 Sonata for Guitar, movement IV, mm. 1-2 ............................................................ 57

Example 4.15 Sonata for Guitar, movement IV, mm. 10-11 ........................................................ 57


Example 4.17 Sonata for Guitar, movement IV, m. 17 ................................................................ 57


Example 4.19 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 1-4 ......................................................... 61

Example 4.20 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 1 ............................................ 61

Example 4.21 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, m. 11 ............................................................. 62

Example 4.22 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 9 ............................................ 62

Example 4.23 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 10, measure 88. .................... 62

viii

Example 4.24 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 10 .......................................... 63

Example 4.25 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 12, measures 107-109 ........... 63

Example 4.26 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, m. 119 ........................................................... 64

Example 4.27 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 120-122 ................................................ 64

Example 4.28 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 152-156 ................................................. 64








Example 4.36 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 487- 489 – rehearsal mark 51 ............... 67




Example 4.40 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, measure 630-634/rehearsal mark 69 ............. 69


Example 4.42 Diagram indicating the location of the upper face, side, and lower face ............... 70

Example 4.43 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, Preface .......................................................... 70


Example 4.45 Diagram indicating the location of the lower face, lower side, upper side, upper

face ................................................................................................................................................ 71

Example 4.46 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 893 ........................................................ 71




Example 4.50 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 1079-1080, time signature: 2/2. ............ 73

Example 4.51 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 1047-1051 ............................................. 73

Example 5.1 Le Cri de Merlin, overview of essential motives in the work ................................. 79

Example 5.2 Le Cri de Merlin, movement I, page 4/mm. 19-20 .................................................. 80

ix

Example 5.3 Le Cri de Merlin, movement I, page 3/m. 1 ............................................................ 81

Example 5.4 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 5/mm. 11-12................................................. 81

Example 5.5 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 5/m. 21 ......................................................... 81

Example 5.6 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 6 m. 6 ........................................................... 82

Example 5.7 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 7/m. 5 .......................................................... 82

Example 5.8 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 8/m. 11 ........................................................ 83

Example 5.9 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 8/m. 19 ........................................................ 83

Example 5.10 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 9 m. 6 ........................................................ 83

Example 5.11 Le Cri de Merlin, movement IV, page. 9 mm. 11-14 ............................................ 84

Example 5.12 Le Cri de Merlin, movement IV, page. 11 m. 2 ..................................................... 84

Example 5.13 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 14 first half of system 5 ............................. 86

Example 5.14 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 13 m. 11 ..................................................... 86

Example 5.15 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 14 middle of system 5 ............................... 86

Example 5.16 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, Rehearsal Mark G, page 38 mm. 2-5 ................. 88

Example 5.17 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, page 39 system 2 ................................................ 90

Example 5.18 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 44 last system ............................................ 90

Example 5.19 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, page 29 mm. 1-3 ................................................ 90

Example 5.20 Guitar Concerto, movement I, page 1 mm. 1-2 ..................................................... 91

Example 5.21 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 21 middle of the first system ...................... 91

Example 5.22 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 25 m. 4 ........................................................ 92

Example 5.23 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 24 mm. 10-11 .............................................. 92

Example 5.24 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 26 mm. 1-2 .................................................. 92

Example 5.25 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 32 mm. 1-2 ................................................ 93

Example 5.26 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 33 system 2. ends with the night music

theme played by the guitar in harmonics. ..................................................................................... 93

Example 5.27 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 35 last system ............................................ 93

Example 5.28 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 36 first system ........................................... 94

Example 5.29 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 46 m. 3 ....................................................... 95

Example 5.30 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 48 mm. 4-6.................................................. 96

Example 5.31 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 49 mm. 2-3 rehearsal mark 15 .................... 96

Example 5.32 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 50 mm. 1-3 rehearsal mark 20 .................... 96

x

Example 5.33 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 m. 1 ........................................................ 97

Example 5.34 Guitar Concerto, movement V, system 3............................................................... 97



Example 5.37 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 first half of system 3 .............................. 98

Example 5.38 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 last system ............................................. 98

Example 5.39 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 68 mm. 1-2 ................................................ 98

Example 5.40 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 56 m. 1 ....................................................... 99

Example 5.41 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 65 m. 3 ....................................................... 99

Example 5.42 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 65 mm. 2-3 ................................................ 99

Example 5.43 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 70 mm. 2-3 .............................................. 100

Example 6.1 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, mm. 1-3 ................................. 105

Example 6.2 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, mm. 11-12 ............................. 105

Example 6.3 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, m. 24 ...................................... 106



Example 6.6 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, m. 40 ...................................... 107




Example 6.10 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, m. 106 .................................. 108

Example 6.11 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Love Dance, mm. 15-16 ...................................... 109

Example 6.12 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Love Dance, mm. 23-24 ...................................... 109

Example 6.13 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 1-2 ........................................ 110

Example 6.14 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, m. 30............................................. 110

Example 6.15 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, m. 37 ............................................. 111



Example 6.18 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 76-77 .................................... 112



xi


Example 6.22 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 117-118 ................................ 113






Example 6.28 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 178 ....................................... 115




xii

ABSTRACT

Guitar works were written by significant Canadian composers for the Toronto International

Guitar Festival during its existence in the 1970s to the late 1980s. These works have not yet been

included in academic study and are generally unknown in the Classical Guitar community. This

treatise presents historical information on and compositional analysis of guitar compositions

written during these twenty years, and gives detailed information about the festival, which was

the first of its kind and the precursor to the Guitar Foundation of America Festival.

The composers whose scores are examined are John Weinzweig and four of his students:

R. Murray Schafer, Harry Freedman, Harry Somers, and Srul Irving Glick. Each of these

composers has a chapter devoted to him and includes biographical information, analysis, and

historical information regarding the composition in question. The works studied are Contrasts,

and Eighteen Pieces for Guitar by John Weinzweig; Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar

by Harry Freedman; Sonata for Guitar, and Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra by Harry Somers;

Le Cri de Merlin, and Guitar Concerto by R. Murray Schafer; Dance Suite for Two Guitars by

Srul Irving Glick. Each chapter assists the performer in understanding the complexity of each

piece and allows the guitarist to see the work’s place in the oeuvre of that composer. The study is

intended to promote the performance of these works, and to draw attention to their composers,

and the history of the festival.

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This treatise examines the guitar compositions of a small group of Canadian composers

who have had a lasting, but often unrecognized, impact on the development of guitar in Canada.

The influence of these composers on guitar was facilitated by their participation in the Toronto

International Guitar Festival which was held five times during the 1970s and 1980s. At that time,

John Weinzweig and his students R. Murray Schafer, Harry Freedman, Srul Irving Glick, and

Harry Somers all lived in the area of Toronto. These composers took part in the founding and

development of the Toronto International Guitar Festival, writing a number of works for the

guitar that were commissioned and performed at that festival. This treatise will investigate how

these works came into existence. It will also examine several of these works in detail. These

works are generally little known in the Classical Guitar repertoire, and hopefully this treatise will

encourage more guitarists to play them.

In examining the influence of these composers and their compositions, it is helpful to

consider their country of origin. Canada is a country with a vast geography, but with a relatively

small population that for the most part is spread out in a narrow band along its southern border

with the United States. This population characteristic has resulted in a country that presents

challenges for Canadian society and Canadian culture.

One challenge is that larger Canadian cities have direct access only to a limited number of

other Canadian cities, and the distances between these cities is often vast. Toronto is more than

500 km from Montreal. Winnipeg is almost 600 km to Regina. Vancouver is almost a thousand

kilometers from Calgary. These distances mean that cultural communities are isolated and have

struggled to survive. Another challenge for Canadian culture is the proximity of most of the

Canadian population to the United States. In broadcasting, the facile access to US programming

has always been an obstacle for the creation and maintenance of Canadian culture.

In response to these challenges, the Canadian government has historically seen national

institutions as resources for the development of national culture, and in the early 1950s, the

government began actively using Canadian institutions to develop and support the Canadian arts

community. At that time, with that governmental objective in mind, the Canadian Broadcasting

2

Corporation saw itself as a creator of Canadian culture and produced programs dedicated to

classical music. The CBC also believed it had a role to play in the development and broadcasting

of Canadian contemporary composers and performers. Additionally, in 1957 the Canadian

government created the Canada Council of the Arts to provide funding for cultural groups,

artists, and performers who were considered to be culturally significant, but without the mass

public appeal that can provide more popular performers with income. Most individual provinces

had similar funding organizations.

In this social context, a cultural environment conducive to the emergence of an event such

as the Toronto International Guitar Festival was developing. There was great interest in the

Classical Guitar in the Toronto area. Eli Kassner founded the Guitar Society of Toronto in 1956,

and the organization held meetings every few weeks. The meetings quickly became kind of a

“cultural club”, and John Weinzweig and approximately 10 of his students, including the young

Harry Freedman, were often in regular attendance. Harry Somers gave lectures on basic

musicianship skills. Many of these young composers went on to become the leading composers

of Canada.1

The idea of creating and hosting a guitar festival arose at one of these Guitar Society of

Toronto meetings in 1973, and it was not long before that discussion developed into a plan for

the first International Guitar Festival. That festival was such a success that it was held four more

times every three years. 2

One of the most prominent themes of these festivals was "The Quest for New Music,”

which focused on the creation of new works for the guitar. The result of the five festivals over

fifteen years is a body of distinctly Canadian guitar works. None of which have entered the

standard repertoire.

Distinct Canadian influences are evident in the compositions in this treatise. R. Murray

Schafer attempted to portray the Canadian wilderness through mimicking forest sounds in his

piece Le Cri de Merlin. He incorporated the environment, the Canadian soundscape in his works,

including the bird sounds in Le Cri de Merlin. Harry Somers wrote North Country for string

orchestra, which depicted the northern landscape. Several of Harry Freedman's compositions

drew inspiration from paintings by Canadian artists who had been inspired by the Canadian

1 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 101. 2 Ibid.

3

landscape. Weinzweig was very Canadian in his sparse mode of composition, evinced in

Contrasts, Eighteen pieces for Guitar, and many of his other works that often reflect the

expansiveness of the Canadian landscape. In Glick's writing for the guitar, unlike the works of

the composers in which the listener hears the northern landscape, one can hear Canadian urban

life, particularly Toronto city life. For example, the first movement perhaps recalls the traffic in

an early commute to work in busy downtown Toronto.

Harry Somers, R. Murray Schafer, and Harry Freedman had the same unconventional way

of writing for the voice, as found in Harry Freedman’s Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and

Guitar. Freedman used the voice in a way that avoided all use of actual words.

The two most significant works examined in this treatise are the two guitar concertos,

which share some commonalities. They both make extensive use of percussion. Harry Somers

Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra is based on Indian Ragas, while R. Murray Schafer’s

Concerto exhibits elements of North African Music in its final movement. The Weinzweig

Eighteen Pieces for Guitar are modern etudes, the Canadian equivalent to the Brouwer studies,

and there is a lot to be gained from the study of these by the young guitarist because they expose

the student to modern ways of playing the guitar.

The Toronto International Guitar Festival

The Toronto International Guitar Festival was the first significant guitar festival in North

America. It set a precedent for all guitar festivals that followed by its format: one week devoted

to concerts, lectures, and a competition.

There were many guitar societies across North America, but there had not yet been much

communication between them. With a growing interest in the Classical Guitar, there was an

interest in connecting with other guitar societies. A concrete idea for the festival emerged during

one meeting of the Toronto Guitar Society in Fall 1973.3

The Toronto Guitar Society held the first festival in 1975. Subsequent festivals ensued in

1978, 1981, 1984, and 1987. The festivals were held at the University of Toronto, in the Edward

Johnson Building, faculty of music, with concerts in the University’s Macmillan Theatre, and the

Roy Thompson Hall. The president of the festivals was Joan York. In addition to the many

volunteers, the festival’s organizers consisted of Eli Kassner, Michael Kehoe, Harold Smith, and

3 “Guitar ’75,” Soundboard Vol 2 Issue 3, 1975, 37.

4

many others of the Toronto Guitar Society. The success and significance of the festival is evident

from the sheer number of attendees, as shown in Table 1.1. One can see from the attendee’s

column that there were a high number of attendees in the first three festivals, with the most

significant festival, 1981, with 700 attendees. Many of the finalists of all the competitions now

have internationally successful careers.

The festival was given support by the University, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation, and the Canada Council.

Complete Toronto Guitar Festivals Overview

Table 1.1. Complete Toronto Guitar Festivals Overview

Festival Competitors Attendees Prize Winners Relevant Premiers

Guitar

’75

75+4

contestants

sent in tapes

only 16 were

chosen to

play in

Toronto

570+5

6

1st: Sharon Isbin

2nd: Manuel

Barrueco and

David Leisner

(tied)

3rd: Eliot Fisk

No Relevant Premieres

Guitar

’78 unknown 6007

8

1st: John

Holmquist

2nd: David

Tannenbaum

3rd. Michael

Newman

John Weinzweig – Contrasts

performed by Leo Brouwer.

Guitar

’81 unknown 7009

10

1st: William

Kanengiser

2nd: Robert

Squires

3rd: Adam

Holzman

Harry Freedman – Impromptus

for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar

performed by Judy Garich

(voice) and Dominic Ashworth

(guitar)

4 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 121.

5 “Guitar ’75,” Soundboard Vol 2 Issue 3, August 1975, 37. 6 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 121. 7 Loretta R. Koscak, “Guitar ’78,” Soundboard Vol 5 Issue 3, 1978, 73. 8 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 122. 9 Matanya Ophee “Matanya Ophee Reviewing Guitar ‘84,” Guitar International, December 1984, 15. 10 Alan Rinehart, “Guitar ’81,” Soundboard Vol 8 Issue 3, August 1981, 184.

5

Table 1.1 - Continued

Festival Competitors Attendees Prize Winners Relevant Premiers

Guitar

’84 80 +11 45012

13

1st: Marcelo

Kayath

2nd: Tania

Chagnot/ Scott

Tennant

3rd: Eduardo

Bernanzando

Harry Somers – “Concerto for

Guitar and Orchestra”

Leo Brouwer – “Concerto No.2”

Guitar

’87 8714 26015

16

1st: Carlos Trepat

2nd: Nicola Hall

3rd: Fabio Zanon

4th: Joaquin

Clerch

R. Murray Schafer - Le Cri de

Merlin performed by Norbert

Kraft.

Leo Brouwer’s Concerto No.4.

“Concerto de Toronto”

performed by John Williams.

Guitar ’75 (June 23-28)

Table 1.2 Guitar ‘75

Concerts Workshops, Seminars17

Major Concerts18

• Carlos Barbosa Lima

• Leo Brouwer

• John Mills

• Oscar Ghiglia

• Alirio Diaz

• Henry Dorigny and Ako Ito

• Teacher’s Symposium – John Duarte

• Guitar Makers Workshop – David Rubio

• Duo-Class – Gilbert Biberian

• Contemporary Music Workshop – Leo Brouwer

• Lute Workshop – Lyle Nordstrom

• Seminar for Composers – John Duarte

11 Matanya Ophee “Matanya Ophee Reviewing Guitar ‘84,” Guitar International, December 1984, 19. 12 Ibid, 15. 13 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 125. 14 Alison Bert, “Toronto Report,” Soundboard, 1987, 206. 15 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 125. 16 Ibid, 126. 17 “Guitar ’75,” Soundboard Vol 2 Issue 3, August 1975, 37 - 39 18 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 120.

6


Noon Hour Concerts Featuring

Canadian Guitarists19 Masterclasses:20

Liona Boyd, Harold Micay, Lynne Gangbar, Alan

Torok, Danny Beckerman, Davis Joachim,

Norbert Kraft,

Ray Sealy, Peter Mccutcheon, Pierre Auge, Paul

Andre Gagnon

• Aaron Shearer

• Gilbert Biberian

The first festival, Guitar ’75, took place during the week of June 23-28. This festival was

much more successful than the organizers had initially planned, partly due to the diligent work of

Joan York, who hand wrote 200 letters to different guitar societies in North America. The

festival attracted 570 attendees, shown in Table 1.1.

There were six workshops offered, shown in Table 1.2. Noon hour recitals showcased

Canadian artists, and international names of the day gave concerts. Each day ended with an

evening concert. There were also six seminars and workshops; a list of these activities can be

found in Table 1.2. Participants came from all over America, but also from South America,

France, Germany, and Italy. At this festival, 500 promotional copies of Soundboard Vol. II No.2

(the magazine of the Guitar Foundation of America) were handed out. This is significant because

it indicates the GFA was present from the very beginning.21

Guitar ’75 made a profit, which the Toronto Guitar Society was able to put toward the next

guitar festival.22 Because of the number of participants, the festival required competitors to send

in a taped audition for the preliminary round. This was a requirement for the rest of the festival’s

competitions.

There was much controversy surrounding the competition results at Guitar ’75. Many of

the audience members were anticipating the first prize to be awarded to Manuel Barrueco,

19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 “Guitar ’75,” Soundboard Vol 2 Issue 3, August 1975, 40. 22 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 119-120

7

however, Sharon Isbin won in part because she played the required piece so well from memory,

while the other contestants’ efforts in performing the piece were questionable. The five finalists

performed 30 minutes of music each. Lacking experience with competitions, the jury selected by

the Guitar Society, which consisted of John Beckwith, Alirio Diaz, and Jack Duarte, did not have

enough members. Despite these controversies, the competition at Guitar ‘75 is legendary because

its contestants are well known today.

Guitar ’78 (June 19 – 24)23


Concerts Workshops, Seminars, Events

Evening Concerts

• Richard Stover

• Liona Boyd

• Leo Brouwer

• Turibio Santos

• Abel Carlevarlo (Replacing

Narciso Yepes who was

scheduled but unable to

attend)

Noon Hour Concerts Featuring

Canadian Guitarists

• Alan Torok

• Norbert Kraft & Bonnie

Silver

• Laval Trio

• Lynne Gangbar

• Wilson-McAllister Duo

• Dan Beckerman

• Robert Feuerstein

• Phil Candelaria

• Peter McCutcheon

• Davis Joachim

• Gordon O’Brien

Workshops

• Contemporary Music Workshop – Leo Brouwer

• Composer’s Seminar – Stephen Dodgson

• Chamber Music – Gilbert Biberian

• Guitar in Latin America – Richard Stover

• Aaron Skitri – Music of the Baroque

• Concert Careers as Business – Joseph Pastore

• Luthiers’ Workshop – David Rubio

• Panel Discussion on Teaching Methods

• American Guitarists of the 1800s and Their

Music – Ronald Purcell and Dr. Peter Danner

• Performance of Sor, Giuliani, and other music of

the early 19th Century - Dr. Thomas Heck and

Dr. Brian Jeffery

Films

• Segovia

• John Williams

• Julian Bream

Masterclasses

• Abel Carlevaro

• Turibio Santos

• Alice Artzt

23 Loretta R. Koscak, “Guitar ’78,” Soundboard Vol 5 Issue 3, 1978, 73-75.

8

Guitar ’78 took place during the week of June 19th- 24th. The success of Guitar ‘75 created

optimism and enthusiasm among those organizing Guitar ‘78 and allowed them to promote the

new festival to various guitar societies all over the world. This festival drew approximately 600

attendees, a small increase in attendance compared with the previous festival. At this festival, the

Guitar Society of Toronto was once again able to make a profit. 24

The festival followed the same design as the previous festival, but this time was more

substantial and had more events, as shown in Table 1.3. The competition jury was more

extensive this year and was comprised of Alice Artzt, Gilbert Biberian, Turibio Santos, Aaron

Shearer, Abel Carlevarlo, and Sophocles Papas. John Holmquist won the first prize, David

Tannenbaum took second place, and third place was taken by Michael Newman, as shown in

Table 1.1. The final evening concert consisted of award-winning works of the International

Composition Concours: A Quest for New Music. Five winning works were selected from

seventy-five entries. The composers of the five winning works each received $1000.

Guitar ’81 (June 22-27)25



Major Concerts

• David Russell

• Sharon Isbin

• Turibio Santos

• Narciso Yepes

• Sergio Abreu

• Toyohiko Satoh and Paul

O’dette

• Lynne Gangbar / John Mills

Workshops and Seminars,

• Improvisation Workshop – Janet Marlow and Joe

Pass

• Guitar in Ensemble – David Russell

• Duo Classes – Joanne Castellani and Michael

Andriaccio

• Renaissance and Baroque Lute – Paul O’dette

and Toyohiko Satoh

• Teachers Seminar – Aaron Shearer, Charles

Duncan, Eli Kassner

24 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 122-

123. 25 “Guitar ’81,” Soundboard Vol 8 Issue 3, August 1981, 181-190.

9



Noon Hour Concerts by

Canadian Artists

• Robert and Sarah Feuerstein

Stephen Wingfield

• Michael Strutt

• Philip Candelaria

• Tom and Lynn West

• Alan Rinehart

• Peter McCutcheon

• Dominic Ashworth

• Gordon O’Brien

• Norbert Kraft

• Wilson/McAllister Duo

Workshops and Seminars (Cont)

• Ensemble Workshop – Paul Gerrits

• Enlarging the Repertoire – Panel from GFA

• History of the Guitar – Paul Cox and Thomas

Heck

• Practical Guide for Guitarists – Ed Honeywell

• Composers Workshop – Stephen Dodgson and

Reginald Smith-Brindle

Masterclasses

• Narciso Yepes

• Sergio Abreu

• John Mills

• Turibio Santos.

Guitar ’81 was held in June during the week of the 22nd to 27th. This festival had 700

participants, the largest number of participants of all the festivals. This festival took place early

in David Russell’s career and marked one of his first significant appearances on the Classical

Guitar scene. Many of the audience members were awed by his modern style of musicianship

and technique.

The financial circumstances of the Toronto Guitar Festival began to change at the 1981

festival. One significant development was that the University decided to no longer provide the

rooms for free. Two factors caused this change: the university administration had changed, and

the government was less able to support the festival and university.

After Guitar '81, GFA began holding its festivals every year, though they lacked the scope

of the Toronto Festival.26 Americans went to the GFA festivals because of travel considerations,

instead of the Toronto Festival. The GFA board members demanded that one of their members

be on the competition Jury for the Toronto Festival.27 The GFA festival had a competition and

masterclasses given by the judges of the competition.

26 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 123. 27 Ibid.

10

The judges of the competition at Guitar ’81 were Narciso Yepes, Eli Kassner, Sergio

Abreu, David Russell, Sharon Isbin, Paul O’Dette, Toyohiko Satoh, Juan Mercadal, John Mills,

Dr. Peter Danner, Ronald Purcell, and Aaron Shearer.28 William Kannegiser took first place,

second place by Robert Squires, and third place was taken by Adam Holzman, as shown in Table

1.1. Guitar ’81 was the only Toronto festival that Leo Brouwer did not attend.29

The concerts at this festival were categorized. There were the “Discovery Series Concerts,”

the “Canadian Showcase series,” and the “Quest for New Music” series. Guitar ‘81 had 12 world

premieres. The obligatory piece for the competition was “Etude Caprice” by Stephen Dodgson.

Guitar ’84 (June 22- 30)30



Major Concerts

• Liona Boyd

• David Russell

• Paul O’dette

• Toyohiko Satoh

• Paco de Lucia

• Leo Brouwer

• George Sakellariou

• Kazuhito Yamashita

• Joe Pass

Noon Hour Concerts by

Canadian Artists

• Wilson/McAllister Duo

• Norbert Kraft

• Dominic Ashworth

Workshops

• Guido Santarsola: Harmony as applied to the

guitar

• Jeffrey Van: Teaching perspectives

• Ray Nurse: Lute construction

• Brian Jeffery: English songs

• Ron Purcell: on Vahdah Olcott Bickford,

• Thomas Heck: Finding rare guitar music

• Ed Honeywell: Working with the music

business,

• How to review printed music and recordings

Peter Danner and Alice Artzt:

• Ensembles – Paul Gerrits

• Duos – Wilson/McAllistar

• Chamber Music – Norbert Kraft

• Jazz for Classical Guitarists – Charlie Byrd

• Luthiers’ Workshop – Jose Romanillos and Grit

Laskin

• Physiology for Guitarists – Pat O’Brien

28 Alan Rinehart, “Guitar ’81,” Soundboard Vol 8 Issue 3, August 1981, 184. 29 Christoph Harlan, “Guitar ’81,” Soundboard Vol 8 Issue 3, August 1981, 186-187.

30 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 124-125.

11



Lute festival

• Paul O’dette

• Toyohiko Satoh

• Jurgen Huebscher

• Ray Nurse

• Pat O’Brien

Masterclasses

• Leo Brouwer

• David Russell

Film

Vidal showed a film and discussed Segovia

Guitar ’84 was held during the week of June 22-30. The festival was the most ambitious of

all. This time, there was a lute festival in addition to the guitar festival. This lute festival featured

Paul O’Dette, Toyohikoh Satoh, Jurgen Huebscher, Ray Nurse, and Pat O’Brien. Roberto Barto

won the lute competition.31

At the 1984 festival, Kazuhito Yamashita made his debut in the West, playing his

transcription of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. His playing of this piece and many

others transcended technical levels of playing at that time to such a degree that Matanya Ophee,

the controversial Classical Guitar historian and music publisher, wrote that it was the most

incredible thing that he had ever heard.32

Interestingly, John Williams made the decision not to attend this festival. His manager

asked for a fee of $24,000. Williams was unhappy with his manager asking for such a large sum

of money because he did not believe the festival could afford it, so he canceled the concert.33

The activities of this festival were very similar to previous festivals, shown in Table 1.5.

The theme of Guitar ’84 was the Guitar Concerto. There were nine concertos performed. Some

of the notable concertos played were Maurice Ohana’s Tres Graphicos, Santorsola’s Third

Concerto, Chiereghin’s Concerto for two Guitars, Somers’s Concerto No.1 and Brouwer’s

Concerto No.2, Douglas Jamieson’s Guitar Concerto and Radames Gnatalli’s Concerto.34

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid. 33 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 126.

34 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 125.

12

With a festival this large and ambitious, there were, of course, its critics. In his review of

the festival, Matanya Ophee wrote that at Guitar ’84, there were fewer registrants than Guitar ’81

because of the increase in registration fees and room and board charges. There was a consensus

among many festival participants that the lute and concerto focus of the festival was

inappropriate. Matanya Ophee also commented that there was an over-emphasis on Canadian

guitarists; there were eight non-Canadian guitarists, while there were nine concerts of Canadian

guitarists in which 20 Canadians took part. The design of the festival centered on the concert

featuring the premiere of Harry Somers Guitar Concerto No.1 and Leo Brouwer’s Concerto.35

In the guitar competition, Marcelo Kayath took first place, while Tania Chagnot and Scott

Tennant tied with second place, and Eduardo Bernanzando took third place.

Guitar ’87 (June 22-27)36


Concerts Workshops and Seminars

“Celebrity Series”

• Abel Carlevarlo

• Norbert Kraft

• Vladimir Mikulka

• Turibio Santos

• John Williams

“Past Winners Series”

• Bill Kanengiser

• Scott Tennant with the

LAGQ

• Marcelo Kayath

• Tanya Chagnot

Note:

• Soprano, Victoria de Los

Angeles gave a concert with

the guitarist Ichiro Suzuki

Workshops and Seminars

• Contemporary Music – Leo Brouwer:

• Composers’ Seminar – Stephen Dodgson

• Concert Careers as Business –

• Teaching Guitar – Aaron Shearer:

• Baroque Guitar – Michael Lorime

• Flamenco Guitar – Robert Vidal

• Composers’ Forum – John Weinzweig

• Luthiers Workshop – John Gilbert

• Rock Guitar Workshop – Rick Emmeritt

• Ensemble Class – Paul Gerrits and Duos

Castellani/ Adriaccio and Wilson/McAllister

• Teachers’ Workshops – Aaron Shearer,

Carl Van Feggelen, Richard Provost,

John Wiesenthal, Clare Callahan,

Aaron Shearer,

35 Matanya Ophee “Matanya Ophee Reviewing Guitar ‘84,” Guitar International, December 1984, 13-19. 36 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 125-

126.

13


Noon Hour Concerts Featuring Canadian

Guitarists

• Robert Feuerstein

• Davis Joachim

• Phil Candelaria

• Wilson-McAllistar Duo

• Rachael Gauk (the second

performance of Harry Somers’s

Concerto No.1 for Guitar and

Orchestra

Masterclasses:

• Abel Carlevaro

• Turibio Santos

• Hubert Kappel

• Vladimir Mikulka

Films

• Segovia

• John Williams

• Julian Bream

Guitar ’87 was held during the week of June 22-27. Although the 1987 festival exhibited

the improvements in musicianship and technique guitarists had achieved by the end of the 1980s,

the festival had significantly fewer participants than in the previous years, with just 260 people

attending. Matanya Ophee wrote an article about the extent to which the attendance of this

festival had declined, and he also brought attention to the absence of Kazuhito Yamashita.37

Despite this sharp decrease in the number of attendees, the festival still had many

premieres and events. Rachael Gauk gave the second performance of Harry Somers’s “Concerto

No.1 for Guitar and Orchestra” at a noon-hour concert. Norbert Kraft premiered Le Cri de

Merlin. John Williams premiered Leo Brouwer’s “Guitar Concerto No.4 Concerto de Toronto."

John Weinzweig's composition, Conversations for Three Guitars, was also premiered.38 This

festival had a “celebrity series,” a series of concerts given by well-known artists, including the

soprano Victoria de Los Angeles. It was the first time the guitar society was able to engage a

non-guitarist musician of such stature. The festival also featured a “past winners series” where

finalists from the previous festivals performed concerts.

The competition had 87 entries. The judges of the competition were Aaron Shearer, Robert

Vidal, Hubert Kappel, Michael Lorimer, Vladimir Mikulka, Mario Nardelli, Turibio Santos, and

Gareth Walters. The winners were from first to fourth place: Carlos Trepat, Nicola Hall, Fabio

Zanon, and Joaquin Clerch.

37 Matanya Ophee, “Toronto Report,” Soundboard, 1987, 206. 38 “Guitar ’87 has a String of Classical Concerts,” Toronto Star, June 19, 1987.

14

The 1987 festival was the last International Guitar Festival held in Toronto. Various factors

contributed to its demise, but the lack of funding was the most significant reason. The change of

government from Liberal to Conservative was another influence. The Conservative Prime

Minister Brian Mulroney was opposed to arts funding.

Debt was a significant problem for the festival in its later years.39 At the 1984 festival, the

University of Toronto began to charge by the minute for each room used, because the university

was having significant financial difficulties. As a result of these charges and reduced attendance,

the festival went into debt.40 The Guitar Society had to hold a gala concert in 1985 to pay off the

debt.41 In 1987, the debt the society acquired was paid later with a concert by Yamashita. A

member of the Guitar Society who was very enthusiastic about Yamashita’s playing sponsored

the concert.42

Another factor influencing the Toronto festival’s decline was that the Guitar Foundation of

America, formed in 1973, held its first festival in 1982, and began promoting its festival in the

United States. It was apparent that funding was not as significant an issue for the GFA festival.

The GFA was able to offer the winners large prizes as well as lucrative performing and recording

opportunities. Its first competition took place in 1982, as part of the first festival. As a travel

destination, the United States proved to be more attractive than Canada.43

Guitar ‘90

Planning for Guitar '90 was begun but never finished. The guitar society intended that this

festival would be devoted to the idea of the Guitar Duo. Norbert Kraft commissioned a guitar

concerto from R. Murray Schafer, with its premiere planned for Guitar '90. Pepe Romero and

other members of the guitar quartet "Los Romeros," were scheduled to play. 44

39 Eli Kassner and Jack Silver, Allegro Vivace Con Brio: The Life of Eli Kassner (Jack Silver, 2016), 125-

126.

40 Ibid. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid, 127.

15

Conclusion

The Toronto Guitar Festival was held five times between 1975 and 1987 and grew directly

from discussions that began in 1973 within the Toronto Guitar Society. The TGF was the first of

the major guitar festivals, and its week-long format of workshops and concerts established a

standard for guitar festivals that followed in other locations.

The unusual cultural environment in Toronto and Canada facilitated and supported the

development of the festival. As a relatively isolated cultural community, there was great interest

among Torontonian guitarists in forming connections with guitarists in other communities. Also,

the Canadian government was providing financial support for the development of Canadian

cultural institutions and programs. The relative isolation and small size of the Toronto guitar

community helped make the Toronto Guitar Society an association that welcomed musicians of

various disciplines. This helped form the immense scope of the festival.

The festivals existed during a time when the Classical Guitar was gaining acceptance in

universities, the classical music world, and the concert hall. The standards of technique and

musicianship were developing. The festival served as a forum for the development of guitar

teaching, composition, and guitar building. Funding for the festival, and interest generated by the

festival, directly supported the composition of new guitar works.

The series of festivals ended due to several factors including political changes that

provided less funding to the arts, as well as competition from other festivals, particularly the

Guitar Foundation of America festival and competition.

16

CHAPTER 2

JOHN WEINZWEIG

Biography

John Weinzweig was born in Toronto in 1913 to Polish emigres. He began mandolin

lessons at elementary school and became so adept on that instrument that the high school

orchestra asked him to play violin parts on his mandolin. He also learned to play the tuba,

saxophone, and bass. From 1934 to 1937, he studied composition at the University of Toronto.

While there, he founded and conducted the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. 45

After examining Weinzweig’s scores, the director of the Eastman School of Music

recommended that Weinzweig enroll at Eastman because it offered courses in 20th-century

music. While at Eastman, Weinzweig gained exposure to music not accepted at the University of

Toronto. The rhythmic potency of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Berg's use of the 12-tone row

in his Lyric Suite invigorated Weinzweig.46

After returning to Toronto, he composed incidental music for the CBC and wrote film

scores for the National Film Board, allowing him to expose Canadian audiences and musicians to

contemporary music they would have opposed in other contexts. In 1952 he was appointed to the

music faculty of the University of Toronto. With the security of a post at a University beginning

in the 1960s, he was able to be more particular about which projects he chose.47

Weinzweig's life’s work was promoting contemporary music in Canada. He and his

colleagues formed the League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre, organizations that

are of the utmost importance today in Canada.48

Weinzweig's compositional output consists of types of compositions standard for a major

composer: a violin concerto, a piano concerto, and Eleven Divertimenti for different

combinations of instruments, ranging from various solo instruments and orchestra to full

orchestra.49

45 John Weinzweig. John Weinzweig. Centrediscs. CMCCD8002, 2008, compact disc. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid. 48 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 46. 49 John Beckwith, Richard Henninger, Krista L. Roberts, “John Weinzweig,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-weinzweig-emc (accessed February 4, 2019)

17

Style

John Weinzweig is known as "The First Canadian Serialist." Weinzweig's use of serialism

developed throughout his career.50 He was influenced by the rhythms of Stravinsky and Bartok,

modifying their ideas with rhythmic patterns taken from jazz and swing.51 In the early years,

Weinzweig tried to keep his classical academic side separate from the jazz influences of his

youth, but in the 1960s, he recognized the relevance of both of these to his style. He wrote free

pieces with jazz or blues “inflections.” He used the terms “jazz blues” or “jazz swing,” as he

avoided the formal patterns of jazz. Aaron Copland, a composer who made extensive use of jazz

in his work predicted that it was the rhythmic aspect of jazz that would become the residual

element in serious music. John Beckwith commented on Copland’s prediction in his essay

entitled “Jazz Swing” and “Jazz Blues,” stating that perhaps John Weinzweig had fulfilled this

prophecy.52

Weinzweig’s student and biographer, Elaine Keillor, divided his compositional output into

four different periods. In the first period, he replaced elements of tonality with a chromatic style

that he controlled with a serial technique using cells. Two works from this first period are his

Violin Concerto and his early Divertimentos.

Weinzweig’s second period, which began in 1959, is marked by a “technical formalization

based on serial principles.”53

In his third period, beginning in the 1960s, Weinzweig resolves the inherent conflict

between serialism and rhythm by incorporating elements of jazz and swing.54 In this period, he

adheres more strictly to serial techniques but also incorporates more jazz-like conversational

elements.55 His Piano Concerto from this period has many short gestures that are passed back

50 John Weinzweig. John Weinzweig. Centrediscs. CMCCD8002, 2008, compact disc. 51 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 101.

52 John Beckwith, Weinzweig: Essays on His Life and Music (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press,

2011), 208. 53 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 102.

54 Ibid.

55 “Weinzweig profile documentary produced by Eitan Cornfield: In that third compositional period …”

18

and forth between the piano and orchestra. In this third period, too, he explored unusual

sonorities and techniques in performance.56

During his fourth period, Weinzweig was finding it increasingly difficult to get the

orchestral music that he was writing performed, so he turned his attention to composing for

smaller mediums. From the mid-1970s until his death in 2006, Weinzweig compositions became

less calculated and more balanced as he drew more freely from the range of various

compositional techniques he had developed over the years.57

Weinzweig took care to consider the medium he was composing for and paid attention to

the characteristics of the instruments involved. He tailored his musical ideas to fit that medium

and to express the nature of the instruments. When composing, Weinzweig would come up with

12 pitch classes for his row, then write these out in every form on a manuscript. He would then

go through all the different forms of the row and play them looking for combinations of pitch

classes, perhaps 5 or 6, and that would then become the core of the material he used. In deciding

on these combinations, he also considered the duration of the work.

Although Weinzweig’s interest in serialism and jazz was not unique among North

American composers of the time, many of his compositions also seem to evoke a sense of

solitude, which is considered expressive of the emptiness of much Canadian geography. He

composed “with a very spare framework, placing a few well-chosen sounds in silence.”58

Contrasts

Leo Brouwer commissioned Contrasts in 1976 for the 1978 Toronto International Guitar

Festival. The premiere took place on June 20, 1978. Eli Kassner is the dedicatee of Contrasts.

This composition employs serial techniques. Contrasts is musically challenging as opposed to

technically challenging. There are many slow, sparse, and often repetitious melodies; each note

must be intentional and appropriately expressed.59 Although the Canadian guitarist Phil

YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVr_GiaSGaE&list=OLAK5uy_lM17N_A4TNEfr0IkUQ4l2Ic3TqAN1XHms

&index=8 (accessed February 08, 2020) 56 Ibid. 57 Ibid. 58 John Beckwith, Richard Henninger, Krista L. Roberts, “John Weinzweig,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-weinzweig-emc (accessed February 4, 2019) 59 Alexa Woloshyn, “Contrasts for Guitar” http://www.johnweinzweig.com/works/contrasts-for-guitar/

(accessed February 4, 2019)

19

Candelaria played Contrasts many times in his concerts during the 1980s, this work has never

made it into the standard repertory.

I - Freely

The first movement of Contrasts exhibits six different ideas, shown in Example 2.2. The

tonal center of this first movement is emphasized by a frequently repeating artificial harmonic on

G#, shown in Example 2.1. All twelve tones appear in a fast-ascending scalar passage, shown in

Example 2.3.60


Canada, pg. 228. Example XII: 1. Six motifs used in Contrasts: First Piece.

Example 2.2 Contrasts. Middle of system 1.

Example 2.3 Contrasts, movement I, the first half of system 13

60 Ibid.

20

II - Fast

This movement consists of an ostinato pattern, shown in Example 2.4, that is punctuated by

a Bartok pizzicato on F sharp. In the first half of the movement, the intervals of seconds and

thirds expand. The second half exhibits “octave displacement” after a free section based on E#-

F#-G-E. The movement ends with rasgueado chords based on two perfect fourths.61

Example 2.4 Contrasts, movement II, m.1

III - Slow

The slow third movement is the most musically challenging in Contrasts, exhibiting sparse

blues-inflected lines, as shown in Example 2.5.62 It is the only movement in Contrasts that has a

meter. The basic motives are shown in Example 2.6. Motive c happens 11 times, serving as a

refrain. Artificial harmonics and a tremolo on a minor third bring back elements from the first

movement. 63

Example 2.5 Contrasts, movement III, the first half of system 1

61 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 229. 62 Alexa Woloshyn, “Contrasts for Guitar” http://www.johnweinzweig.com/works/contrasts-for-guitar/

(accessed February 4, 2019) 63 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 229.

21


Canada, pg. 229. Example XII: 3. Basic motifs of Contrasts: third movement.

IV – Fast with Nervous Agitation

In this movement, there are five pairs of systems. The first system of each pair explores

various musical lines, while the second system is always a tremolo “shifting” 10th over A. In the

movement’s first half (the first page), there are sections based on dyads and semitones. The

second half (second page), employs various timbres.64

Of special interest in this movement, Weinzweig instructs the performer to “muffle the

string with the little finger pressed on the bridge,” something he termed “La Goya” pizzicato,

and is to the author’s knowledge, unique to works of Weinzweig. Throughout the Classical

Guitar repertoire there have been different types of pizzicato used by composers to achieve

different effects on the guitar. Examples include Fernando Sor’s pizzicato, which he termed

“Etouffe,” and the “Carlevaro” pizzicato. In this pizzicato the thumb is immobile during the

attack and then immediately afterwards the string is dampened with the palm of the string just

plucked. Many guitarists have used the Carlevaro pizzicato to play the beginning of “La Maya de

Goya,” by Enrique Granados.65

Example 2.7 Contrasts, movement IV, the second half of the 9th system

64 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig, and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 229. 65 Douglas Niedt, “How to Play Pizzicato on the Classical Guitar: A Comprehensive Guide,”

https://douglasniedt.com/pizzicato.html

22

V – Slow

The fifth movement opens with a chromatically shifting chord shown in Example 2.8. A

percussive tapping on the guitar from the bridge down to the rim and back answers this chord.

There are lyrical sections between repetitions of the opening gesture, which is repeated 16 times

throughout the piece. Microtonal intervals end melodic phrases. An emphasis on E, A, and B

creates a tonal center around E.66

Example 2.8 Contrasts, movement V, the first half of the first system

VI – Fast

The sixth and longest movement of Contrasts summarizes and expands the ideas explored

in the first five movements. In this sixth movement, the percussive effect from the fifth

movement67 reappears, as well as the rhythmic vitality of the second movement and a quotation

of the third movement’s opening phrase. The fragmented texture of the fourth movement is also

evident. The “La Goya” pizzicato is heard again. This movement is structured on 10-tones that

can be seen in a fast descending scale shown in Example 2.9 that happens 5 times throughout the

work, punctuating many of the small sections in this movement. The work ends aggressively

with rasgueados.68

Example 2.9 Contrasts, movement VI, last quarter of system 3

66 Ibid. 67 Elaine Keillor, John Weinzweig and His Music: The Radical Romantic of Canada (Metuchen: Scarecrow

Press, 1994), 228-230. 68 Alexa Woloshyn, “Contrasts for Guitar” http://www.johnweinzweig.com/works/contrasts-for-guitar/

accessed February 4, 2019)

23

Recordings

In the recording of the premiere performance of Contrasts performed by Leo Brouwer at

Guitar '78, he takes much liberty with the interpretation, changing the right-hand placement,

thereby changing the timbre, and is very free with the rhythm. The only extant studio recording

of Contrasts is by Phil Candelaria. Norbert Kraft suggested that Phil Candelaria call up John

Weinzweig and offer to play his piece for him. That led to the recording of the work for the

Canadian Music Centre Project. In contrast with the Brouwer interpretation, Phil Candelaria

takes languid tempos and follows the score very carefully.

Eighteen Pieces for Guitar

The movements of Eighteen Pieces for Guitar are 18 small scale works written with

pedagogical intent. Eli Kassner asked Weinzweig to write a work applicable for teaching. These

eighteen pieces are short studies, with each movement focusing on a different concept. Many of

the movements are structured on the idea of call and response, often alternating two or three

ideas. The duration of the movements ranges from 45 seconds to 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The

beginner would benefit from the study of Eighteen Pieces for Guitar because they offer exposure

to extended techniques and serial influenced composition.

Weinzweig’s Eighteen Pieces for Guitar was written in 1980 but premiered in 1983 by the

Canadian guitarist Phil Candelaria at Weinzweig's 70th birthday celebration concert. Eli Kassner

commissioned the work with a grant from The Canada Council of the Arts. Each of the eighteen

pieces has a descriptive title. The extended techniques range from string bending to produce

quarter tones to placing a chopstick between two strings.69 John Weinzweig took lessons from

Eli Kassner and could play these pieces himself. 70

I - Rocking - Swaying Tempo

The first of the eighteen pieces is in the first position, employing a bar at the first fret.

Interesting to note is the use of a closed F on the 6th string for most of the movement, as shown

69 Alexa Woloshyn, “Eighteen Pieces for Guitar” http://www.johnweinzweig.com/works/eighteen-pieces-for-

guitar/ 70." John Weinzweig, Pieces for Guitar Twelve of Eighteen (1983), CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with

Philip Candelaria, Guitar, March 11, 1983,

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1402 (accessed May 26, 2019)

24

in Example 2.10, which is an unusual practice in a simple work directed toward beginners, as

usually the bass strings are played in the open position. The influence of blues is evident both

melodically and rhythmically.

Example 2.10 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Rocking, m. 3

There are two extended techniques used in this movement. In performing the first extended

technique, the guitarist slides the right-hand fingers from the middle of the neck along the wound

bass strings towards the bridge of the guitar creating a whistling noise. The notation for this is

shown in Example 2.11. The second extended technique is called “tamburo.” In this piece, the

guitarist must slap the thumb rapidly from ff to pp, moving from the bridge in the direction

towards the sound hole. The notation for this is shown in Example 2.12.



II - Glissade

Glissade is a brief movement without bar lines to indicate measures. It is the shortest

movement, lasting only 45 seconds. The last system is comprised of an atonal melodic line that

consists of intervals larger than two octaves. This movement is supposed to give the impression

of glissando between groups of notes, and there are phrasing marks throughout as seen in

Example 2.13.

25

Example 2.13 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Glissade, m. 1

III - Promenade

Promenade is so called because of the walking bass figure it opens with. The opening

phrase, as shown in Example 2.14, is repeated four times. At the middle of the movement, in

measure 12, the opening motive is separated into a chord figure and a melodic line figure,

resulting in the opening phrase becoming two separate elements. In measures 29-32, the melodic

element of the opening motive is repeated 4 times.

Example 2.14 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Promenade, m. 1

IV - Meditation - Slow

Meditation is a slow atmospheric movement. This movement is based on a phrase that

consists of 3 subphrases we will refer to as X, Y, and Z, shown in Examples 2.15, 2.16, and 2.17.

X

Example 2.15 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, mm. 1-4

Y

Example 2.16 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Meditation, m. 5

26

Z


The whole phrase, consisting of XYZ, is stated 4 times. The general shape of X and Y remain

consistent throughout, but the X and Y pitches are varied; Z remains the same each time.

At the very end of the movement there are four measures serving as a Coda, measures 39-

42. The first two measures of the Coda continue the Z motive, while the second two measures

instruct the player to strike the guitar while damping the strings with the left hand. The composer

indicates the exact location where the performer is to hit the guitar with a drawing of its body

beneath the stave, as shown in Example 2.18.


V – Incantation

This movement is based on a phrase that has three parts, X, Y, and Z. X consists of an E

in the bass followed by a chord alternating between the interval of a perfect 5th and tritone, either

C# to G# or C# to G natural (see Example 2.19.) The Y part of the phrase is also a pedal point,

shown in Example 2.20. The Z part of the statement is a small afterthought, see Example 2.21.

There are variations to the pitches of the Y and Z segments of the phrase, but the X idea remains

consistent throughout.

X

Example 2.19 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, mm. 1-2

27

Y

Example 2.20 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, mm. 4-5

Z

Example 2.21 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Incantation, m. 6

VI - Carillon

This movement imitates a Carillon, an instrument usually housed in a bell tower. A

Carillon has “batons” which are laid out in the same manner as a keyboard. The player strikes the

batons with loosely closed fists, and this causes the bell clapper to strike the bell to produce the

sounds.71 This movement is slow, and is in 5/4 time, further emulating the carillon because this

time signature gives the movement a feeling of a grouping of 2+3. The rhythm does not change

for the duration of the movement, and the writing seems inflexible, further emulating the

carillon. This movement tends to use dissonant intervals on the third beat in each measure, and

the treble and bass strings complement each other creating a bell-like sonorous effect, as shown

in Example 2.22.

Example 2.22 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Carillon, m. 3

71 Luc Rombouts, "Carillon," https://www-oxfordmusiconline-

com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-

0000004929 (accessed March 20, 2020)

28

VII - Strumming

Strumming consists of rasgueados with the i and m fingers, as well as backward strokes

with the thumb, shown in Example 2.23. This is an unusual technique in the Classical Guitar

repertoire, and this movement could be used to introduce the student to rasgueado techniques

from the very early stages of playing.

Example 2.23 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Strumming, m. 17

The chords here are separated on either the treble strings, played using m, or on the bass

strings played using i. Measure 11 is the first instance of the bass strings played with a

backstroke of the thumb instead of using i. Weinzweig indicates that when playing the rasgueado

on the treble strings p should rest on the 4th string, and when playing the bass strings, a should

rest on the third string. These are insightful suggestions for the guitarist.



The movement is based on the first measure, shown in Example 2.24. In various places the

first measure reappears in variation, with an augmentation in 8th notes, played with back strokes

with the thumb, one example of this variation is shown in Example 2.25. The use of 16th notes

becomes more prevalent near the end, naturally creating more volume and the feeling of

heightened intensity. The time signature changes in nearly every measure, with the rhythmic

29

patterns changing continuously. Playing this work from memory would be a challenge even for

the experienced performer, as it is also a study in rhythm.

VIII - Oscillation – Fast

This is an energetic movement serving as an arpeggio study. Two phrases in this

movement are repeatedly interchanged between measures 28-91. The first phrase (measures 1-

17) remains the same throughout. In the second phrase (measures 18-27), the last two bars have a

small variation each time the second phrase reappears. The seventh phrase of this movement,

beginning at measure 82, is different. This phrase combines both the second half of the first

phrase and elements of the second phrase. This seventh phrase is punctuated by both chords (see

Example 2.26.) The closing phrase at measures 92-97 is unrelated to either of these phrases.

Example 2.26 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Oscillation, mm. 90-91

IX - Manor Road Blues

This movement consists of 5 phrases : phrase 1 mm. 1-7 (shown in Example 2.27), phrase

2 mm. 8-17, phrase 3 mm. 18-27, phrase 4 mm. 28-38, phrase 5 mm. 39-61. Each of the phrases

is interrupted by the concluding three measures, shown in Example 2.28. The phrases are for the

most part a single melodic line, but occasionally the interval of a 6th supports the line. The last

phrase, phrase 5 however, begins at measure 39, but is different from the previous phrases. In

phrase 5 the melodic line is interrupted by a 7th and 6th, interjecting between the melodic lines. It

is also the longest phrase.

Example 2.27 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Manor Road Blues, mm. 1-2

30

Example 2.28 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Manor Road Blues, mm. 5-7

X - Dialogues - Fast

This movement is a slur study. Dialogues alternates with left-hand slurring answered by

tapping on the Guitar, as shown in Example 2.29. The composer indicates in the score to “Lift

finger [of the left hand] rather than pluck [with the right hand]”. Interestingly, the composer

indicates the fingers used for tapping, and indicates specifically where on the Guitar the guitarist

must tap. The locations include the bridge, top, and bridge saddle. At measure 13-15, the

guitarist arpeggiates the strings behind the nut with the nail on the left-hand thumb from the 6th

string to the 1st string, instead of slurring with the left hand.

Example 2.29 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Dialogues, mm. 1-2

XI - Arioso - Slow

Arioso is a lyrical movement with defined arpeggiations supporting a prominent melodic

line as shown in Example 2.30. This movement could be used to teach the student about

accentuating the melodic line. The guitarist could use rest stroke on the melodic line to help

accentuate the melody. The structure of this movement is ABA with a small Coda. The A section

spans measures 1-4. The B sections spans measures 5-10, and the returning A section spans

measures 11-14. The Coda is found in the last system and interestingly, has no bar lines.

Example 2.30 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Arioso, m. 1

31

XII - Question-Answers - Fast

This movement follows the question and answer format with the Question, a two-measure

phrase implying two voices, and the Answers repeated chords (see Example 2.31). Each time the

Answer is a different set of pitches while the Question remains the same. At the very end of the

movement p is dragged backwards (see Example 2.32).

Example 2.31 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Questions-Answers, mm. 1-2

Example 2.32 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Questions-Answers, m. 23

XIII - Fragments - Freely

Fragments consists of fragments of ideas utilizing rasgueados, left-hand slurs, and

arpeggiated materials, slides, and double string trills. The first system is shown in Example 2.33,

which shows the rasgueados, pizzicatos, slurs, and glissandos.

Example 2.33 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Fragments, first system

XIV - Soliloquy - Slow

Soliloquy is a slow and lyrical movement. There are four statements, each of which is 7

measures in length. The statements are atonal in the first four measures of the first phrase, as

shown in Example 2.34. Each phrase is punctuated by a chromatic motive, as shown in Example

2.35. At the very end of the movement, the chromatic motive is repeated 3 times. Each time the

motive is reduced in length.

32

Example 2.34 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Soliloquy, m. 4

Example 2.35 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Soliloquy, m. 7

XV - City Blues

City Blues is in ABAʹ form. The A section, spans measures 1-12 and consists of two

phrases, each 6 measures long. Each phrase is punctuated by a single pitch tremolo with the i

finger.

The B section, which spans measures 13-26, is centered around a repeated melodic line in

eighth notes supported by a minor 10th A-C; the melodic phrase is shown in Example 2.36.

Example 2.36 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, City Blues, mm. 13-14

The Aʹ section begins at measure 27, and repeats elements from the A section. The opening

six measures are condensed, then further condensed. The resulting highly condensed version is

then presented 3 times, then followed by a rasgueado figure/scalar fragment that is repeated three

more times. This brings the movement to an end.

XVI – Sparks

Sparks imitates the sounds of electrical sparks using fast 32nd notes. Although there are

no bar lines in this movement, it is still divided into three sections. The first section consists of 4

gestures of the opening idea which is shown in Example 2.37. In the third system, a scalar idea

replaces the opening motive, as shown in Example 2.38.

33

The second section begins in the middle of system 5. The idea is very similar to the first

section however the intervals are inverted, as shown in Example 2.39.

The third section begins at system 9 with rasgueados taking the place of the opening idea.

The second half of this section is not completed.

Example 2.37 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, first quarter of system 1

Example 2.38 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, first half of system 3

Example 2.39 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Sparks, second half of system 5

XVII - Lamentation - Slow

There are no bar lines in this movement. The movement uses only the low E string for

support throughout. Much of this movement, including the entire lyrical line, is played on the

bass strings. This can create challenges for many guitarists because it is sometimes difficult to

avoid producing extraneous noise when playing on the bass strings. Weinzweig has indicated

both dotted slur marks and slide marks in the score, as shown in Example 2.40. Weinzweig

emphasized the importance of legato when playing these slurs. He also indicates in the score that

the player should use the underside of the palm to dampen the bass at the bridge of the guitar,

thus muting the low E string.

In systems 6-9 the line deviates from the main motive exhibiting two short melodic

phrases, which return to the opening motive, occasionally interrupted by string bending. The

34

final two systems of the movement utilize string bending, consisting of ¼ tone up, ½ tone and ¾

tone. This movement could be used to teach the student how to play pitches that are smaller than

the standard semitone, improving the young students’ awareness of pitch, thereby serving as ear

training.

Example 2.40 Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Lamentation, first system

XVIII - Birds

This movement is so named because it mimics the sounds of birds. Birds requires the

guitarist to use a Japanese chopstick (or pencil tip). The guitarist places the chopstick/pencil tip

between the strings and lets it rattle between the 5th/6th strings. There are 3 gestures and each one

is 3 systems in length. The chopstick is used in the first system of every gesture. The remaining

two systems are played in an orthodox manner, except for the very last system of the movement.

In the last system the chopstick is used in the right hand as a percussive tool to hit the strings and

sound a chord. In the final line of the movement, the guitarist presses the notes down with the

left hand on the first string letting the chopstick/pencil tip rebound on the first string with the

right hand creating a percussive rattle.

Recordings

There are two recordings of Eighteen Pieces for Guitar. The first recording is of the

premiere performance by Phil Candelaria at Weinzweig's 70th birthday celebration at Roy

Thomson Hall in Toronto in 1983. The second recording is a studio recording which appears on

Phil Candelaria's album, Progressions.72

Performance Considerations

Although Contrasts is not a technically demanding work, it is musically demanding. While

the 6 movements can be played separately, Contrasts relies on a hearing of the entire work to

72 Candelaria, Philp. Progression. Palladium Records. CD-PAL 01110, January 1st 1993, compact disc.

35

create a cogent entity; the final movement is a summation of the entire work. Movements I and

VI present difficulties because of their fragmentary structure. For example, in movement I, the

six opening ideas which the movement is based on each employ different textures and switching

between them can be a great difficulty on the guitar. These two outer movements also present a

challenge for the guitarist because there are many places where the composer indicates

accelerando, which could cause the player to lose a sense of pulse and rush the music.

Throughout the work, Weinzweig has made use of double string trills using aimp, which could

also cause the guitarist to lose a sense of rhythmic pulse, because of the implied accelerando. All

movements except movement III take a very percussive approach to the guitar. In thinking about

how to perform this music, one should examine the performance style of Leo Brouwer.

Weinzweig had this guitarist/composer in mind when he wrote the work. The performance style

of Leo Brouwer lacked the technical fluency of many contemporary players, and was mainly

focused on achieving diverse colors, evident in his performance of this work. The third and fifth

movements might be the simplest for an intermediate guitarist, while the first, second and sixth

movements are the most technically demanding.

Eighteen Pieces for Guitar was written at the request of Eli Kassner, a guitarist who

dedicated his life to teaching the guitar. In line with Eli Kassner’s renown pedagogical expertise,

this is a work intended for students. The total duration of the entire work is over 30 minutes, and

movements vary in difficulty. John Weinzweig indicates in the performance notes that, “Any

number of pieces may be performed in any order which will be musically effective.” The pieces

structures are often simple employing just 2- 3 ideas. Each of the eighteen pieces focus on a

various musical aspect/technique and unusual approaches to playing the guitar. Each of these

works focuses on a different aspect of playing, melody, trills, slides, slurs, even using a

chopstick, pizzicato using the palm to mute at the bridge, arpeggios, while teaching the student

how to read different notation. The descriptive titles make the work more attractive and give the

student a clearer idea about what they are trying to achieve in the movement. Compared with his

earlier work, Contrasts, it is evident that in Eighteen Pieces for Guitar, Weinzweig has taken a

more jazz/blues influenced, less serious approach.

36

Chapter Summary

John Weinzweig was a composer of international recognition who played a significant

role in the development of music in Canada. Weinzweig developed his interest in serialism while

studying at the Eastman School of Music and was the first Canadian composer to make serialism

an integral part of his musical language. He modified serialism with rhythmic patterns from jazz

and swing. Weinzweig’s compositional output can be divided into four periods. In the first three

periods he developed his use of serialism which was the use of serialist techniques to control

extreme chromaticism. In the fourth period he turned to smaller mediums and was able to draw

on compositional techniques he had honed throughout his compositional career.Weinzweig

played an important role in the development of guitar in Canada through the works he wrote for

the instrument, but also with his influence on a number of his composition students who also

wrote for guitar.

37

CHAPTER 3

HARRY FREEDMAN

Biography

Harry Freedman was born in April 1922 in Poland. At the age of three, he moved to

Canada with his family. At 13, Freedman enrolled at the Winnipeg School of Art to study

painting. Inspired by the Bennie Goodman Band, Freedman began clarinet lessons at the age of

18 with the leading clarinetist in Winnipeg, Arthur Hart, who went on to become the principal

clarinetist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. During WWII he spent four years playing in

the military band, allowing him to develop his skills as a jazzman and arranger. Freedman began

his formal music education in composition with John Weinzweig in 1945. In 1946, he began

playing English horn in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a position he would keep for 25 years.

After 1967, Canada’s centennial year, he began receiving many commissions as a composer,

prompting him to leave the orchestra in 1971. One of his most notable contributions to Canadian

arts was when he worked closely with Brian MacDonald, a choreographer. The ballets they

created together, were the first full-length Canadian ballet commissions for the Winnipeg Ballet.

Harry Freedman and Brian McDonald presented seven ballets together. 73

Style

Over the course of his compositional career, Freedman experimented with different

approaches to composition, which can be seen in a few significant works of his oeuvre, spanning

the years 1947 to 1964. Freedman’s first work was Divertimento for Oboe and Strings, which

was influenced by his teacher, Weinzweig. The first evidence of a distinct style is shown in

Tableau, the first of several compositions inspired by Canadian paintings, revealing his

education in the visual arts. The work employs the 12-tone method of composition. While

writing his Symphony No.1, he lost interest in the limitations of serialism and used it less strictly.

After Symphony No.1 he abandoned 12-tone technique and did not use it again until he composed

53 Stations of the Tokaido, which was inspired by a series of fifty-three prints by Japanese artist,

73 John Beckwith, Betty Nygaard King, Linda Litwack, "Harry Freedman,"

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harry-freedman-emc (accessed May 28, 2019)

38

Utagawa Hiroshige. Freedman set to music nineteen of the fifty-three poems that accompany the

prints. Freedman’s knowledge of the strict brushwork required by Sumi painting, influenced the

music, inspiring him to begin once again to use the 12-tone method. Although he wrote strict

serial works after Tokaido, in most of his music elements of serialism were used for efficiency.

Further aspects of Freedman’s style can be found directly in and are applicable to Impromptus

for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, the work examined in this chapter. 74 Freedman’s wife, Mary

Morrison, was a voice professor at the University of Toronto, influencing his approach to writing

for voice. He believed the music was more important than the words. He thought of the voice as

an instrument. Throughout the work, the text for the voice uses no real words, but is made up of

vocables, as used in jazz “Scat” singing, shown in Example 3.1.75

Example 3.1 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, mm. 35-36

Gail Dixon, a musicologist, found that one of Freedman’s most used melodic phrases was a

rising 4th and a half step, which could, for example, be the pitches B-E-F. In an interview, Harry

Freedman stated that if the F is transposed down an octave, the pitches would be F-B-E, which

are the three upper notes of Freedman’s favorite jazz chord. This jazz chord, based on C, is

shown in measure 1, Example 3.2. Freedman had a penchant for “the prime and inverted forms

of the pc set class 3-5”, the five possibilities available from this set shown in Example 3.2,

measure 2.76

Example 3.2 Source Gail Dixon The Music of Harry Freedman, pg. 154

74 Ibid. 75 John Beckwith, Betty Nygaard King, Linda Litwack, "Harry Freedman,"

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harry-freedman-emc (accessed May 28, 2019) 76 Gail Dixon, The Music of Harry Freedman (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 154.

39

The F-B-E chord that Harry Freedman spoke of in his interview can be found directly in

the first measures of movement I of Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar (see Example

3.3) and at the return of the opening material at the A` Section of the movement as in Example

3.4. Interestingly, Freedman’s first significant work, Tableau, uses this intervallic collection at

the beginning, and this intervallic collection happens in many other works in his oeuvre.77

Example 3.3 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement I, m. 3


Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar

On June 23, 1981, at Guitar '81, 11:30 a.m., in the Macmillan Theatre, Dominic Ashworth

(guitar) and Judy Garich (voice) performed Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar by Harry

Freedman. The program notes state that this was the world premiere performance and that the

Guitar Society of Toronto commissioned the work for Guitar '81.78

The writing for the guitar uses many single lines, especially in the third movement.

Motivic ideas form the basis of this work, and many elements of Harry Freedman’s style are

evident. In fast tempos, Freedman often resorted to fugato. This is evident in the third movement.

77 “Freedman Documentary: If you listen to the First Symphony, the echo of Bela Bartok is there.” YouTube,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjj7-eYiuiY&list=LL-Nj4QR3vmzZZ_hLQFfo9LA&index=2&t=0s (accessed

May 29, 2019) 78 Jack Silver, e-mail message to author, June 23, 2018.

40

Movement I

This first movement is in ABA` form. In this movement, one can see examples of Harry

Freedman's contrapuntal style of writing. There are many time-signature changes; this movement

is very rhythmically active.

A section - Measures 1-25

The A section begins with an introduction played by the guitar, which makes use of Harry

Freedman’s signature F-B-E chord, see Example 3.5. The voice enters at measure 8, and the

guitar plays an arpeggiated figure, see Example 3.6.



In measures 24-25, which lead to the B section, the voice uses two measures of a

transposed version of measures 5-6 from the guitar’s introduction.

B section - Measures 26-74

A few phrase groups create the structure of the B section. In this context, the phrase group

consists of three phrases: phrase X, Y, and Z, shown in Examples 3.7, 3.8, 3.9.

41

Phrase X – mm. 26-28:


Phrase Y – mm. 30-34:


Phrase Z - mm. 35--39:


There are two phrase groups presented with X, Y, and Z, followed by two reiterations of

Phrase Z. The third gesture with Idea C is made, but not completed. The music moves back into

the A` section.

42

A` section - Measures 75-96

This section is structured on a motive first appearing in the voice part shown in Example

3.11. This motive, derived from the descending interval at measures 10-11, is shown in Example

3.10. The guitar accompaniment uses material taken from the introduction.



At measure 84, the voice part appears notated with stems and beams, but no note heads.

The composer indicates for this section “Stage Whisper,” which means that the voice whispers

the vocables audibly enough so that the sound still projects to fill a hall. These whispers alternate

with the guitar now playing the figure shown in Example 3.12 which was previously sung by the

voice.

The movement ends with a motive in the voice (Example 3.13). This motive reappears in

varied form as the opening motive of movement III (Example 3.18).


43


Movement II

Movement II is a brief movement that builds upon a gradually expanding opening motive,

G-B. The gradual expansion of this motive is shown in Example 3.14, 3.15, 3.16.

Example 3.14 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, m. 1

Example 3.15 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, m. 2

Example 3.16 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, mm. 3-4

The guitar accompaniment style in this movement is almost lute-like, and alternates

between Ooh and Ah. The Ooh is reserved for more tranquil moments. At the movement’s

climax, the singer changes the vowel to “Ah” in the higher register of the voice. This moment is

shown in Example 3.17.

44

Example 3.17 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement II, mm. 12-14

In the last section of the movement, the guitar builds a very long line towards another “Ah”

moment, accompanied by a full six-string chord played by the guitar. The movement closes off

with variations of the same motive that opened the movement.

Movement III

Overview

This movement is in ABA` form; the A section spans measures 1-23, the B section spans

measures 24-68, and the A` section spans measures 68-120.

A Section measures 1-23

The A Section introduces three critical motives, shown in Examples 3.18, 3.19, 3.20. These

motives are the basis for the rest of the movement. The movement begins with two four-measure

phrases using motive 1. At measure 8, motive 2 makes its first appearance. Shortly thereafter,

motive 3 appears in measure 12.

Example 3.18 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, m. 1 motive 1: voice

and guitar measure 1

45


Voice, measures 8-10


Guitar, mm. 12-13

B Section measures 24-68

This section first makes use of Motive 3, deploying it canonically in measures 24-47.

Harry Freedman’s “predilection for fugato in fast tempi”79 is evident here.

Immediately after the canonic section, an entry of motive 1 (see Example 3.21) evokes the

return of the A section; this motive is manipulated for ten measures, thereafter, motive 2 is

presented twice in two separate phrases in measures 58-64.

Example 3.21 Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar, movement III, mm. 1-4

Motives 1 and 2 are the basis of a deceptive episode ending with the first three intervals of

motive I repeated by both the voice and guitar in conversation, measures 64-67, shown in

Example 3.22.

79 John Beckwith, Betty Nygaard King, Linda Litwack, "Harry Freedman,"

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harry-freedman-emc (accessed May 28, 2019)

46


A Section measures 68-120

Section A` begins at measure 68 with motive 1 in the voice, while the guitar plays a jazz-

like walking-bass accompaniment, shown in Example 3.23. The A` section is different from the

A section evident from the predominantly rising lines, heightening the sense of excitement. The

rising lines in the bass in the guitar found in the A` Section of the movement are reminiscent of

the first movement measures 54-58, shown in Example 3.24.

Motive 2 becomes the focus again at measure 81. Measures 93-105 employ motive 1. This

section is essentially canonic; the voice and guitar mirror each other.



47

In measures 107-120, descending intervallic interjections in both the voice and guitar,

shown in Example 3.25, form the basis of the ending of movement III, which derives from the

second two notes of the opening motive of the second movement, shown in Example 3.26. The

ending of the A` section is similar to the ending of the B section; compare Example 3.26 to

Example 3.22.




Impromptus for Mezzo-Soprano and Guitar is an intermediate level work. The writing for

the guitar does not present great difficulties, often consisting of single lines. There are elements

of this piece that create challenges, however. One difficulty in this work lies in the ensemble

aspect. The guitar part works in conjunction with the voice to create contrapuntal textures,

evident in the first and second movements. In movement II, the voice has a more soloistic role,

with the guitar taking on the accompaniment role. In movement III, the ending is challenging

because of the counting required by the duo. The fact that there is no recording of the work will

also make its performance more difficult for the guitarist. Single movements from this work

could be chosen for performance, perhaps movements I and II, or movements II and III.

Conclusion

Harry Freedman had a serious interest in the visual arts, studying art formally until the age

of 18, thereafter beginning to study the clarinet. Around this time, WWII began, and he played in

48

the military band for four years. After the war, he obtained a place as English hornist in the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which he kept for 25 years. After leaving the TSO he made his

living entirely from commissions, one of the few Canadian composers able to do so. His earliest

work used the 12-tone technique founded in the Weinzweig approach; however, Freedman’s real

inspiration was the visual arts, and his first work was based on 3 different paintings. In

Symphony No. 1 he grew wary of serialism because it limited him in his symphonic writing and

his was inclined towards flowing melodies. However, he returned to 12-tone serialism again

when he wrote Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido, a work inspired by the strict brushwork of the

Japanese sumi painting style. He found that by manipulating the 12-tone row he was able to use

it expressively.

49

CHAPTER 4

HARRY SOMERS

Biography

Harry Somers was born in Toronto in 1925. Two of his early experiences with music were

hearing his mother playing piano and singing in the school choir. He did not take much interest

in music until the summer of 1939, when he was introduced to the piano music of Brahms,

Beethoven, and Mozart. Somers began composing in the Fall of 1939 after he began piano

lessons.80

Somers began to study with John Weinzweig in 1943. Weinzweig recognized that Somers

had an exceptional talent and set up an intensive program of study for him. After covering

traditional harmony in about five months, he proceeded with analysis and creative exercises. The

analysis covered Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Bartok.

Weinzweig focused on teaching him how to build a good line, catalyzing Somers’ preoccupation

with the line.81 He acquired work as a music copyist which improved his ability to notate music,

evident in his exceptionally clean scores. 82

Somers was fortunate to receive monetary assistance throughout his career, improving his

ability as a composer. He received a scholarship from the Canadian Amateur Hockey

Association to study composition in Paris, where he studied with Milhaud. Somers returned to

Paris for a second time in 1960 after receiving a grant. During his second visit, he spent a short

time at a Benedictine monastery in 1961, where he studied Gregorian chant, listening to and

absorbing subtle inflections and contours of plainsong.83 He received an $18,000 grant from the

Canadian Government to study in Italy. In 1977 he visited the USSR, where he attended

performances of his works, met Soviet composers, and spoke about contemporary Canadian

music.

80 Brian Cherney, Harry Somers (Toronto: University of Toronto University Press, 1975), 6. 81 Ibid, 10-11. 82 Ibid, 31. 83 Ibid, 84.

50

The performance of Somers’ opera, Louis Riel was one of the most notable achievements

in his career. Louis Riel was the first Canadian opera to be commissioned, and Somers’ was, for

a time, a household name in Canada.

Harry Somers had three different categories for the creation of his music. The first category

was “community music”: music for amateurs and to be used in public schools. The second

category was “functional music,”: music for television, films, and theatre, where the composition

must work with another medium. The third category avoided limitations and was sometimes

completely experimental.84

Compositional Style and Development

Somers was composing in an individual style even before he began his compositional

studies. His works had descriptive titles such as Northern Lights, Rain, and Twilight. The formal

structure was primitive; traditional notions of chord progressions and cadence were absent. There

was an interest in coloristic possibilities of chords, for example, the non-functional juxtaposition

of simple triads, and the parallel progressions of seventh, ninth, or eleventh chords.85 His String

Quartet No.1, which was his first significant work written under Weinzweig's direction, shows

many emerging elements of his style.

In his first significant composition, North Country, a distinctive style is evident, and his

attention to the line is one of the most striking aspects. There are two types of lines in Somers’

works: 1) The first unfolds slowly within a small pitch range, often accompanied by short

rhythmic interjections such as a falling minor second in a long-short rhythm that creates sharp,

dynamic fluctuations in otherwise sustained elements or other short melodic segments. 2) The

second type of line is more rhythmic, formed from wider intervals and ranges, usually

accompanied by one or more continuous voices. The guitar concerto exhibits both types of lines.

The use of long lines helped to create a certain intensity and continuity in his music.

Somers also created tension through the juxtaposition of contrasting styles. He used jazz to

mitigate the inflexibility that an academic approach might impose on a work.86

84 “Harry Somers: Biography,” Canadian Music Centre, https://www.musiccentre.ca/node/37296/biography

(accessed January 29, 2019) 85 Brian Cherney, Harry Somers (Toronto: University of Toronto University Press, 1975), 6-7 86 Ibid, 63.

51

Somers made use of sudden dynamic changes to create a sense of "dynamic unrest."

“Dynamic unrest” is found in the guitar concerto but is not implemented in the guitar sonata

because that medium is unsuitable to this kind of treatment.87

Another aspect of Somers’ style was his interest in the voice, which began in 1963. He

approached the voice in a modern way using “phonetic sounds and timbral inflections.”88

Somers and the Guitar

Somers became interested in the guitar after he attended a concert performed by Segovia in

the 1950s. Harry Somers took lessons from Eli Kassner in 1957.89 He became proficient enough

to play background music on radio programs as well as in costume on stage at the Stratford

Festival in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where he performed music he wrote himself.90

Guitar Sonata

The Somers Guitar Sonata, written in 1959, was commissioned by the Guitar Society of

Toronto. Peter Acker gave the premiere in 1964.91 In 1969, during masterclasses given in

Stratford, Ontario, Julian Bream recommended this work.92

This work represents Somers’ juxtaposition of styles and is an excellent introduction to

Harry Somers’ compositional style. At once idiomatic, but at the same time a departure from the

standard repertoire of the guitar, the work consists of 4 movements: Prelude, Scherzo, Molto

Lento, Finale. Many of the chords used throughout the piece utilize a barre, or a half barre.

87 John Beckwith, Brian Cherney, Betty Nygaard King, Mabel H. Laine, “Harry Somers,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harry-stewart-somers (accessed February 11, 2019) 88 Ibid. 89 Darcy Greaves, “Guitar,” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/guitar (accessed January 29,

2019) 90 Brian Cherney, Harry Somers (Toronto: University of Toronto University Press, 1975), 59. 91 Christopher Moore, Donald Sedgewick, “Guitar Society of Toronto,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/guitar-society-of-toronto-emc (accessed January 29, 2019) 92 Michael Laucke, “Growth of the Guitar in Canada,” Guitar & Lute Magazine September, no. 24 (1982):

35.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/guitar-society-of-toronto-emc

52

1. Prelude – Maestoso

The form of this movement is ABA`. The B section is marked “Cadenza.” The A section

spans measures 1-9. The Cadenza is in measure 10, but is unmeasured, and spans three systems.

The A` section spans measure 11-19.

The A section begins with the opening melodic material supported by a barre chord,

creating quartal harmony. This is shown in Example 4.1. The opening six measures are in the

form of a sentence.

Example 4.1 Sonata for Guitar, movement I, m. 1

In measure 7, after the opening sentence, the opening two measures of melodic material

appear in the bass. This ends abruptly however, when the movement moves into the cadenza

section a few measures later in measure 10. The melody of the opening two-measure phrase of

the A section is the basis of the cadenza. The cadenza is highly ornamented, with trills in

quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets, as shown in the Example 4.2. This Cadenza is useful for

students developing slur techniques, especially those employing the first finger and fingers 3-4,

and is also useful for teaching the student how to play these different tuplet rhythmic groupings.

The A` section, which ends the movement, is almost coda-like and much briefer than the opening

A section.

Example 4.2 Sonata for Guitar, movement I, m. 10

53

2. Scherzo – Allegro

There are two sections in this movement. The first section spans measures 1-37, and the

second section spans from measure 37 to the end of the movement.

The Scherzo movement is the most extended and technically challenging in the Sonata. It

begins with a Bb ostinato. The Bb ostinato touches on C and C#, shown in Example 4.3, after

which a melody emerges.

Example 4.3 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, mm. 1-7

The intensity heightens at measure 31 with triplet arpeggiations of an E diminished

seventh. Thereafter the pitches shift chromatically around the E on the third string, leading to the

closing descending figure based on the interval of a perfect fourth that ends the first section,

shown in Example 4.4. The second section begins at measure 37 and follows in the same manner

as the first section, but with the ostinato on the 6th string, shown in Example 4.5.



The second section of this movement is more developed and has more material added to it. A

quartal harmonic trichord is chromatically planing against an E pedal on the 6th string, as shown

in Example 4.6. This type of figure appears in his guitar concerto as well.

54


A challenging scale (see Example 4.7), unusual for a guitar work of this time, leads into a

passage (measures 86-91) that develops the quartal planing idea and the arpeggiated climax

material previously heard in measures 31-34. This reappears in measures 96-98. At measure 99,

there is a descending line, shown in Example 4.8. Each note of this line is repeated twice. This

descending line is an idea pervasive in the guitar works of Joaquin Rodrigo.

The coda is a simplification of the first seven measures of the movement. These measures

are separated into two different entities in the coda. The first is the ostinato, the open B/2nd

string. The second is the entity attempting to break away from the ostinato into a melody.

Example 4.7 Sonata for Guitar, movement II, m. 85


55

3. Molto Lento

This movement has three sections. The opening section spans measures 1-8, the middle

spans 8-30, and the closing section spans measures 32-41. The third movement begins with a

period measures 1-8, having both an antecedent phrase and a consequent phrase. The antecedent

and consequent phrases are shown in Example, 4.9 and 4.10.

Example 4.9 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 1-5 antecedent phrase

Example 4.10 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 6-8 consequent phrase

In the middle of the movement, measures 8-30, the consequent phrase acts as the basis. It is

in the lower voice and treated with rhythmic augmentation, while the upper melodic line derives

from measure 4 of the antecedent phrase, this motive is shown in Example 4.11.

Example 4.11 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, m. 4

Example 4.12 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, mm. 11-13

56

The antecedent phrase derives its structure from the very last chord in the movement C-E-

Bb-Eb, shown in Example 4.13. Throughout the movement, the perfect fifth, A-E, appears giving

parts of the movement the melodic repose seen at the beginning of Example 4.12 above. The

middle section, measures 8-30, ends with a contrary motion passage, followed by two measures

of silence.

The opening antecedent phrase reappears at measures 32-37, although it is not identical to

the opening. The movement ends with a major 9th chord, shown in Example 4.13.

Example 4.13 Sonata for Guitar, movement III, m. 41

4. Finale – Allegro Con Spirito

Movement IV is relatively easy because it relies on repetitive chord shapes in the left hand.

There is an A and a B section. The B section is a variation of the A section. The A section spans

measures 1-17, while the B section spans measures 21-43. This movement is structured on the

intervals of a major second, and perfect fourth, found throughout the movement. The main

figures in which these intervals appear are shown in Examples 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, and 4.17. The A

section is separated from the B section by three measures of major/minor seconds from measures

18-20, shown in Example 4.16. In the B section, the major second is presented utilizing a variety

of pitch classes and is more adventurous than the A section. The solo line passages employ

elements of the blues, exhibited by the three chromatic pitches in succession, shown in Example

4.15. The movement ends with the reappearnce of chord shapes shown in Example 4.18, which

feature a major second.

57

Example 4.14 Sonata for Guitar, movement IV, mm. 1-2



Example 4.17 Sonata for Guitar, movement IV, m. 17


58

Recordings

There are three recordings of the Sonata for Guitar. The first two recordings are live: Peter

Acker’s recording is from 1964,93 and the other is of Davis Joachim in 1974.94 These recordings

are available streaming on the Canadian Music Centre site. Joachim’s recording provides only

the first and third movements. One feature that stands out in Joachim’s performance is the

rhythmic drive he gives the work. There is also a recording performed by Vincea McClelland on

a CD called Guitar Originals.95 [Somers’ work is the only obscure composition listed on the

CD.]

Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra

The Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, written in the summer, fall, and winter of 1983,

was completed on March 5th, 1984, and premiered on Thursday, June 28th, 1984. Guitarist

George Sakellariou performed this piece in the Macmillan Theatre at Guitar ’84 with Leo

Brouwer conducting the festival orchestra.

John Williams had been scheduled to premiere both Harry Somers’ Concerto No. 1 and

Leo Brouwer's Concerto No. 2 in Toronto at Guitar ’84. In April 1984 however, Williams

canceled both these Toronto performances. Eli Kassner received that information while he was at

the Festival Internacional de Guitarra de La Habana, Cuba. Needing to find a replacement for

Williams, Kassner asked Sakellariou, who was also attending the festival in Cuba, if he would be

willing to take William’s place in Toronto. Sakellariou agreed, and in May, a month before the

performance, the music was sent to him. The 150-page Somers’ score had intricate rhythms.

Sakellariou worked on it for four weeks, focusing on the complex rhythms sometimes 8 or 9

hours per day. He stayed with Eli Kassner while working with Leo Brouwer and Harry Somers.

There was one rehearsal with the orchestra before the performance. 96

93 Harry Somers, Sonata for Guitar, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Peter Acker, guitar,

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1235 (accessed January 1, 2020) 94 Harry Somers, Sonata for Guitar, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Davis Joachim, guitar, April

25, 1974, Université du Québec à Montréal,

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1235 (accessed January 1, 2020) 95 Harry Somers. Guitar Originals. Coda Productions. CD-CODA 9402-1, 1994, compact disc. 96 George Sakellariou, mp3 file explaining the history of Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra to the author,

June 30th, 2018.

59

Somers used “subtle sounds”97 in his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. He wrestled with

the difficulty of combining the intimate sonority of the guitar with the overpowering sound of the

orchestra. There was a limitation in how he could approach writing for the guitar to solve this

problem and he resolved it with the use of amplification. Although Segovia was against using

amplification in his concerts, he used amplification in his recordings. Somers used this example

to justify the use of amplification in his guitar concerto. 98

Elements of the Work

In an interview with the composer before the premiere performance, broadcast on the CBC,

Harry Somers gave details about his new guitar concerto. Having traveled in India, he had a keen

interest in North Indian Raga Music. Somers used the concept of the 5-note scale derived the

Indian raga as the framework for his Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. The 5-note scale is the

basis “from which the whole work is spun out in an endless series of extensions and

variations.”99 Various melodic features characterize ragas, including a basic scale, and sequences

of ascending and descending notes.100 Ragas fall into three separate classes based on the number

of notes present in the scale in question. The first class is called Sumpurna, consisting of seven

notes. The second class is the Khadav category exhibiting a six-note scale. The third class is

called Odav and has five notes.101 Somers’ five notes make this raga an Odav raga.

Somers states in the preface to the score, “The concerto is made up of clearly discernible

sections which follow each other without a break.”102 To the average musical listener and even

the experienced performer, this concerto is abnormally long and complicated. The music is not

easily understandable on first hearing and may not be even after many hearings. The difficulty

arises because the concerto is distant in form from the traditional concerto. It has three cadenzas

and a section in which the guitar becomes a percussion instrument in combination with, at times,

97 Pamela Margles, “Harry Somers’ Voyage of Discovery,” Music Magazine, May/June, 1984, 9. 98 Pamela Margles, “Harry Somers’ Voyage of Discovery,” Music Magazine, May/June, 1984, 9. 99 Harry Somers, Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with George

Sakellariou, guitar, and the Festival Orchestra, conducted by Leo Brouwer, June 28, 1984,

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1235 (accessed September 29,

2018) 100 Richard Widdess, “Raga,”

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/om

o-9781561592630-e-0000048150 (accessed January 29, 2019) 101 William Jones and N. Augustus Willard, Music of India (Nabajiban Press, 1962), 41-42. 102 Somers, Harry. Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra. (Toronto: CMC, 1984), iii.

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1235

60

up to three percussionists. The orchestration of this concerto is likewise very complex, with

many instruments and untraditional types of orchestration. In order to simplify the explanation of

this work’s form, the author has divided it into five parts. Each tempo marking exhibits a distinct

musical characteristic. Interestingly, cadenzas and guitar solos punctuate sections.

The concerto begins with the orchestra playing high harmonics and sustained intervals in

the strings. Part I of the concerto alternates between Lento and Allegro, ending with a guitar

cadenza.

Part I – Lento – Allegro – Lento – Allegro- Lento – Allegro – Lento – Allegro – Lento- Allegro

– Lento-Allegro Vivace - Lento – Allegro – Lento – Guitar Cadenza

The work begins with a drone in the strings, shown in Example 4.19. The drone is an idea

related to Indian music, and in approaching this music it is helpful for the guitarist to understand

that. There are two drone effects in Indian music. The first is created by the tanpura, an

instrument that provides a drone in the background for the sitar. The tanpura has four strings, and

the tonic and fourth (or fifth, depending on the raga) are played repeatedly. The second drone

effect is created by the sitar itself. The strings on the sitar consist of the main strings, on which

the melody is played, the (baj and jod) the drone strings (chikari) and several resonating strings

(tarb).103 The drone is achieved by plucking the chikari strings “strategically” in between playing

the main melody on the baj string.104

The drone effect applied to Somers’ guitar concerto is always in the lower string section

except at the very beginning of the concerto and is always present while the guitar is playing

improvisatory lines. In Part I, the guitar has many bent pitches, similar to the sitar in raga music.

The bent pitches in raga music are called “meend” and are produced when the sitar player pulls

on a string creating microtonal pitches.105

The guitar makes its first appearance by playing the long lines of the lento sections at

rehearsal mark 1, shown in Example 4.20.

103 Punita G. Singh, “Perception and orchestration of melody, harmony, and rhythm on instruments with

‘chikari’ strings,” Acoustical Society of America, Vol 19, 2013, 1. 104 Ibid, 4. 105 Ibid, 3.

61

Example 4.19 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 1-4

Example 4.20 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 1

The written-out ornamentation in the Allegro sections in Part I is slurred with dotted lines,

as can be seen in Example 4.21. This slurring indicates that it is optional for the player to use

either left-hand slurs, or to pluck each note with the right-hand fingers. The dotted line slur

passages center around a small pitch range. Throughout the concerto feathered beamings indicate

to the performer that they must either accelerando (as in Example 4.21) or ritardando if the

beaming expands in the opposite direction. The use of the feathered beaming gives the music a

more improvisatory character.

62

Example 4.21 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, m. 11

There are two categories of guitar solo in this concerto. There are a number of “short

unaccompanied solos,” and a second group of “accompanied solos.” Somers had Leo Brouwer’s

La Espiral Eterna in mind when he wrote the “unaccompanied solos” of this concerto. Evidence

of this is seen in Cadenza #3, where Somers instructs the performer to refer to page 7 of

Brouwer’s La Espiral Eterna. The idea is simple (shown in Example 4.23), consisting of three-

string, p-i-m arpeggios using either an open 2nd string or open 1st string. These unaccompanied

solos are found at rehearsal mark 4, 10, 49, and Cadenza #3.

At rehearsal mark 35 and 89 the “accompanied solos” exist independently of the main

sections. These solos exhibit the traditional role of soloist supported by the orchestra.

Another essential element in this work is the ascending lines that reintroduce Lento

sections, shown in Example 4.22. They appear in many variations at measures 18, 70, 80, 97, and

681.


Example 4.23 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 10, measure 88.

63

At rehearsal mark 10, the strings play a sustained chord that appeared earlier at the

beginning of the piece: a perfect 5th in the bass and cellos together with harmonics in the violins.

This sustained trichord with the two intervals in the bass and harmonics in the violins reappear,

shown in Example 4.24. The three chords in the orchestra at rehearsal mark 12, measure 107, is

another harmonic motive of the concerto seen throughout the work, shown in Example 4.25.


Example 4.25 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, rehearsal mark 12, measures 107-109

Part I ends with Guitar Cadenza #1, which begins with sweeping arpeggiation very similar

to the ending of the Cadenza in the second movement of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de

Aranjuez, page. 32 system 2.

64

Example 4.26 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, m. 119

The first guitar cadenza is brief, only 27 measures long. It is slow and melodic, elaborating

material already heard, shown in Example 4.27. This cadenza ends Part I. The cadenzas in this

concerto depart from the classical conception of the concerto because these cadenzas are not

virtuosic.


Part II - Lento Con Moto - Allegro - (Lento Con Moto)

This section begins with a melody in the Flute. The Guitar answers the Flute melody with a

more elaborate variation, shown in Example 4.28. This figure is significant because a variation

of it appears in Part V. This exchange of the melody between the guitar and the flute happens a

few more times.


65

After the flute and guitar finish the Lento Con Moto melody, the three chords from

rehearsal mark 12 in the orchestra return at rehearsal mark 18, but this time with the first violin

playing melodic material over these chords.


(Lento Con Moto)

For the majority of this section, the orchestra plays the “sustained drone effect.” The guitar

part is a variation of the opening Lento Con Moto, shown in Example 4.30. It increases in

intensity as it leads up to the Andante section.


Part III – Andante measures 267/rehearsal mark 29

Following the (Lento Con Moto) section is the Andante section, which begins with the

guitarist playing a passage of parallel fourths with a partial barre, fitting naturally underneath the

guitarist's left-hand fingers, shown in Example 4.31. This passage in fourths is expanded on in

the last section of the concerto at rehearsal mark 92, spanning measures 941-963.

66


In the Andante section, the intensity builds in the orchestra. There is an orchestral tutti; this

increases the dynamic level, and a melody emerges. The melody consists of large leaps, such as a

major 7th, shown in Example 4.32. This type of melody is scarce in the Concerto and leads into

the next section, Allegro Vivace.


Part IV – Allegro Vivace - (Cadenza #2)

This section begins with the guitar playing a duet with the bassoon shown in Example 4.33.

Although this section has its relative (Allegro Vivace), the author divided it into a separate part

because of the lengthy solo (see page 50 “small solos”) leading into (Allegro Vivace) and also

because of the difference in character between the two sections, even though they have the same

name.


67

At rehearsal mark 35, the guitar has a solo that continues until rehearsal mark 38, shown in

Example 4.34. (Please see page 79 “accompanied solos.”) After the Solo, at rehearsal mark 38,

the Orchestra takes over in the second orchestral Tutti (the previous one in the Andante section);

this is one of the climaxes of the work, especially in terms of the orchestral writing.


Guitar Cadenza #2 consists of triplet arpeggiated textures, shown in Example 4.35. At

rehearsal mark 49, another unaccompanied solo leads into the (Allegro Vivace) section.


Part V – (Allegro Vivace) – (Percussion and Guitar Section) – (Cadenza #3)

Part V is recapitulatory, with distinct phrases from different sections beginning to reappear.

The guitar and bassoon play a variation of the material which opened the first Allegro Vivace

section, shown in Example 4.36.

Example 4.36 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 487- 489 – rehearsal mark 51

At rehearsal mark 54 (measure 511), the guitar material that opened the Lento Con Moto

section reappears but is elaborated. Here the figure is faster and spans 14 measures, whereas, in

the Lento Con Moto section, it is only a few measures. In its original appearance (see Example

68

4.28 on page 76), it is slow and melodic. The linking feature between these two parts is the B

played on the sixth string (the pitches with the beams pointing down), and a melody above.

While the guitar plays Lento Con Moto material, there is, at measure 521, the first instance of the

rising motion in the orchestra shown in Example 4.38, which will be the repeated idea in the

entire orchestra at the end of the work.



The guitar plays chords while the orchestra becomes more active than before. At

rehearsal mark 60-61, the guitar plays material from the Allegro Vivace section that the listener

has just heard, shown in Example 4.39. Compare this example with the Example 4.36.


At rehearsal mark 64, the orchestra has a lengthy interlude, an undulating section using the

flute, oboe clarinet, bassoon, viola, and cello, that has groups of septuplets, sextuplets, and

quintuplets, spanning 36 measures. It is dreamy and leads to rehearsal mark 69 (measure 630), at

which point the guitar plays a line very similar to the opening of the concerto. It is similar to the

69

beginning of the concerto because of the way it starts, (compare with Example 4.20 on page 73)

with example 4.40 below. From rehearsal mark 69 to the percussion and guitar section at

rehearsal mark 79, the material is reminiscent of the alternating Lento-Allegro material from the

opening of the concerto. The music is very serene because the orchestration is very sparse

compared with the orchestration in the rest of the work.

Example 4.40 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, measure 630-634/rehearsal mark 69

The percussion/guitar section is essentially a duo between percussion and the guitar, with

the guitar becoming a percussion instrument. The guitarist must be as precise as the percussionist

in playing the triplets. Harry Somers invented his own notation for this section, the staff

consisting of three lines, shown in Example 4.41. The three lines of the staff indicate where on

the body of the guitar one must strike (the location of the places indicated is shown in Example

4.42), as well as indicating rhythmic value. The different right-hand strokes used in this section

are shown in Example 4.43.


70

Example 4.42 Diagram indicating the location of the upper face, side, and lower face106

Example 4.43 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, Preface

When the duet ends, the notation changes, the guitar taking on the role of both a

percussion and a melodic instrument, shown in Example 4.44. The guitar part is written on two

staves. One staff indicates pitch, while the other consists of four lines indicating where to strike

the guitar. Example 4.45 is a drawing that accompanies Example 4.44, to indicate the location of

the places the performer is to strike on the body of the guitar.


106 Diagram by C. Boston.

71

Example 4.45 Diagram indicating the location of the lower face, lower side, upper side, upper

face107

After the percussion section is the third guitar cadenza, just four measures in length. The

first of these measures is shown in Example 4.46. As noted earlier, the performer should be

familiar with the 7th page of Leo Brouwer’s solo guitar work, La Espiral Eterna. Another

unaccompanied guitar solo appears rehearsal mark 89, measure 916. The beginning of that is


Example 4.46 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 893

107 Diagram by C. Boston.

72


At measure 941 (rehearsal mark 92), the Andante section guitar solo expands and

transforms into 23 measures of challenging guitar material, shown in Example 4.48. The original

material from the opening of the Andante section was only five measures long. It uses the

planing 4ths idea from his Sonata for Guitar (see Example 4.6 on page 66.) Lento con Moto

material reappears at measure 985, Rehearsal mark 97, shown in Example 4.49, while the

orchestra has the drone effect.



The guitar continues to play strummed chords for the remainder of the concerto serving as

an accompaniment to the tutti orchestra, which plays the ascending five pitches E-G#-A-B-D

repeatedly. George Sakellariou commented that this was one of the most difficult parts of the

concerto because of its fast chords and extremely intricate rhythms; part of this section is shown

in Example 4.51. The rising pitches are orchestrated in various ways, beginning at measure 1034,

until the end of the concerto.

73

Example 4.50 Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, mm. 1079-1080, time signature: 2/2.



Sonata for Guitar is a work consisting of four separate movements. Its idiomatic writing,

especially evident in the chord shapes in the first and fourth movements, makes it accessible to

the intermediate guitarist. One of the difficulties in performing this work is that sometimes the

style of writing can cause the it to sound as if it is disjointed, moving abruptly from one idea to

the next, particularly in the fourth movement.

74

The second movement is the most technically difficult. The difficulty of this movement is

created by its length, its two scales, the repeated ostinato throughout, and its quick arpeggios.

The quartal harmonies towards the end of the movement can also cause some difficulty because

they require rapid shifts against the open E bass string. The third movement exhibits

counterpoint that guitarists might find challenging because of the need to make the simultaneous

voices clear.

Conclusion

The Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra is an extremely difficult work. The movements

cannot be played separately because there are no clear breaks between them. There is no piano

reduction, so this work would be more appropriate for the seasoned guitarist in concert with

orchestra. The rhythm is all encompassing throughout and requires much focused work between

the guitarist and conductor. Sections of this work such as the guitar and percussion section,

however, could be used to improve a student’s rhythm. This work would be arduous to perform

from memory because of the rhythmic intricacies. There are many opportunities for guitarists to

improve their playing of slow melodic lines, with extended phrases. Nevertheless, the author

believes this work deserves performance only by an extremely skilled guitarist and musician.

75

CHAPTER 5

R. MURRAY SCHAFER

Biography

R. Murray Schafer was born in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1933. As a modern-day Renaissance

man, he has attained a high level of competence in a wide range of disciplines, including:

“composer, educator, environmentalist, literary scholar, and visual artist.” 108 R. Murray

Schafer’s broad interests arose from his attempt at overcoming hindrances in his life. As a

teenager, he excelled in both visual arts and literature. The piano was an interest, but he had not

yet started composing. Discouraged from pursuing post-secondary art training due to an eye

defect, he turned to music, studying composition with John Weinzweig at the University of

Toronto. R. Murray Schafer was expelled from the university because he could not get along

with the “musical reactionaries.”109 Travels through Europe in the late 1950s led him to acquire

knowledge of Medieval German. The result of this was his first significant work, “Minnelieder,”

and journalistic work on the lives of British composers, which subsequently lead to his work on

Ezra Pound.

For three years, from 1963 to 1966, he taught at Memorial University in St. John’s,

Newfoundland, while the next decade was spent at Simon Fraser University in British

Columbia.110 While he was at Simon Fraser University, R. Murray Schafer developed his idea of

soundscape, his most notable achievement. His interest in the environment is first evident in his

work Music for Wilderness Lake, composed in 1979.111

108 Betty Nygaard King, Alan M. Gilmour, Kirk Mackenzie, “R. Murray Schafer,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/r-murray-schafer-emc (accessed September 29, 2018) 109 Youtube, “Schafer couldn’t get along with the musical reactionaries,”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjoaMsvh-8, 0:00-0:15. 110 Betty Nygaard King, Alan M. Gilmour, Kirk Mackenzie, “R. Murray Schafer,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/r-murray-schafer-emc (accessed September 29, 2018) 111 Ibid.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/r-murray-schafer-emc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjoaMsvh-8


76

Style

R. Murray Schafer was active as a composer between the 1950s and the 1980s. His

compositions divide into four periods.112 His early compositions, from the 1950s, are influenced

by his teacher Weinzweig, as well as by Stravinsky and the French composers of Les Six. Two

works from this period include the Concerto for Harpsichord and Eight Wind Instruments (1954)

and the Sonatina for Flute and Harpsichord (1958).113

During the 1960s, Schafer’s music used serialism, foreign languages, literature, and

philosophies of various cultures ranging from ancient times to more modern ones in his

compositions. His most well-known work from this period is “Requiem for the Party Girl” for

Mezzo-Soprano, a part of the Patria Cycle. “Requiem for the Party Girl” grew out of visits R.

Murray Schafer made to a mental institution. This work deals with the problems of

communication that occur in a society in which many languages are spoken.114 Throughout the

1970s, Schafer drew on a wider selection of languages, diverse styles of music, and exotic

instrumentation. He was inclined toward mysticism and religion, and became dissatisfied with

aspects of modern living. His work on the World Soundscape Project, which was “a study of the

relationships between people and their acoustic environment," encouraged him to move to a

farmhouse in Ontario.115

In the 1980s, he received requests for concertos for instruments including the flute, harp,

and guitar. These concertos fall into his mature style, which used “20th century avant-garde

techniques infused with a Romantic spirit,” as can be heard in his Guitar Concerto.116 In an

interview that took place before a radio broadcast of his Accordion Concerto, he said it is

challenging to write commissioned pieces because the composer has to be careful that people

will still want to listen to and perform the music even though as an artist he is trying to

experiment. 117

112 Ibid. 113 Betty Nygaard King, Alan M. Gilmour, Kirk Mackenzie, “R. Murray Schafer,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/r-murray-schafer-emc (accessed September 29, 2018) 114 R. Murray Schafer, Requiems for the Party Girl, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, broadcast on CBC’s

“Two New Hours,” October 17, 1993,

https://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1916 115 Betty Nygaard King, Alan M. Gilmour, Kirk Mackenzie, “R. Murray Schafer,”

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/r-murray-schafer-emc (accessed September 29, 2018) 116 Ibid. 117 R. Murray Schafer, Accordion Concerto (1993), CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Norbert Kraft,

guitar, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis, March 21, 1990,



77

Le Cri de Merlin

R. Murray Schafer was hesitant to write for the guitar when Norbert Kraft first approached

him. Norbert Kraft hoped that the composer would write a piece that was for “a much greater

instrument than a mere guitar."118 Schafer wanted to become acquainted with the performer he

was going to write for, so they stayed together for one week in Schafer’s country home, far from

any distractions.119 The result of this friendship between Schafer and Kraft was Schafer’s first

guitar work, Le Cri de Merlin (1987).

Le Cri de Merlin derives from the legend of Merlin, who was a wizard from Arthurian

Legend. Legend has it that Merlin’s powers become less useful due to advances in medicine and

civilization, and Merlin responded by "retreating into the forest" where he cried out with

frustration at the loss to himself and society. Jung said that today, "his cries cannot be heard, but

man can still interpret them."120

The work premiered on June 23rd, during the Tuesday evening concert of the 1987 Toronto

Guitar Festival. Kraft performed this work along with two others: Benjamin Britten’s

“Nocturnal” and Michael Tippet's "Blue Guitar." According to Matanya Ophee, in his review of

Guitar ’87, the performance was the “highlight” of the festival.121

This work uses motifs that repeat, develop, and transform to mimic the auditory experience

that one would experience if he or she were in the secluded wilderness. There are many extended

techniques, and toward the middle of the work, there is the introduction of bird sounds which the

performer must go out and collect via recording.122 In his review of Norbert Kraft's recording of

"Le Cri de Merlin," Robert Everett-Green states that the tape of birds is more successful on the

recording by way of digital editing than how it sounded at the premiere performance.123

http://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1916 (accessed September 29,

2018) 118 Norbert Kraft, Liner Notes, “20th Century Guitar Music”, Chandos 8784. 119 Ibid. 120 R. Murray Schafer, Le Cri de Merlin (1987) CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Norbert Kraft,

guitar, June 23, 1987, http://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1916

(accessed September 29, 2018) 121 Matanya Ophee, “Toronto Report,” Soundboard 14, no. 3 (1987): 209. 122 Ibid. 123 Robert Everett- Green, “INSIDE THE SLEEVE CLASSICAL R. Murray Schafer Le Cri de Merlin,”

Globe and Mail, March 19, 1990.

http://www.musiccentre.ca/centrestreams/swf?mode=play_by&opt=composer&id=1916


78

Le Cri de Merlin is a work structured on motives emulating the soundscape of a forest. A

table (Example 5.1) shows the motives in the order that they appear in each movement. During

the analysis, the reader may refer to the chart, which shows the most critical motives in the work.

The table reads down the column, with the number and title of each movement at the top. Each

column represents one of the six movements. In Norbert Kraft’s premiere performance of the

piece, at the very end of the last movement, he mistakenly plays a measure from the beginning of

the work. This error in memory shows the effectiveness of R. Murray Schafer’s auditory

representation of the forest. The work does not have clear movement indications. The division of

the movements derives from Norbert Kraft’s studio recording of this work, which features six

tracks. The decision to divide this work into six-movements is corroborated by the fact that the

guitar concerto also has six movements. It is interesting to reflect that because the guitar has six

strings, perhaps the number of movements in both works was inspired by the guitar itself.

The Organization of Motives in Le Cri de Merlin

Notes: 1. Column headings identify each movement. 2. The sequence of motives can be seen

by reading down each column. 3. Columns extend onto two pages 4. All of the excerpts are for

the guitar and use the treble clef.

Table 5.1 The Organization of Motives in Le Cri de Merlin

I

Violently

II

Calmly

III

Very

relaxed

IV

With

Movement

V

Slowly and

Mysteriously

VI

Very Slowly

pg. 1 m. 1

Motive 1 pg. 5 m. 1

Motive 6

pg. 7

m .15

Motive

10

pg. 9 m. 11

Motive 4

pg.12 m.6 Motive

7 pg.15 mm. 8-11

Motive 6

pg. 2 m. 14

Motive 2

pg.1 m.7

Motive 2

pg. 8 m. 6

Motive

11

pg. 10 m.

12 Motive

8

pg.12 system 6 m.

2

Motive 6

pg. 15 m. 11

Motive 2

79


I

Violently II

Calmly III

Very relaxed

IV

With

Movement

V

Slowly and

Mysteriously

VI

Very Slowly

pg. 3 m. 3 Motive 1

pg. 5 m. 8

Motive 7

pg.8 m.10

Motive 2

pg.11 m.2

Motive 1

pg. 13 m. 5

Motive 8 pg. 15 m.12

Motive 11

pg. 3 m. 8

Motive 3 pg. 6 m. 5

Motive 8

pg. 8 m. 11

Motive 7

pg.11 m.6

Motive 10

pg.15 m.1

Motive 6

pg. 16 mm.2-3

Motive 4

Motive 4

See “figure

a” below the

chart

pg.7 m.2

Motive 9

pg.9 m.10

Motive 9

pg.11 m.

14

Motive 11

pg.15 m.1

Motive 11 pg.16 m.6

Motive 11

pg. 4 m.11

Motive 1

pg.7 m.2

Motive 4

pg.12 m.2

Motive 6

pg.15 m.7

Motive 3

pg.16 m.7

Motive 1

pg. 4 m. 21

Motive 5

pg.12 m.5

Motive 2

*figure a.*

Example 5.1 Le Cri de Merlin, overview of essential motives in the work

80

The most important motives in the work are motive 4 and motive 7; they reappear the most

throughout this work. These motives are shown in Example 5.1.

Movement I Violently

The first movement presents many motives and episodes that will return rearranged

throughout the remainder of the work. The first movement features three sections. The first

section is from page 2/m. 1 - page 2/m. 14, and begins with motive 1, the Eb-D motive, one of

the most critical motives in the work. It is an exciting beginning with percussive slaps with the

right hand and expansive lines that go from the lower register up to the higher register turning

into harmonics. The section is punctuated with motive 2, the tapping motive, another important

motive because it reappears in the first five movements of the work and punctuates movements

IV and V.

The second section spans page 2/m. 15 - page 3/m. 13. This section uses the i finger to

sweep through the strings playing a descending arpeggiation, shown in Example 5.2. The Eb-D

makes a few appearances in this section, and an example of this motive in this form is shown in

the third box of the motive chart for movement I. This second section ends with Motive 4, which

will become the basis of an entire episode in movement IV.

The third section spans measures 1 to 21 on page 4. This third section consists of the most

lyrical material in the work, as shown in Example 5.2. The Eb-D motive is found in its original

form in the third section.

Example 5.2 Le Cri de Merlin, movement I, page 4/mm. 19-20

81

Example 5.3 Le Cri de Merlin, movement I, page 3/m. 1

Movement II Calmly

This movement begins with motive 6, harmonics in 4ths, refer to the first box for

movement II. This movement is the most difficult of all the movements. It presents two tremolo

episodes. The first tremolo episode uses the thumb, a highly unusual technique in the Classical

Guitar repertoire. The first episode is 11 measures in length and uses motive 7; see Example 5.4.

Example 5.4 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 5/mm. 11-12

The figure shown in Example 5.5 is challenging because of the extended cross-string

trilling, appearing three times in the episode. This figure returns in movement IV, without the

rasgueado figure accompanying it in this movement.

Example 5.5 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 5/m. 21

Movement II also features a sub-section called "Rough and Furious," which is another one

of the most technically challenging parts of the work requiring much technical fluidity in both

right and left hands. In the score, R. Murray Schafer directs the performer on which right hand

82

fingering to use, this episode extends into the uppermost register of the guitar, and even reaches

past the fretboard where the composer asks the performer to play the highest pitches possible,

which means moving the left-hand over the soundboard, past the soundhole. The beginning of

one of these passages is shown in the Example, 5.6.

Example 5.6 Le Cri de Merlin, movement II, page 6/ m. 6

Movement III – Very Relaxed

This movement reuses many of the episodes and figures previously presented. This

movement has a lyrical atmosphere and uses much of the lyrical material from the second

movement.

A significant point in this piece, tonal repose, is created by an E major chord starting at the

first fret using the open strings, shown in Example 5.7. It is a very significant point in the piece

because this is a simple chord and one of the first chords that most guitarists will learn to play

when they begin to study the guitar. Harmonics follow, along with free-flowing single-line

phrases.

Example 5.7 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 7/m. 5

The episode spans from page 8/m. 11, to page 8/m. 18, and references the tambura section

in Francisco Tarrega’s well known solo guitar work, Gran Jota measures 308-337. Here, as in the

tambura section of Gran Jota, the guitarist must pull the 6th string over the 5th string so that they

83

cross over each other. The two strings are held in place with the left hand while the guitarist

plucks the pair with p creating a sound similar to a snare drum acting as accompaniment while

playing a melody, with the i-m-a fingers. This episode uses motive 7, as one can see from

Example 5.8.


The figure on page 8/m. 19 presents an inventive “pianistic” rasgueado flourish that

accelerates in tempo and dynamic level as it rapidly encompasses an increasing number of

strings and so naturally increases in volume.


Another flourish follows, beginning on the A string, swelling and decaying both in

dynamic level and the number of strings used. This flourish precedes three ascending arpeggiated

passages, all ending with pitches that are bent with the left hand while playing them tremolo with

the right hand. In playing this tremolo on a single pitch, it would be best to use p-a-m-i-p.

Example 5.10 Le Cri de Merlin, movement III, page 9 m. 6

84

Movement IV – With Movement

In this movement, the section "With Movement" builds on motive 4. This bass line

reappears with the guitarist indeterminately striking the fretboard with the indicated hand. The

striking is not continuous but is employed at intervals and as interjections against the bass,

shown in Example 5.11. After motive 4 is over, the guitarist then uses both hands to slap the

strings against the fretboard. This slapping gradually moves up the neck of the guitar.

Example 5.11 Le Cri de Merlin, movement IV, page. 9 mm. 11-14

The composer uses the notation, in the Example, 5.12, to indicate that the guitarist must

use his or her fingernail to scrape the full length of string 5 and 6.

Example 5.12 Le Cri de Merlin, movement IV, page. 11 m. 2

The lyrical section from the third section of movement I returns in movement IV, however

this time, it is much more lyrical than before, and the line is not frequently interrupted by

arpeggiations. The movement ends with the tapping motive, motive 2.

85

Movement V - Very Slowly and Mysteriously

This movement begins with another tremolo-thumb episode using motive 7 in the same

manner as in movement II. This challenging episode is expanded to 5 systems in length and

encompasses, at times, up to three strings.

This movement also features the second section from the first movement, highlighting the

Eb-D motive, in between this material, shown in Example 5.1. Following these two episodes is

the section with tape, which is the centerpiece of the entire work. The tape of birdsong begins on

page 13/measure 11. In the Performer’s Notes for Le Cri de Merlin, R. Murray Schafer indicates

that “The performer must make a tape of birdsong which will accompany the guitar from the

bottom of page 13 to the end of the piece. The tape fades in gradually to achieve a volume equal

to that of the guitar then slowly fades out again at the end of the piece.”124 This section utilizes

scordatura, the low E string tuned a whole step down to D. The chords gravitate around the

opening chord, which exhibit only the pitches D and A, as shown in Example 5.14. The

composer indicates that ff and fff dynamic markings are to be played as rasgueado with the nails.

It is essential to keep time with the tape, as the guitar part should be aligned with specific parts of

the birdsong. The duration for each chord is indicated in seconds. This section is about dynamic

changes, and these dynamic changes appear notated in the music.

A study of birds may be undertaken to find the right sound for the tape.125 The author

suggests that the guitarist see this section as representing Merlin’s agony. It is possible to

manipulate the birdsong to make it sound ominous electronically. One could also try to find a

species of bird that is suited to the character of the music, because this might more closely echo

Schafer’s interest in environmental sound. The tape could be manipulated with different layering,

to coincide with an intended interpretation.

Closing this section, the guitarist plucks the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings in random order with the

thumb while the guitarist picks up a spoon with their left hand, the notation for this is shown in

Example 5.15. The ostinato of the bass strings continues while the guitarist slides the spoon on

the strings playing the indicated pitches, as shown in example 5.13. At the end of this movement

on page 15 m. 3, the guitarist is instructed to retune the 6th string to E.

124 R. Murray Schafer, “Le Cri de Merlin," Toronto: Arcana, 1987. 125 Ibid.

86

Example 5.13 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 14 first half of system 5

Example 5.14 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 13 m. 11

Example 5.15 Le Cri de Merlin, movement V, page 14 middle of system 5

Movement VI – Very Slowly

This movement is the most recapitulatory of all the movements. At the top of page 15,

which has the ending of movement V, and the first half of movement VI, the composer indicates

that “from this point to the end, the tape of birdsong should be more or less equal in volume with

the guitar. The guitar passages become more episodic than before, with the continuity provided

by the birdsong. Suggested pause points are marked by commas.” This movement begins with

Motive 6, except that it uses a pencil with the right hand, vibrating it between the 1st and 2nd

strings instead of harmonics. The tapping motive, motive 2, is also treated in the same manner

with the pencil. An E is played by bouncing the pencil on strings, refer to the second box for

movement VI of the motive chart. One of the most striking things about the ending of this piece

is that finally, the Eb-D motive changes pitches, and the composer has the motive Db-C.

87

Guitar Concerto

R. Murray Schafer completed his "Guitar Concerto" in Indian River, Ontario, on October

16th, 1989. It was premiered on the 21st of March in 1990, with Norbert Kraft as guitarist and

Andrew Davis conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. This work grew out of the

completion of the first project, Le Cri de Merlin. The work is in six movements.

I – Very Fast and Energetic

II – Slowly and Expressively

III – Molto Latino

IV – Night Music: Very Delicate & Mysterious

V – Very Rhythmic and Nervous

VI – Fast and Energetic

In an interview on the radio show "Two New Hours," R. Murray Schafer explained the

challenge of placing the guitar in front of an orchestra. Because of the guitar’s intimate nature,

there is a problem in that the orchestra can create loud sounds, while the guitar creates soft

sounds. In writing this concerto, R. Murray Schafer attempted to bond the guitar and orchestra

together, evident in the writing and the use of amplification.126 The transitions between the guitar

and orchestra are often subtle, and this gives the illusion that these opposing entities are unified,

with the amplification lessening the volume disparity of the guitar.127 R. Murray Schafer often

added visual surprises into a performance. In the premiere performance of the Guitar Concerto,

the Darbuka player stood up and began moving towards the guitarist as the piece was ending. 128

R. Murray Schafer did this possibly because his music was difficult to understand, and he wanted

the audience to leave with a memory of the performance.

126 R. Murray Schafer, Guitar Concerto, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Norbert Kraft, guitar, and

the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis, March 21, 1990,


2018) 127 Robert Everett- Green, “Schafer’s Concerto a Love Song to Guitar,” Globe and Mail, March 23, 1990. 128 R. Murray Schafer, Guitar Concerto, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Norbert Kraft, guitar, and



2018)



88

The Hungarian Influence

Three Hungarian Composers, György Ligeti, Béla Bartók, and Miklós Rózsa all influenced

this guitar concerto. We shall look at each of these in turn.

The influence of Ligeti appears in the first movement, which is constructed on the idea of

micropolyphony. György Ligeti invented the concept of micropolyphony, which is a

contrapuntal technique using many lines working together to create a larger polyphonic texture.

In joining the different lines together, he used various contrapuntal techniques of the composers

from the past. Many of Ligeti’s micropolyphonic compositions from 1965 and onwards can be

categorized as microcanonic.129 Microcanon is “a polyphonic texture formed from a pitch

succession set canonically in many voices at short time intervals.”130 The canonic entries of the

beginning pitches of the two-measure opening guitar theme in the strings create microcanon.

These canonic entries gradually increase in number, thereby increasing the density of the texture

by the number of independent voices.

Night Music is a style of music created by Bartók, and first seen in his piano work “Az

éjszaka zenéje”, the fourth movement of the suite for piano Szabadban. The musical style of this

movement went on to become a "Bartókian mode of expression," originating from Hungarian

national tradition drawing on inspiration from the Solos-Puszta region in Hungary.131

The influence of Miklós Rózsa is evident as this movement exhibits elements of science

fiction films. Indicated in the score is a part for musical saw; however, it is evident on hearing

the piece that it is supposed to call to mind the sounds of a theremin which were common in

science fiction films of the 1950s and 1960s. The joining of the musical saw into the orchestra

adds a new dimension to the atmosphere of the Schafer’s concerto; part of the musical saw

phrase is shown in Example 5.16.

Example 5.16 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, Rehearsal Mark G, page 38 mm. 2-5

129 Jane Piper Clendinning, “Structural Factors in the Microcanonic Composition of György Ligeti,” in

Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz Since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, ed. Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard

Hermann (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 1995), 229-230. 130 Ibid. 131 David E. Schneider, Bartok, Hungary, and the Renewal of Tradition: Case Studies in the Intersection of

Modernity and Nationality (Los Angeles: University of California Press), 81-86

89

Finding a musical saw player for Schafer’s work who was competent to perform under the

direction of a conductor was probably challenging. Instead, at the premier in March of 1990, a

synthesizer took the place of the musical saw.132

It was Miklós Rózsa’s idea to include the theremin in the score of Spellbound when he was

approached by Alfred Hitchcock and David Selznick, who were looking for something for

intense psychological scenes. The theremin’s evocation of eeriness in that film can be traced to

Samuel Hoffman, who was the first thereminist to bring the theremin to Hollywood movies.

Hoffman played in two other films and subsequently received an invitation to play on some

accessible listening albums, one of which was called "Music out of the Moon." The name of the

album was perhaps what gave the directors the idea to use the theremin to represent

extraterrestrials. The theremin went on to acquire its extraterrestrial connotation in Kurt

Neuman's film Rocketship X-M. 133

In his guitar concerto, R. Murray Schafer took the idea of Soundscape further than he did

in Le Cri de Merlin. This work expands on the idea of Soundscape, now capturing sounds from

outer space. The first is the “Satellite Motive," a term which the author uses to refer to three

pitches played by the xylophone, shown in Example 5.17. This motif sounds most like the

satellite recording of Oscar II, which was one of the early satellites launched by the United States

of America.134 One can find the sounds on the website, under the entry “Oscar II #00305”

http://www.dd1us.de/spacesounds%202a.html. Another example is the effect found in the last

system on page 44, where the orchestra emulates the sounds of the Aurora Borealis, as heard on

a radio transmission.135

132 R. Murray Schafer, Guitar Concerto, CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with Norbert Kraft, guitar, and



2018) 133 James Wierzbicki, “Weird Vibrations: How the Theremin Gave Musical Voice to Hollywood's

Extraterrestrial," Journal of Popular Film & Television 30, no.3 (2002):125. 134 “Sounds from Amateur Radio Satellites” dd1us.com. http://www.dd1us.de/spacesounds%202a.html

(accessed September 29, 2018)

135 “The Sound of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights),” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcef943eoiQ,

1:31-1:48 (accessed April 10, 2018)

http://www.dd1us.de/spacesounds%202a.html



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcef943eoiQ

90

Example 5.17 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, page 39 system 2

Example 5.18 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 44 last system

Latin Influence

Movement III Molto Latino pays homage to Latin composers. It begins with a guitar figure

(shown in Example 5.19) like the style of writing of a South American composer such as Villa-

Lobos.

Example 5.19 Guitar Concerto, movement IV, page 29 mm. 1-3

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Guitar Concerto Movements I – VI

I Very Fast & Energetic

The Concerto begins with an arpeggiated figure, shown in Example 5.20. The first two measures

(main theme) reappear throughout the concerto in different forms, binding the concerto together.

The main theme is technically challenging. Possible fingerings for the guitar in movement I are

the use of i-m fingerings, which would require multiple strings crossings. Another possibility is

the use of i-m-a fingerings emphasizing the triplet groupings while the use of p-i-m would

encourage the use of free stroke. The use of free stroke would make the guitar part legato and

would highlight the arpeggiated nature of the motive.

Example 5.20 Guitar Concerto, movement I, page 1 mm. 1-2

II Slowly & Expressively

Movement II mixes improvisatory sections with measured sections. Two significant

motives make their first appearance in this movement. The first is the Satellite motive, played by

small maracas (refer to Example 5.21) just after rehearsal mark B. The second is the introduction

of the “oscillating motive,” shown in Example 5.22, which evokes the impression of science-

fiction film score, often supporting the improvisatory sections.

The main theme appears again at rehearsal mark E played by four bongos and four congas,

shown in Example 5.23. The movement ends with the “oscillating motive” becoming part of a

large texture in the orchestra shown in Example 5.24.

Example 5.21 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 21 middle of the first system

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Example 5.22 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 25 m. 4

Example 5.23 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 24 mm. 10-11

Example 5.24 Guitar Concerto, movement II, page 26 mm. 1-2

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III Molto Latino

The third movement begins with the guitar playing Latin American style guitar music. This

movement is very much structured on the idea of the “oscillating motive." The oscillating motive

is present throughout the movement. Playing material based on the oscillating motive, the

clarinets create a texture with descending 32nd notes, shown in Example 5.25. Also based on the

oscillating motive is a short improvisatory entrance on page 33 (shown in Example 5.26) played

by the guitar leading into the night music theme, shown in Example 5.27.

Example 5.25 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 32 mm. 1-2

Example 5.26 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 33 system 2. ends with the night music

theme played by the guitar in harmonics.

Example 5.27 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 35 last system

IV Night Music: Very Delicate & Mysterious

This movement begins with the guitar playing chords using the tambura technique, a

technique where the guitarist hits strings at the bridge perpendicular to the bridge with the

94

underside of the thumb. These tambura chords reoccur at different time intervals throughout the

movement. These tambura chords are related to the “satellite motive.”

Example 5.28 shows the beginning of the movement. The guitar plays the night music

theme in harmonics, while the strings of the orchestra play the night music theme in canon.

Although the night music theme is not readily discernable, this creates a large microcanonical

texture.

Example 5.28 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 36 first system

The guitarist plays material that assists with the cosmic musical atmosphere. On the second

page of this movement (page 37), at rehearsal mark F, the guitarist plays a phrase with a spoon,

sliding it over strings on the fretboard while plucking with the right hand. These two spoon

phrases come directly before and directly after (at rehearsal mark k) the entrance of the musical

saw. The orchestral writing in this movement focuses on effects different than those presented in

movement II and III. The oscillating motive is no longer present.

The movement closes with a string figure in tremolo, moving towards a sforzando

chromatically. This effect also emulates the sound of a science fiction film score.

95

Example 5.29 Guitar Concerto, movement III, page 46 m. 3

V Very Rhythmic and Nervous

This movement contrasts with the preceding three movements, which, except for the first

movement, have been tranquil and explorative. It gains the listener's attention with abrupt

aggressive chords played by the orchestra. These chords are answered by short interjections

made by the guitar, as shown in Example 5.30. These interjections require an improvisatory

spirit.

An inventive figure appears, which is a cross-string trill preceding a chord. The trill uses

p-a-i-m-p in the right hand, and the chord should be played with the i finger, shown in Example

5.31.

96

In this movement, a few of the main motives are further developed. An arpeggiated figure

in the guitar, which alludes to the main theme because it is arpeggiated and is in the same kind of

rhythmic grouping, acts as an accompaniment to the strings, shown in Example 5.32. A

significant development results when the oscillating motive previously using triplets now uses

quintuplets, shown in Example 5.33.

Example 5.30 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 48 mm. 4-6

Example 5.31 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 49 mm. 2-3 rehearsal mark 15

Example 5.32 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 50 mm. 1-3 rehearsal mark 20

97

Example 5.33 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 m. 1

Beginning at measure 49 is a cadenza that is occasionally supported by the transformed

“oscillating motive." The cadenza consists of material from 5 different sections of the Concerto.

It begins with material from movement II shown Example 5.34. In measure 51, the “night music”

harmonics from movement IV appear (refer to Example 5.35). The opening Latin American

influenced guitar part of movement III in measure 54, shown in Example 5.36. At measure 55,

the melodic two voice material from movement two appears, seen in Example 5.37. At measure

56, a reflective figure from movement II, moves into the movement VI, shown in Example 5.38.

Example 5.34 Guitar Concerto, movement V, system 3



98

Example 5.37 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 first half of system 3

Example 5.38 Guitar Concerto, movement V, page 55 last system

VI Fast and Energetic (Finale)

In this movement, the combination of the Guitar and Darabouka takes its inspiration from

the Middle Eastern combination of Oud and Darbouka. Further adding to this Middle Eastern

influence, are the strings of the orchestra glissando E-F-E, shown in Example 5.39. A few of the

main motives appear in this movement, including the trumpet motive from the Night Music

movement and the main theme. The main theme appears in the strings in a flurry of 32nd notes,

sporadically throughout the movement, as shown in Example 5.40. R. Murray Schafer enhanced

the Middle Eastern aspect of this movement by employing many percussion instruments. There

are two bongos, two congas, two temple blocks, two cowbells. These instruments all take turns

playing the trumpet motive. The darbouka plays this motive, but transforms into an eight-note

idea oscillating between an E and F a major seventh, refer to Example 5.41.

Example 5.39 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 68 mm. 1-2

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Example 5.40 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 56 m. 1

Example 5.41 Guitar Concerto, movement VI, page 65 m. 3

The guitar has triadic triplet passages, glissandos, and many other effects that mirror the

music of the orchestra. Oud-like passages in the guitar begin at page 64, measure 4; one of these

passages is shown in Example 5.42. In these virtuosic passages, the guitarist should attempt to

produce the improvisatory spirit required. Closing the concerto, R. Murray Schafer pays homage

to many of the concertos already written by guitar composers such as Joaquin Rodrigo with the

strummed chords at the end of the work, shown in Example 5.43.


100



Le Cri de Merlin offers the advanced guitarist many opportunities to improve his or her

technique. Of special interest are the two types of tremolo exhibited in this work. The first is the

double string trill which is used at length in certain episodes, creating a texture rather than an

ornament. The second type of tremolo in the work incorporates the thumb and is similar to the

tremolo on bowed instruments. The use of the thumb in these sections is related to Alzapua, a

flamenco technique in which the guitarist plucks the bottom most pitch in a chord and then

strums the rest of the chord from the second bottom most pitch to the highest pitch and back,

proceeding to play the lowest pitch of following chord. Aside from the many percussive, flashy

101

moments that this work exhibits, it also offers moments of expansive melodic lyrical phrases. As

with most music exhibiting many accelerando indications, it is important that the performer

attempt to maintain a regular pulse and follow the time signatures in each measure; otherwise the

performance will lose its coherency. It is not possible to perform selected movements from this

work, but it would be possible to take difficult sections and use them as technical exercises, such

as the tremolo sections using the thumb.

The Guitar Concerto is a very difficult work not only technically but also ensemble wise.

The technical difficulties arise because of the first and sixth movements. The first movement is

challenging because the guitar part is moto perpetuo 16th notes. The sixth movement is difficult

because of the fast passages emulating an improvisatory scene accompanied by Darabuka. The

difficulty is heightened by the fact that there is no piano accompaniment for this work, and it

would be challenging, if not impossible, to create a piano reduction of the orchestral part because

of the various effects and the wide array of instruments that the composer employs in the

orchestral writing.

This is a work in which the performer could choose to play single movement selections.

In approaching the Guitar Concerto, it might be appropriate for the guitarist to examine Le

Cri de Merlin, before the guitar concerto. Aspects of Le Cri de Merlin, such as the incorporation

of the idea of soundscape, also appear in the Guitar Concerto. The approach to writing for the

guitar that R. Murray Schafer uses in Le Cri de Merlin is the same approach he uses in his Guitar

Concerto.

Conclusion

These two works retain an obscure place in the classical guitar oeuvre. This is because of

the extraneous requirements, Le Cri de Merlin requiring an adequate sound system for the tape,

and the orchestration of the concerto featuring several exotic instruments. However, if the

guitarist overcomes these performance difficulties, the unusual aspects of the two works would

make a performance of either, interesting.

102

CHAPTER 6

SRUL IRVING GLICK

Biography

Srul Irving Glick was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1934. His father, a Jewish Cantor, was

from Romania.136 His older brother was a clarinetist, and it was he who introduced him to music

outside his father’s traditional religious musical culture.137 At the age of 15, Glick decided that

he wanted to become a composer and began studying the piano. His exposure to music at the

synagogue influenced his first efforts.138 For the five years that he was at the University of

Toronto, he was a student of John Weinzweig. Weinzweig found that Srul Irving Glick's music

was too conservative.139 Through other teachers, Oskar Morawetz and John Beckwith, he found

more encouragement. Glick studied in Aspen with Darius Milhaud for two summers in the

1950s. Milhaud then invited him to study in Paris. While in Paris, he studied with Louis Saguer

and Max Deutsch.140 When Glick returned to Canada in 1962, the young composer began

working at the CBC as a radio producer. He worked with many great composers and

instrumentalists, making recordings. He began directing the Beth Tikvah Synagogue choir, in

1964. Unfortunately, around the mid-eighties, the demand for Glick’s expertise began to decline.

The CBC began to reflect the culture of the community, rather than creating culture. After losing

his job at the CBC, many negative experiences began to take place. He was later diagnosed with

cancer and passed away in 2002.141

136 Glick, Srul Irving. “Anthology of Canadian Music”. Radio Canada International. ACM 34,1989, compact

disc. 137 Srul Irving Glick. “Canadian Composer Portraits – Srul Irving Glick”. Centrediscs. CMCCD, 2006,

compact disc. 138 Glick, Srul Irving. “Anthology of Canadian Music”. Radio Canada International. ACM 34,1989, compact

disc. 139 Ibid. 140 Srul Irving Glick. “Canadian Composer Portraits – Srul Irving Glick”. Centrediscs. CMCCD, 2006,

compact disc. 141 Ibid.

103

Style

Many of the influences on Glick's music were present in the musical traditions of his

childhood. As a child, he danced the Hora and other traditional Jewish dances. He heard the

music his father sang as a cantor and other music of the Jewish tradition both inside and outside

the synagogue. These influences are all evident in many of his compositions. A big part of his

struggle as a composer in his younger years was finding his voice. He had come from that

musical tradition and did not feel comfortable writing music in the style of his contemporaries.

Conducting the synagogue choir brought him closer to his heritage, and he felt more

inclined to compose music as he wanted to.142 Srul Irving Glick had an extensive compositional

output of liturgical music, in addition to his secular music. He had an excellent reputation in the

cantor's assembly in Toronto. The majority of his liturgical music is for choir, and occasionally

for the cantor.143

As he matured, the Jewish elements in his music became more apparent. His secular

works with the most Jewish influence are his 6 Suite Hebraiques, Heritage Ballet, and his song

cycle I Never Saw Another Butterfly.

From 1984 to 2001, there was a shift in Glick's liturgical writing. He gave more attention

to the hazzan (cantor) as a soloist and on proper pronunciation, the enunciation of the text, and

the phrasing of the music. In his liturgical music, Srul Irving Glick was avant-garde in terms of

the style of writing, as he did not use the conventional East European harmony. The rhythm was

syncopated and polyphonic.144

The composers he most admired, from the western classical tradition, were those he

termed "singing composers." These included Bartok, Prokofiev, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and

Mahler. He thought of himself as a Romantic and traditionalist.145

142 Glick, Srul Irving. “Anthology of Canadian Music”. Radio Canada International. ACM 34,1989, compact

disc. 143 “Srul Irving Glick Memorial Concert" YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhyh7g1bX4

(accessed September 29, 2018) 144 “Srul Irving Glick Memorial Concert" YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhyh7g1bX4

(accessed September 29, 2018) 145 Srul Irving Glick, Gathering In (1970), CMC Ann Southam Audio Archive, with the McGill Chamber

Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Brott, March 31, 1970,


2018)


104

The Use of Dance in Srul Irving Glick’s Music

Glick had already included the word dance in the title in many of his works. His suite

Hebraique no. 6, makes use of the word dance in the titles of the movements: Circle Dance,

Chasidic Dance. Suite Hebraique No.1 has a movement entitled Wedding Dance. His work for

Cello and Piano is entitled Prayer and Dance.

Glick may have been encouraged by Darius Milhaud, with whom Glick studied in Paris, to

incorporate more of the folk music he was familiar with in his compositions. Milhaud wrote

three works that use elements of traditional Jewish music: Chants Populaire’s Hébraïques, Song

Cycle for Voice & Piano Op. 86 and before that Poèmes Juifs.146

Dance Suite for Two Guitars

The premiere of Srul Irving's Dance Suite for Two Guitars was given on September 27,

1986, at an evening concert of contemporary music in Toronto.147 It was also performed at the

Toronto International Guitar Festival in June 1987.148 This work’s initial dedication was to the

Wilson-McAllister duo but later rededicated to the Klaus und Rainer Feldman Duo. Rainer

Feldman explained the story behind this change. In 1988 the Feldman duo was in Salzburg,

Austria, taking a masterclass with Pepe Romero. After meeting Pepe Romero’s manager Francis

L. Heilbut, Heilbut arranged for the duo to collaborate with the Canadian Singer, Valerie Siren,

for concerts abroad. Valerie Siren invited them to visit Toronto for rehearsals. When asked if she

knew any Canadian works for guitar duo, she suggested Srul Irving Glick’s Dance Suite for Two

Guitars. Valerie Siren sent the work before they arrived in Toronto. When the duo began looking

through the Suite, their impression was that it was peculiar, as there were many octaves, making

the Suite challenging to play. After arriving in Toronto, the duo visited and played for Glick.

Shocked at what he heard, Glick showed them his score without the octaves and added notes. It

became apparent that the Wilson-McAllister Duo had heavily edited the work without Glick’s

permission. After giving a concert in New York with Hermann Prey, the Klaus und Rainer

Feldman Duo returned to Toronto to give the concert, which featured the Dance Suite for Two

Guitars. After the concert, Srul Irving Glick visited them backstage and explained that he was so

146 Milton Cross and David Ewen, New Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and their Music Volume II

(Doubleday, 1969), 633. 147 Lynn Harting, “Two is Better than one: the Wilson-McAllister Duo,” Guitar Canada, 1986, 10. 148 Richard Long, “Toronto ’87,” Soundboard, 1987, 204.

105

upset with the Wilson-McAllister Duo’s performance, that he concluded to never compose for

the guitar again. However, hearing the way that the Feldman Duo performed the work, he

decided to change the dedication to the Feldman Duo. The mother of the Feldman Duo copied

the score with Glick’s corrections after they returned to Germany, and they sent the score to

Glick to be published.

Analysis of Dance Suite for Two Guitars

Movement I - Asymmetric Dance

The first movement, entitled Asymmetric Dance, is asymmetric in meter. The meter

changes often starting at 8/8 and passing through 7/8, 9/8, 6/8, 11/8, 10/8, 5/8, finally moving

back to 8/8 at the end. The form of this movement is Sonata Rondo Form, ABACABA.

Section A

The A section consists of a lively first theme in G major, spanning measures 1-10, shown

in Example 6.1. The second theme, shown in example 6.2, spans measures 11-16. It is also in G

major and is lyrical.

In the second theme, the single lines should be played with rest-stroke so that the melodic

line can project above the accompaniment. In the performance of the Wilson-McAllister duo, at

times, the balance of the two guitars was not readily audible.

Example 6.1 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, mm. 1-3


106

The A section closes with a transition found in measures 17-21. The transition is

essentially the first theme; however, the use of D#, the leading tone, changes the implied key to e

minor, moving the music into the B section.

Section B

The B section consists of a first and second theme. The first theme is in e minor,

spanning measures 22-30, and is shown in Example 6.4. The second theme appears in measures

31-38; it is the syncopated “chorus-effect” material that is in C major, as shown in Example 6.5.

The first movement is the most difficult technically due to the scale alternating between the two

guitars in measures 22–30, and 92–98. The scale naturally lends itself to a combination of a-m-i.

There are various patterns of a-m-i, which can be implemented in the first two beats, while in the

third beat of the measure, one could use i-m. The use of slurring would help in phrasing the

scales.

Example 6.3 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Asymmetric Dance, m. 24



107

Section A1 mm. 39-46

The First Theme appears in this section with a new sixteenth rhythmic figuration, as shown

in Example 6.6. It is treated with the “chorus-effect,” an effect that shows the influence of

Glick’s extensive work with choir, where the duo is playing in unison, both in pitch and rhythm.

The sixteenth note rhythm, shown in the Example 6.6, should be played with the rasgueado

technique using the i finger. In measures 43-46, the A1 First Theme appears in A major.


The Transition in measures 47-53 uses the pitches C#-B exclusively, as shown in Example

6.7, moving into the C development section.


Section C (Development)

In this developmental, middle section of the movement, Section A elements appear in new

keys:

the second theme is now in E major and is shorter, shown in Example 6.8, the A` Theme

appears in B major and C# major, and the transition, spanning measures 70-74, is shown in

108

Example 6.9. In this transition, the E#-D# appears enharmonically reinterpreted as F and Eb

leading back into a repeat of the ABA section.



Repetition of ABA, and Coda

In the reiteration of the first A section, the composer presents the second theme first,

measures 75-84. The transition happens in measures 85-89. The first theme of the B section

follows in measures 90-98, while the second theme of the B section appears in measures 99-106.

In measures 107-111, finally, the first theme appears.

At measure 106, the duo should observe the comma mark. This brief pause will give the re-

entry of the opening theme a much more dramatic effect and emphasis.


109

Coda 112-119

A short coda in measures 112-119, incorporates various elements from throughout the

movement. The coda consists of a figure based on the first theme, and 16th note rasgueado chords

closing the movement, which are played by both guitars in rhythmic unison.

Movement II - Love Dance

The second movement is in E minor and is the simplest in form. This movement is much

like a Romantic Lied. There is an introduction, a middle song section, and a closing section.

This movement begins with an introduction in measures 1-14. Following the introduction

is the middle song section spanning measures 15-22. Here the lyrical melody is played by Guitar

II, shown in Example 6.11. Interestingly, measures 22.5 – 26 sound like a quotation from Ravel’s

famous work Pavane pour une infante défunte; an excerpt is shown in Example 6.12.

Example 6.11 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Love Dance, mm. 15-16

Example 6.12 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Love Dance, mm. 23-24

The song theme returns in Guitar II measures 27-32. However, this time the theme is not as

lengthy as before and yields to cadential treatment; the phrase ends earlier than before.

The closing section spans measures 34-48 and is a combination of both the introduction

and song material in a triplet rhythm. The dichotomy of one guitar accompanying the other is no

longer present, which clearly delineates the fact that the song part of the movement is over, and

that this is the closing section of the movement.

110

The last measure should be rolled, with Guitar II starting the arpeggiation and Guitar I

continuing the arpeggiation, which will make the ensemble much more pianistic.

Circle Dance

This movement is in Sonata Form and has an Exposition, Development, and

Recapitulation. The Recapitulation uses material from movements I and II.

Exposition

The exposition has two subject groups. The first subject group, in A minor, is found in

measures 1-29. The two-measure phrase shown in Example 6.13 is exchanged between the two

guitars for the duration of the first 29 measures of the movement. Following this first subject

group is a Bb major transition in measures 30-36, shown in Example 6.14. The second subject

group in G minor, is rhythmically lively material and is found in measures 37-44, shown in

Example 6.15.

Example 6.13 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 1-2

Example 6.14 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, m. 30

111


Development

At measure 45, the development begins. The first part of the development, measures 45-60,

combines two elements: the triplet chord figure from the closing section of the second movement

and the second subject group from exposition, however here the music is in Eb major. The

transition, which is also in the key of Eb major, is found in measures 61-67, shown in Example

6.16. A “chorus-effect” section appears in measures 68-75; it is in C minor, shown in Example

6.17, and it is the second subject group from measures 37-44 in the Exposition.



112

In measures 76-81, there is a lyrical transition in C minor, shown in Example 6.18 (notice

the upper melody in Guitar I). In these lyrical transitions, Guitar I plays the melody first,

followed by Guitar II immediately after. In measures 82-89, there is a lyrical version of the

previous “chorus-effect” section, this time in Eb major, shown in Example 6.19.



At measures 90-96, there is another lyrical transition, this time in F minor; this transition is



From mm. 97-116, (see Example 6.21) the same idea taken from the beginning of the

development ensues, this time in the unusual key of Gb major. Throughout these measures the

idea is taken through various keys creating excitement leading into the retransition.

113


Retransition mm. 117-139

The retransition starts at m. 117 (shown in Example 6.22), dominant key of the movement,

E minor, and stays there for quite some time, preparing for the recapitulation which begins at

measure 140. The climax of the retransition is marked fff and is the climax of the entire suite.

The performers should base the structure of their performance around this moment. Close

attention to dynamics in this movement will enhance the performance.


Recapitulation

The recapitulation is essentially a recapitulation of the entire work, as the most critical

aspects of movement I and II return. The recapitulation begins with the return of the opening of

the movement, the first subject group. The first subject group returns at measures 140- 153,

shown in Example 6.23. The second subject group returns in measures 154–165, is shown in

Example 6.24; however, in this case, the two-measure phrase starts in Guitar II.

114



At measure 154, there is a lengthy ostinato on the A string, which both guitars take turns

playing while various themes from the whole suite reappear. In approaching this ostinato, the

first note of the triplet may be played with the thumb on the six-string, closed by the left hand,

while the second and third notes can be played on the open A string with i and m, this fingering

solution is shown in Example 6.25. The emphasis will automatically fall onto the note plucked

by the thumb. This concept applies even when the ostinato is occurring in the treble strings. The

first theme from movement I appears at measures 166-169, shown in Example 6.26.


115


The theme from movement II appears at measures 170-177, shown in Example 6.27. The

second subject group appears at measures 178-184, shown in Example 6.28. At measures 187-

194, there is more material from movement II, as shown in Example 6.29. The second subject

group appears again in measures 194-208, shown in Example 6.30.


Example 6.28 Dance Suite for Two Guitars, Circle Dance, mm. 178


116


Coda mm. 209 – 247

The coda uses the idea from the retransition, as shown in the Example 6.31. The rest of the

coda continues in this manner until the end of the movement, the music returning from E minor

to the home key of A minor.


The guitarist playing the single line should play these lines with rest stroke to highlight the

foreground and background. The third movement is the most formally complicated of the three

movements. The most important concept of performing this movement is an understanding of the

form, which will facilitate the use of dynamics in the retransition. It is essential to be familiar

with movements I and II to understand the context from which the material is derived.


Dance Suite for Two Guitars is a work suitable for intermediate to advanced guitarists.

Both Guitar I and Guitar II share the same material throughout the suite, so there is no difference

in difficulty between the two parts, and both players should be at the same level of playing. The

most challenging movement is movement III, which is the most extended. The guitar writing in

117

this work is refreshingly simple and uncomplicated, relying on the interplay between both parts

to create interest.

Conclusion

Like its technical considerations, this work is more traditional in form in comparison with

others examined in this treatise and playing only two movements in performance would be

permissible; however, the third movement makes use of different elements that have been heard

already in movement I and movement II, so the listener will not understand the references to the

first and second movements if the entire suite is not performed.

118

CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

Toronto was well suited to hold the first and most ambitious guitar festival in North

America. Toronto was a rapidly developing city formed of an amalgamation of people of

different ethnicities, religions, and beliefs. In the pre-WWII era, Toronto experienced many

developments in “civic engineering, urban design, development of modern transportation, and

communications infrastructures.” 149 However, musically Toronto was very conservative and

steeped in the English tradition. Its musical life led by a very conservative group of musicians

trained in England.150 The “first Canadian serialist,” and “dean of Canadian composers,” John

Weinzweig, was an individual who felt constrained in this pre-WWII environment.

One of the reasons for this conservative musical culture was because both the size and

frigid temperatures of Canada made travel between the few major cities in Canada nearly

impossible for the majority of the year, also affecting communication. Air travel at this time was

very limited. Through the work and influence of John Weinzweig, the changing cultural climate

of Toronto, in combination with the increasingly available funding for arts programs in the post-

WWII era from the Canadian government, provided fertile soil for a festival that would change

the course of the history of the guitar forever. The difficulty of communication between guitar

societies and guitarists across North America led to an interest in creating a guitar festival,

consisting of seminars about teaching, composing, performance practice, and interpretation

ideas, and also a competition where young guitarists could compete for a coveted first prize. This

festival raised the level of playing during the nearly 20 years that it spanned.

At this festival, many important events took place, such as the debut of Kazuhito

Yamashita in the west, and exposing North American audiences to David Russell’s modern style

of musicianship and technique. There were over 75 premieres of compositions composed for the

festival’s “Quest for New Music,” as well as guitar concertos by Leo Brouwer, which have been

recorded many times and are now standards in the guitar repertoire. As the influence of the USA

149 John Beckwith, Weinzweig: Essays on His Life and Music (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press,

2011), 34. 150 Ibid, 39.

119

grew in power, it affected not just the culture, but also politics, leading to a change of

government when the Conservative party of Canada won the election in 1984. The decreased

funding and the growing popularity of the GFA festivals led to the end of the Toronto

International Guitar Festival. The Toronto Guitar Society’s conception of the guitar festival has

become the standard format for guitar festivals around the world.

The works examined in this treatise are invaluable not only to the student but also to the

professional guitarist. They offer possibilities for development of technique, musicianship, music

history, furthering the understanding of music forms and music and instruments of different

cultures, and even deepening our appreciation of our environment.

The fact that these pieces have not entered more fully into the repertoire is a great travesty.

The author predicts that as the level and ability of guitarists increases, eventually, these works

will become better known, and more interest in them will develop.

The author hopes that this study generates more interest in the further scholarship of other

events overlooked in guitar history and that this would lead to the possibility of exposing more

under appreciated repertoire. If these pieces and the festival's importance continue to be ignored,

then there is a significant loss of the history to the guitar and its repertoire.

120

APPENDIX A

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR JOHN WEINZWEIG’S CONTRASTS

AND EIGHTEEN PIECES FOR GUITAR

121

APPENDIX B

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR SRUL IRVING GLICK’S DANCE

SUITE FOR TWO GUITARS

122

APPENDIX C

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR R. MURRAY SCHAFER’S LE CRI DE

MERLIN AND GUITAR CONCERTO

123

APPENDIX D

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR HARRY SOMERS’ CONCERTO FOR

GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA AND SONATA FOR GUITAR

124

APPENDIX E

COPYRIGHT PERMISSION FOR HARRY FREEDMAN’S IMPROMPTUS

FOR MEZZO-SOPRANO AND GUITAR

125

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130

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Christopher Boston began his classical guitar studies at the age of 9 in Terrace B.C., Canada,

with Robert Brown. At the age of 14 he began studying with Dr. Alexander Dunn in Victoria

B.C., and went on to receive his Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria. After

studying for a year at the Koblenz International Guitar Academy with Hubert Kappel, he went on

to receive a Master’s Degree from the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Düsseldorf, studying under

Prof. Alexander Sergei Ramirez. In 2015 he began his Doctoral Degree at Florida State

University, studying with Prof. Bruce Holzman.

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