July meeting
I found the July meeting of the BGS
to be highly enjoyable, the highlight being a talk by our
own Steve Tucker on the blues, copiously illustrated by
Steve using multi media aids and in person on his guitar.
Having dabbled in the blues but
never having got to grips with the subject, the wealth of
background information that Steve provided was
enlightening. Like the rest of Steve’s
audience I now have a picture of the different blues
styles, some idea of what they mean, and from which
“style” some of the blues tracks that I have
spent hours listening to in the past hail from.
Thus while I was aware that many numbers played by the
likes of Eric Clapton originate in the “Delta /
Chicago” style of Muddy Waters, BB King et al, I had
no idea that others such as the Robert Johnson tracks
come from a somewhat different tradition of
“country” blues.
One of the most interesting aspects
of Steve’s talk for me was the technical aspects of
relating blues playing to the classical guitar e.g.
damping bass notes with the palm of the right hand, or
using slurs and slides rather than bends. The idea
that one does not have to be too precise about damped
base notes does however seem to be rather foreign for a
classical player. Steve’s demonstrations of what it
is possible to achieve on the classical guitar despite
its limitations in this context brought the whole subject
to life in a very real way.
Many thanks Steve for a highly
enjoyable hour or so, which was appreciated not just be
the “official” audience but by some local
urchins who happened to be drawn to the open windows (it
being rather hot in the SHPC Garden Room) by the sounds
of what was going on inside.
Steve tells me that he hasn’t
latterly been playing much blues, but that’s where
he started out and he moved subsequently towards the
classical style of playing, a direction which must be
relatively unusual, but one for which we are all
grateful.
After a break we continued with a
number of contributions from those present. I
started off a session which seemed to be dominated by J S
Bach with a Minuet from the Anna Magdalena Notebook,
followed by other Bach offerings from Bob Harrison
(Allemande from the 2nd Lute Suite) and Andy
Scott (Prelude from the Cello Suite no 1 plus the Prelude
from the D Minor Lute Suite). George’s
rendition of Peter Nuttall’s Serenata, an excerpt
from a Concerto for 2 mandolins arranged for 3 guitars by
Vivaldi (with Steve and Robert Brown doing the hard work
and myself providing a bass accompaniment), and
Sor’s B minor Study from Steve broke up the Bach
offerings.
New members are always welcome and
it was good to be joined by Bob Harrison – may this
be the first of many meetings, Bob.
Web site of the month
We’re off to South America this month to visit http://www.musicadelsur.4mg.com/guitar.htm. This is a site created by Nestor Guestrin, an Argentinian composer & guitarist. The site features mostly his own works, but also the work of a number of other South American composers, none of whose names I was familiar with.
The pieces cover a range of
standards and are available in notated form (not tab) in
pdf format for printing. The quality of the editing
and printing is good. A number of the pieces are
also available as midi files.
As one might expect, the style is
South American but with a modern flavour so that the
music seems somewhat atonal or dissonant at times. Whilst
it may not be to everyone’s taste, there’s a
lot of material here and I’d suggest it’s worth
a look.
BGS news
The Society’s summer barbeque
was held in the highly congenial surroundings of Chazey
Barn, the Miron residence on the edge of Reading. A
good attendance of about 25 inclusive of other halves and
some of the younger generation were also blessed with a
fine afternoon in which to enjoy themselves. I had
to leave about 7.00 pm, just as guitars were beginning to
be produced so I don’t know how long and in what
vein proceedings continued. Many thanks to Paul for
acting as host and providing the venue for a highly
enjoyable afternoon.
Our next meeting is Sunday 8th
September, usual BGS time and place. This is a
member’s evening with “Grades 1-2-3” as
the theme so here’s an opportunity to bring along
those pieces you started out with and see what you can
make of them X years later (where I guess X could be
either a small or quite a large number!).
The diary for 2002 sent out earlier
in the year contained a number of errors in the dates for
the second half of the year, so it looks like there
isn’t anybody out there who attempted to be
efficient and put the advance dates in their diary!
I suspect the previous year’s dates were simply
carried forward. Anyway a revised diary is
enclosed.
Other news
Some of you (not me, being a
newcomer) will remember Ivan Andrews who was a founder
member of the Society (I believe in the 70’s) and
although he now lives in Exeter, he likes to keep in
touch. Ivan recently went to see the LAGQ and his
review might be of interest (many thanks, Ivan).
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet at
the Bath International Guitar Festival 21st July 2002
For those that missed them - they
only get to this country every three or four years - you
missed some of the best playing I have ever heard. The
programme started with Andrew York’s
"Quiccan" (see track 1 on their CD
"Labrynth") derived, says AY from some
‘shredder style’ guitar licks. A good start.
Then on to a seven movement transcription of a piece by
Stravinsky (sorry, did not get the title - my only beef,
no programmes available unless I forked out a fiver for
the whole festival brochure - yeah, I know I’m a
skinflint!). Great piece though - I don’t think
it’s recorded yet either - hope they get that one
down soon. The first half ended with music by a new
Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti
"discovered" by the LAGQ which will feature on
a new CD of South American music soon to be released.
The second half started with a group
of "world music" pieces which included a
strange sounding piece (lots of things stuck into the
strings) called "Gongan" which was written by
Bill Kanengiser said to be inspired by Indonesian
instruments (see their CD L.A.G.Q. 1998). This was
followed by a piece by Andrew York inspired, but not
trying to imitate, African drums, and a Scottish melody
written for piano by Maxwell Davis and arranged by Scott
Tennant. The ‘world music’ section ended with
two ‘Mexican’ inspired pieces by Aaron Copland.
The main part of the second half was then taken up with
Ian Krouse’s (a favourite composer of LAGQ and a
long time friend we were told) "Folias" (see
the CD "Evening in Granada") - a favourite
piece of mine from their recordings and worth a really
good listen!
The two encores - and the audience
would have had more if they had got their way - were
Count Basie’s "Jumpin at the Woodside"
(have you ever heard a guitar quartet sound like a big
band!!?) (oh yes see CD "Labyrinth"), and then
their favourite piece to end on (what could follow it?)
"The Pachelbel ‘loose’ Canon" in
which they take this favourite piece through a tortuous
variety of musical styles including - yes - "blue
grass"!!!!! (see CD "For Thy Pleasure").
What makes this group great rather
than just good is not only the technical wizardry (gosh
I’ve never heard such fast runs and quick chord
playing) but also their brilliant ensemble playing and
superb dynamic range. Quite exquisite and well worth the
journey up to Bath from Exeter. Keep your eye out for
further concerts and go see and hear them if you can!
Ivan Andrews
And Finally ….
The LAPD, FBI and CIA are all trying
to prove that they are the best at apprehending
criminals. The President decides to give them each
a test. He releases a rabbit into a forest and
tells each of them to catch it.
The CIA goes in. They place
animal informants throughout the forest. They
question all plant and animal witnesses. After
three months exhaustive investigations the CIA concludes
that rabbits do not exist.
The FBI goes in. After 2 weeks
with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in
it including the rabbit and they make no apologies.
The rabbit had it coming.
The LAPD goes in. They come
out 2 hours later with a badly beaten bear which is
yelling “OK, OK, I’m a rabbit, I‘m a
rabbit …”