Ultimate Classic Guitar Arrangements: Yankee Doodle Dixie

This brilliant gem by the late, great Chet Atkins is really unique in all of the pop guitar repertoire, so far as I am aware. Chet basically took two preexisting melodies and combined them into counterpoint - cantus prius factus as it's called - which is a really clever trick that doesn't work very often. In this case, Dixie is in the lead in the A sections, while Yankee Doodle is the bass part. Now, from a Bachian contrapuntal perspective there are a few crudities, but to our modern ears and in this country and western jazz idiom, those don't bother in the least. In fact, they add to the coolness, IMO. The B sections are just a countrified swing version of the Dixie B section, so the combo is only in the A's.

The original recording is with a band, but it was very easy to extract the basic tune and have it as a solo piece. In the arrangement here I wanted to keep it on two pages, so the form is A, A', B, A, Coda: The bare bones. In actual performance, I play it, A, A', B, A', B, A, Coda. the coda - well, codetta, actually - is the opening lick of the US national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. Since this is the last piece in my set before any encores, I eventually plan to have an arrangement of the whole US national anthem here, and that's getting close to the top of my to-do list now, but it's not done yet. Chet ends the piece with a dominant seventh/diminished fifth sonority, which is hilarious, but it just didn't work in my set, so I changed it.

Here's the MIDI to AAC conversion of the score.

Yankee Doodle Dixie - Chet Atkins

And the score.



I made no changes to the music in the A sections at all. The only thing I had to do was work out a legit classical style fingering. I did make a few changes in the B section though, as Chet was fond of putting lots of little trills and stuff in, and that sort of goes against my esthetic. You could call the changes simplifications, but I just consider them streamlining the music and making it more mechanically efficient. At the end of measure 10 there is a G-natural in the lead on the last quarter. Chet plays that an octave lower using the open G string. Yeah, it's funny and all, but I just didn't like the effect, so I changed that too. He does this again on the next page.



At the end of measure 14 is the other G-natural I raised an octave, and other than scrubbing the trills, that's it for changes to the music. This is not an easy piece to execute - especially at the manic tempo Chet played it at (I don't scream through it, and think it's actually more effective just a smidge slower) - but it sure is fun once you get it down. It's also kind of un-PC, which is an added bonus if you are libertarian minded, as I am.

*****

I haven't been blogging much the past few weeks because I got a gig offer I couldn't refuse. No, not a mobster's party, but a student's wedding in Las Vegas. So, since I had been rebuilding my set from scratch, I had to pour on the practice hours to get ready. I combined it with a little coffee house warm up gig in Tucson, where I have a free place to crash, and I may also do another little deal there on the way back: Friday and Sunday in Tucson, and Saturday in Las Vegas. I need a road trip about now. I've been all work and no play for far too long. Added bonus to that tight schedule will be that I won't have time to gamble. lol.

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Joseph Schillinger Inspired Guitar Pieces

One of the Facebook groups I belong to holds online classes about aspects of The Schillinger System of Musical Composition, and since I have studied Schillinger on and off for over twenty years now, I thought I'd share some of the solo guitar pieces I've written that Schillinger inspired.

I put a page together with PDF files of the scores and MPEG4 streaming audio - my usual MIDI to AAC conversions - so that my Facebook Friends could peruse them at their leisure, and that open directory is here, but I'm going to list them all below, with an example fully analyzed.

The way this twenty year journey started was - back in 1986 when I was still a rock guitarist living and working in NYC - I was visiting a musician friend and noticed a copy of The System on a bookshelf in his studio. Being a Berklee alum, I had heard of it - Berklee was originally called Schillinger House - but I'd never actually seen a copy. Long story short, I borrowed it, and ended up making so many notes in the margins that I kept that copy and ordered my pal a brand new one. Not cheap!

These three sets began when Schillinger used the fugue subject from the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor as an example of a melody in which the zero axis was played, rather than simply implied. I realized that this played zero axis device would lend itself to a series of idiomatic studies for solo guitar, and so I was off and running.

Since the played zero axis could be the root, third, or fifth of a tonic major or minor triad ,that meant that each set would have six pieces in it. For the high E string then, the keys would be E major, A minor, C major, C-sharp minor, A major, and E minor if organized in a quasi-symmetrical way, which is what I ended up doing. I started composing these in 1986 or 1987 - I really don't remember exactly anymore - and I distinctly remember hearing about Segovia's death when I was working on learning one of them.

So, here are the Six Studies on an E-Axis:

E-Axis Study Number 1 in E Major - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 1 in E Major - PDF

E-Axis Study Number 2 in A Minor - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 2 in A Minor - PDF

E-Axis Study Number 3 in C Major - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 3 in C Major - PDF

E-Axis Study Number 4 in C-sharp Minor - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 4 in C-sharp Minor - PDF

E-Axis Study Number 5 in A Major - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 5 in A Major - PDF

E-Axis Study Number 6 in E Minor - m4a

E-Axis Study Number 6 in E Major - PDF

NOTE: For some reason, PDF files often don't render properly for me from hucbald.com in Safari. If you end up with bizarre figurations instead of music, just hit the BACK button on your browser, then FORWARD. This always clears them up for me, though I may have to also scroll down to the bottom to make all of the text elements show up.

Since I was just starting out with classical music back then - I was 29 when I wrote these - they range from completely diatonic to major, as Number 1 in E Major, through diatonic to melodic minor, as Number 6 in E Minor, to having only one implied secondary dominant, as in the remaining four. These are excellent technical studies, and they are accessible to any intermediate level student of classical guitar. They are also fun to play and pleasant to listen to. I still perform all of these in my set to this day.

*****

Once I had completed these six pieces and a few others not related to them, I decided to give up the rock lifestyle and go back to school for a Master of Music in traditional theory and composition. Since I was still working on aspects of Joseph Schillinger's work, it was only natural that my final project was, Aspects of Joseph Schillinger's System of Musical Composition as Applied to Composing for Solo Guitar. I presented this as a lecture recital in which I performed the following pieces and explained how I used Schillinger's techniques in creating them.

These studies are on a B-Axis - the open B string of the guitar - and the melodic trajectories are above the zero axis, instead of below them as in the E-Axis studies. As a result, the melodies have larger ranges and the pieces are far more difficult to execute.

Six Studies on a B-Axis:

B-Axis Study Number 1 in B Major - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 1 in B Major - PDF

B-Axis Study Number 2 in E Minor - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 2 in E Minor - PDF

B-Axis Study Number 3 in G Major - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 3 in G Major - PDF

B-Axis Study Number 4 in G-sharp Minor - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 4 in G-sharp Minor - PDF

B-Axis Study Number 5 in E Major - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 5 in E Major - PDF

B-Axis Study Number 6 in B Minor - m4a

B-Axis Study Number 6 in B Minor - PDF

In these I have a lot more chromatic action going on, and I'd discovered augmented sixth intervals by this time, so those are quite prevalent. Also, whereas in the E-Axis studies the parallel mode versions were mostly gender transpositions - I was still figuring out classical major and minor - here all six are individual compositions. There's also some humor here, especially in Number 4 in G-sharp Minor, where I did some "weird" stuff just because it tickled me. Again, these are excellent technical studies, and audiences seem to enjoy them, but you do have to be a fairly advanced player to pull them off convincingly. I perform all of these in my set as well.

*****

After being awarded a Master of Music in 1991 for the above project, I decided to go for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The University of North Texas. While there, I composed the final set of six.

Six Studies on a G-Axis:

G-Axis Study Number 1 in G Major - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 1 in G Major - PDF

G-Axis Study Number 2 in C Minor - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 2 in C Minor - PDF

G-Axis Study Number 3 in E-flat Major - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 3 in E-flat Major - PDF

G-Axis Study Number 4 in E Minor - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 4 in E Minor - PDF

G-Axis Study Number 5 in C Major - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 5 in C Major - PDF

G-Axis Study Number 6 in G Minor - m4a

G-Axis Study Number 6 in G Minor - PDF

Here I began to transcend the original conception I started with: No. 1 has two interludes an octave apart, No. 2 has a melody that breaks away from the axis entirely in a few places, No. 3 is a "free-voiced" piece that ranges from two contrapuntal voices to five and has no interlude, No. 5 requires some extended techniques (Fretting with the right hand i finger), and many of the interludes are in different time signatures. Nos. 1, 3, and 5 go beyond mere guitar studies into being concert etudes, and all of these are wicked difficult. I still don't perform No. 3 in E-flat Major all these years later, but it is coming along.

*****

Here's the analysis I did for my Schillinger cronies of B-Axis Study Number 1 in B major.

This particular Axial Study is a good example of the employment of several Schillinger principles in a simple work that makes the techniques very clear. In this case, the played zero axis of the melody, the open B string of the guitar, is the root of the tonic B major triad, while the texture is two-part counterpoint, not counting the played zero axis as an incipient third voice.



Here, the played zero axis begins as a pickup eighth note, and the genesis of the melodic trajectory is out of that and above the axis. For the construction of the melody, I employed Schillinger’s technique of Quadrant Rotation, which is using an original figure in all four of its possible permutations: Original, Inversion, Retrograde Inversion, and Retrograde in this instance. The simple rotational melodic figure of measures one and two reads, re, mi, fa, mi in the key of B, so that is the original form. Measures three and four answer that with, la, sol, fa, sol, which is a diatonic inversion of the original. Then, in measures five and six, the figure morphs into, do, ti, do, re, which is the retrograde inversion, and finally, the figure appears in seven and eight as, mi, fa, mi, re, which is an exact retrograde of the original an octave higher. Measures nine to eleven simply bring the trajectory back toward balance for the repeat with a stepwise scalar passage.

For the bass melody there are a pair of rough diatonic augmentations of the melodic figure, which you can see just by looking, in measures one through four, and again in five through eight. Even very casual approximations like this lend effectiveness to a piece of music: It is not necessary to strive for formulaic exactitude all the time.

Note another idea that Schillinger made me aware of, and that is asymmetrical phraseology: The A section is 11.25 measures in length, counting the pickup bar. The melodic peak of E in measure seven, then, comes at measure 7.75 out of 11.25, which is at about 69% through the phrase. This is very close to the natural norm, which is 66.6%, or 2/3rds of the way through: This is a “happy” section as a result of this natural melodic form combined with the diatonic major mode.

At the second ending the melody turns around to go into the interlude. Note that this creates an augmented retrograde-inversion of the original melodic germ.

The interlude starting at ten functions as a respite from the original texture, and here I establish a secondary axis on F-sharp that has 1/3rd the number of attacks as the primary axis. This is obviously the perfect fifth of the tonic major triad. I also made a point to work a version of the original rotational figure into this, though, as in measures nineteen and twenty we get, la, sol, fa, sol, which is exactly the same inverted form heard in measures three and four. Tres cool, non?



Another idea I got from Schillinger that is here applied intentionally, but in a casual non-rigorous way, is the idea of modifying themes by intervallic expansion. I touched on this briefly when I described the bass melody of the A section. Here, in measure twenty-five, the melody starts out as if it is going to make a retrograde statement of the original figure, but the following intervals are expanded to minor thirds, creating a diminished triad as the tail of the motif. This is a prefiguring of what is to come in the B section proper. Note that the F-double-sharp creates a DINO – Dissonance In Name Only – over the E in the bass: A notated augmented ninth is in sound a minor tenth. This allows both voices to proceed up stepwise – a semitone in the lead and a whole tone in the bass, into the true dissonance of a major ninth. Just a little contrapuntal affectation I’m fond of which produces an effect I enjoy.

At twenty-nine then, the proper B section begins, and it starts out as a regular sequential section for the first three phrases. Even the bass melody is perfectly sequential after the initial intervallic adjustment of a falling minor third in measure twenty-nine.



For the climactic phrase I wanted something more dramatic, so I employed a symmetrical structure; an augmented triad in this case. These are highly unusual in early common practice music, which is where most listeners are familiar with two-part counterpoint textures from, so it really is a surprising device, especially in a major key piece like this: Even in early Romantic homophonic music, these are more common in minor keys.

After using the augmented triad to quickly and dramatically increase imbalance with its rapid departure from the melodic axis, I answered it, so to speak, with another symmetric structure, a fully diminished seventh chord, on the descent back to balance in measures forty-five and forty-six.

Again, fully diminished seventh arpeggios are far more common in minor key pieces, so this continues the drama, albeit at a reduced level of intensity, even as the trajectory returns to balance for the next statement of the A section. So, I set this climax up – foreshadowed it, in other words - with the diminished triad I employed back in the interlude: We’ve heard a diminished triad, an augmented triad, and a fully diminished seventh chord in the melodic trajectory in this piece. By employing devices like this strategically and sparingly, very satisfying musical effects can be achieved, even in tiny miniatures of very limited scope, such as this guitar study.

This B section is eighteen measures in length, which, while an even number, is still not divisible by four, so it isn’t exactly square: The first three phrases are four measures each, but the final climax and denouement phrase is six measures, which divides as four plus two. Since the melodic peak is at measure 15.5 out of eighteen, that gives the 86% point, which is much later and more dramatic than the more normative climax back in the A section.

In conclusion, Schillinger has much to offer a composer, whether that composer has a proclivity for the rigorous formulaic aspects of The System or not. By simply internalizing a few of the concepts he presents, and employing these tactical devices in an organic stratagem, anyone can increase the effectiveness of their compositions, regardless of style or scope.

*****

I was editing the G-Axis Studies until 2000, so after six plus years, I returned to the concept for the fugal finale of Sonata One for Solo Guitar.

Axial Fugue in E Minor - m4a

Axial Fugue in E Minor - PDF

I did an epic analysis post of this piece here on MMM back in 2008.

From the first diatonic E-Axis Study to the epic 405 measure Axial Fugue was almost exactly twenty years. When you get a, "Big Idea" like these Axial Studies as a composer - we're lucky if we get a half dozen of these in a lifetime - you want to follow it as far as it takes you. If you listen through all of these, the musical evolution is quite evident, and there would never have been any Axial Fugue without those other eighteen pieces that lead up to it. Also, since I used the E-Axis trajectory-below-axis paradigm for the Axial Fugue in E Minor, I am also aware that the B-Axis trajectory-above-axis paradigm is also a possibility for another epic Axial Fugue in B Minor. Yeah, that's cooking in my noggin right now, but it will probably be a few more years before I commit pencil to paper pixels to screen on it.

The primary reason to study things like The Schillinger System and Convertible Counterpoint (The other book that contributed to the Axial Fugue, but that's a story for another post) isn't to understand music better, that's just a byproduct: The primary aim is to get inspiration for compositions.

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Ultimate Classic Guitar Arrangements: Tears in the Rain

Joe Satriani has the distinction of being the only contemporary guy who has composed more than one piece that I play: The tap tech masterpiece, A Day at the Beach, and this simple but lovely little ditty, Tears in the Rain. This is by far the easiest of the contemporary crowd pleaser deals that I play, and it's the first one I give to students who want to get into the contemporary classical thing.

Here's the MIDI to MPEG4 audio file:

Tears in the Rain - Joe Satriani

And so, onto the score.



As you can see, there's not much to it, which is why it's a great example of a piece that is simple, yet beautiful. The opening harmony is a i(add4) in the key of A minor, and having the 4th in between the third and fifth gives two major seconds on top, which produces a plaintively dissonant effect.

The second measure is a ii(d5/add4) in second inversion - highly unusual - with the top major second held over from before, which makes it above the minor third. Then, for the dominant function harmony in the third measure, there is a vii(d5/d7/add6) - which is also very weird and wonderful (And which results in an augmented second in the bass line) - and then the return to the tonic in measure 4.

Joe continues using these, "beautifully dissonant" harmonies throughout the piece, which really does give it the character implied by the title.



One thing I'd like to point out is the right hand fingering in measures 15 and 16: Most guys would just slavishly alternate i and m there, but by employing p in the phrase, I'm able to really dig in on the downbeats, which I think makes the lick more effective.

Also, in the A' section that starts at 17, Joe uses the open A string instead of the fretted A an octave higher like he did before: Let that A over ring under the following harmonies as a pedal.



I only changed one note in the entire piece, and that is the open D in measure 40. Joe had that as an E, so the final dominant harmony was a major triad, but I wanted a full dominant seventh there, and by letting the open E, D, and B strings ring out, it allows for the written-out fermata, and a smoother transition to the final tonic harmony up at the 5th fret. Also, Joe plays an open A at the very end: Sometimes I play that, and sometimes I don't. If, for example, this leads into Classical Gas, I won't play it because that piece starts with an open A, so it would be redundant. If Im' going into Stairway to Heaven, OTOH, I'll play it, because then I'm going to be starting on the A an octave higher. In other words, it's up to you whether to play it or not. I just decided to leave it out of the transcription.

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Practice Routine Comes Together and Fun Stuff

I'm on my sixth pass through the new practice routine, and I'm starting to check off pieces as, "performance ready." I have over twenty of the 70 pieces marked off, so things are coming along nicely. I've found that the maximum number of pages of music I can spread across the twin 23" monitors, and still have them large enough to read, is six.



Here's a screen capture of a single page. Since I set the MMM template field at 700 pixels wide, this is actual size.



So, 67% is the size, and what I do is, I create a live Safari window, drag the PDF into it, and then size the first window so the PDF is at 67%. Every new window I create in Safari afterwards is at that size, so setting up for a practice session only takes a minute or two. Then, I put my timer under one of the windows, and I'm off for my 90 minute session. A few pieces, like Classical Gas here, are more than six pages, so I do have to pause and change pages 5 and 6 to 7 and 8, but it's very quick and easy: Just click the down arrow twice for each new page.

For the meat and potatoes pieces, I read through them once, and then play them from memory the second time through. For the crowd pleasers I read through once, and play two times from memory, and for the new repertoire, I read through them one to three times, depending on where I am in the memorization process and how long and difficult they are. Suicide is Painless, for example, is a beeotch, so I just read through it once, while Bianco Fiore is almost memorized, so I read through it three times.

This has proved to be such an efficient and organic system, that I have all of my to-do list in the system now, and am onto my first Sonata One piece, the Tocatta in E Minor. Here's a page from it.



Needless to say, I'm very psyched about this, as I finished the sonata 27 months ago, and for a while thought I'd never get to it.

*****

"And now for something completely different," as they used to say on Monty Python. One of my mom's champion Lhasa Apso show dogs won Best in Breed at the Westminster dog show in NYC last week! Mom's had at least one Lhasa there every year for the past several, but this is the first time she's won the breed. She was there for the show, and when she got home, she was steppin' high. lol.



She's called Lulu for short. I prefer big dogs myself, but mom loves these little dust mops.

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Define: Virtuoso

The ultimate expression of virtuosity isn't velocity, it's nuance. - Wynton Marsalis

One of my MMM readers/email pals asked me this question, and I thought I knew the answer, but I really couldn't summarize it, so I decided to dedicate a post to it. Let's start with the New Oxford American Distionary that lives in Mac OS X and see where that leads us:

vir-tu-o-so |ˌvər ch oōˈōsō|
noun ( pl. -si |-sē| or -sos )
a person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit : a celebrated clarinet virtuoso | [as adj. ] virtuoso guitar playing.
• a person with a special knowledge of or interest in works of art or curios.

DERIVATIVES
vir-tu-o-sic |-ˈäsik; -ˈōsik| |ˈvərtʃəˈwɑsɪk| |-ˈɒsɪk| adjective
vir-tu-o-sity |-ˈäsitē| |ˈvərtʃəˈwɑsədi| |-ˈɒsɪti| noun

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Italian, literally ‘learned, skillful,’ from late Latin virtuosus (see virtuous ).

Okay, lets see virtuous:

vir-tu-ous |ˈvər ch əwəs|
adjective
having or showing high moral standards : she considered herself very virtuous because she neither drank nor smoked. See note at moral .
• archaic (esp. of a woman) chaste.

DERIVATIVES
vir-tu-ous-ly |ˈvərtʃəwəsli| adverb
vir-tu-ous-ness |ˈvərtʃəwəsnəs| noun

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French vertuous, from late Latin virtuosus, from virtus ‘virtue.’

The note at moral reads:

"You can be an ethical person without necessarily being a moral one, since ethical implies conformity with a code of fair and honest behavior, particularly in business or in a profession (: an ethical legislator who didn't believe in cutting deals), while moral refers to generally accepted standards of goodness and rightness in character and conduct—especially sexual conduct (: the moral values she'd learned from her mother).

In the same way, you can be honorable without necessarily being virtuous, since honorable suggests dealing with others in a decent and ethical manner, while virtuous implies the possession of moral excellence in character (: many honorable businesspeople fail to live a virtuous private life).

Righteous is similar in meaning to virtuous but also implies freedom from guilt or blame (: righteous anger); when the righteous person is also somewhat intolerant and narrow-minded, self-righteous might be a better adjective.

Someone who makes a hypocritical show of being righteous is often described as sanctimonious —in other words, acting like a saint without having a saintly character."

(All of the bold and italic elements above are from the originals).


See what a thicket I walked into here? Then again, the popular notion of virtuoso makes me think insantly of people like this.


Nicolo Paganini

"Nicolo Paganini was born in Genoa, Italy, Oct 27, 1782. He was one of six children born to Teresa and Antonio Paganini. He was an Italian violinist and a composer, considered by many as the greatest of all time.

He received music lessons from his father before he was 6 years old and later from the best instructors in Genoa. He began to perform in public and composed his first sonata in 1790. In 1795 he went to Parma, Italy to study but the teachers there told him they could do nothing more for him. He then commenced on a course of self-training so rigorous that he often played 15 hours a day. In 1797 he started his concert tours, which for many years consisted of triumph after triumph. From 1805 to 1808 he was the court solo violinist at Lucca, appointed by Napoleon’s sister Elisa Bacciocchi. In 1809 Nicolo became a free-lance soloist performing his own music. He performed concerts throughout Italy.

In early 1828 Nicolo began a six and half year tour that started in Vienna and ended in Paris in September 1834. During the two and half year period from August 1828 to February, 1831 he visited some 40 cities in Germany, Bohemia, and Poland. Performances in Vienna, Paris, and London were hailed widely, and his tour in 1832 through England and Scotland made him wealthy.

His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist.

Once his fame was established, Paganini’s life was a mixture of triumphs and personal excesses. He earned large sums of money but he indulged recklessly in gambling and other forms of dissipation. On one occasion he was forced to pawn his violin. Having requested the loan of a violin from a wealthy French merchant so that he could fulfill an engagement, he was given a Guarnerius violin by the merchant and later refused to take it back when the concert was over. It was Paganini’s treasure and was bequeathed to the people of Genoa by the violinist and is still carefully preserved in that city.

Paganini’s genius as a player overshadows his work as a composer. He wrote much of his music for his own performances, music so difficult that it was commonly thought that he entered into a pack [sic - Huc] with the Devil. His compositions included 24 caprices (published in 1820) for unaccompanied violin that are among the most difficult works ever written for the instrument. He also challenged musicians with such compositions as his 12 sonatas for violin and guitar; 6 violin concerti; and 6 quartets for violin, viola, cello, and guitar."

Many people aren't even aware that Paganini played the guitar, but there were some of his contemporaries who though he was even a better guitarist than a violinist! I have his complete guitar works on CD, and they are quite nice, but I can't say they've influenced me much, but Paganini was notorious for only writing out simple accompaniment parts, and then making them tours de force when he performed them, so who knows how he actually played them.




Franz Liszt


"Born on October 22, 1811 in Raiding (then Doborján) Hungary Franz Liszt was soon recognized to be a child prodigy at the age of six. His father Adam, who played the cello in the local orchestra, taught Franz piano. Employed as a secretary by Prince Nicholas Esterházy Adam asked for extended leave to further his son's musical education.

Adding further to Adam's plea was a letter of request in 1822 by Antonio Salieri, Mozart's old rival, who was astonished upon hearing the young Liszt play at a private house. This prompted Salier's offer to freely train the child in composition. The Prince finally gave the Liszt's leave to stay in Vienna. Liszt at this time also studied piano under Carl Czerny - Beethoven's esteemed pupil. This lasted only eighteen months.

Tours and many performances generated amazement and praise for the young Liszt by audiences, musicians and Kings. They were especially impressed by his uncanny ability to improvise an original composition from a melody suggested by the audience. Playing on par with established professionals at age 12 Liszt was fast becoming a sensation."

I became aware of Franz Liszt when I was in high school through the 1975 film, Lisztomania starring Roger Daltrey of The Who. The only reason I went was because The Who was my favorite band at the time, but I was fascinated by the legend of the man, so I bought some Andre Watts recordings of the Liszt Paganini Etudes and proceeded to, well, freak the frak out.

Here's Mr. Watts playing Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 10 (Embedding disabled).

*****

I'm sure I'm far from alone in thinking of these two guys first when I hear the word virtuoso, but there's obviously more to it than just amazing performance abilities (Though, note that both Paganini and Liszt were also composers). For me the word virtuoso can also apply to composers like these guys.


Johann Sebastian Bach

This is the bit I want to focus on:

"Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout Europe during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now regarded as the supreme composer of the Baroque, and as one of the greatest of all time."

I've known this fact for decades, but it never ceases to amaze and inspire me: Bach was primarily known as a keyboard virtuoso in his lifetime, and not as a virtuoso compser, which was obviously his great contribution to music. This inspires me because I'm not in any way surprised when nobody comprehends any of my "stuff." I realize that I can talk all day about how rigorous mechanical efficiency, convertible contrapuntal combinations, and axial fugue subject manipulations are new in my music - and be genuinely enthusiastic about it - and nobody is going to get it, or even care: If they didn't get Bach... well.

Bach is also the composer I relate to the best in terms of his music. When Jackie King first explained the concept of fugue to me and had me listen to Bach's A minor fugue for lute...



... the first words out of my mouth when it was finished were, "It's so logical."

This guy, OTOH, seems like an impenetrable fortress to me...


Ludwig van Beethoven

"Late Works

Beethoven began a renewed study of older music, including works by J. S. Bach and Handel, that were then being published in the first attempts at complete editions. He composed the Consecration of the House Overture, which was the first work to attempt to incorporate his new influences. But it is when he returned to the keyboard to compose his first new piano sonatas in almost a decade, that a new style, now called his "late period", emerged. The works of the late period are commonly held to include the last five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late quartets (see below), and two works for very large forces: the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony."

...especially those late works. The forms sound slippery, but when I look at them, they are very much, "in the box." Then - especially with the late string quartets - the music on the page looks disarmingly simple in many places, what with simple scalar passages ascending and descending against each other, but the musical effect when I listen to them is devastating. I may never figure this guy out, but he's my favorite composer by far, and IMO the greatest ever.



I may have to learn that at some point. lol.

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But, this is all classical stuff so far. Since I'm from, "the wrong side of the tracks" musically - being a former jazz and rock guitarist who even appeared on MTV a couple of times - I also think musicians other than classical guys can be virtuosos too.


Charlie Parker

"The only child of Charles and Addie Parker, Charlie Parker was one of the most important and influential saxophonists and jazz players of the 1940’s.

When Parker was still a child, his family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz, blues and gospel music were flourishing. His first contact with music came from school, where he played baritone horn with the school’s band. When he was 15, he showed a great interest in music and a love for the alto saxophone. Soon, Parker was playing with local bands until 1935, when he left school to pursue a music career.

From 1935 to 1939, Parker worked in Kansas City with several local jazz and blues bands from which he developed his art. In 1939, Parker visited New York for the first time, and he stayed for nearly a year working as a professional musician and often participating in jam sessions. The New York atmosphere greatly influenced Parker's musical style. "



Before J.S. Bach I discovered Charlie Parker... Okay, I was turned onto him, also by my seminal teacher, Jackie King. In fact, I often call Charlie Parker, "The J.S. Bach of Jazz" because his music, while in a completely different genera, hits me with the same inevitability and logic that Bach's music does. Just as J.S. influenced me massively vis-a-vis counterpoint and fugue, Parker influenced me massively vis-a-vis melody. So much so, that I combined Bach's counterpoint with Parker's melody in another piece nobody seems to grasp the novelty and sublimity of.

In a nutshell then, I don't think musical genera excludes anybody from being considered a virtuoso.


Miles Davis

"Miles Davis was one of the greatest visionaries and most important figures in jazz history. He was born in a well-to-do family in East St. Louis. He became a local phenom and toured locally with Billy Eckstine's band while he was in high school. He moved to New York under the guise of attending the Julliard School of Music. However, his real intentions were to hook up with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He quickly climbed up the ranks while learning from Bird and Diz and became the trumpet player for Charlie Parker's group for nearly 3 years. His first attempt at leading a group came in 1949 and was the first of many occurrences in which he would take jazz in a new direction. Along with arranger Gil Evans, he created a nonet (9 members) that used non-traditional instruments in a jazz setting, such as French horn and Tuba. He invented a more subtle, yet still challenging style that became known as "cool jazz." This style influenced a large group of musicians who played primarily on the west coast and further explored this style. The recordings of the nonet were packaged by Capitol records and released under the name The Birth of the Cool. The group featured Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, and Max Roach, among others. This was one of the first instances in which Miles demonstrated a recurring move that angered some: he brought in musicians regardless of race. He once said he'd give a guy with green skin and "polka-dotted breath" a job, as long as they could play sax as well as Lee Konitz."



I consider myself ridiculously fortunate to have met Miles and also to have listened to him play in a completely private setting. My band was rehearsing at SIR in Manhattan and Miles was rehearsing next door. There are two doors going into studio one there to deaden the sound, and I was so intimidated by him - this is after my degree at Berklee - that I sandwiched myself between the doors to listen. Well, one of the sound guys need to take a break and opened the inner door to discover me there... and promptly doubled over laughing. He said, "come on in, man!" - an offer I'd never refuse - and so I got to watch Miles play to an audience of about five for over an half hour (Yes, "an" goes before a word beginning with an "h"... but I digress). Nobody will ever be able to tell me this man wasn't a virtuoso, despite the intuitive nature of his learning and playing.

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So we have classical and jazz music covered in the definition of virtuoso, but how about my very first guitar hero?


Jimi Hendrix

"Widely recognized as one of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Jimi Hendrix pioneered the explosive possibilities of the electric guitar. Hendrix's innovative style of combining fuzz, feedback and controlled distortion created a new musical form. Because he was unable to read or write music, it is nothing short of remarkable that Jimi Hendrix's meteoric rise in the music took place in just four short years. His musical language continues to influence a host of modern musicians, from George Clinton to Miles Davis, and Steve Vai to Jonny Lang."



When Jimi hit I was a pre-teen living in Tacoma, Washington and he was from Seattle - hometown hero - and needless to say, he wiped everybody off the map. A virtuoso? Oh yeah.


Steve Vai

"Vai first stepped into the spotlight in 1980 as a guitarist in Frank Zappa's band. But Vai's indelible contribution to music came during his solo career, which includes combined sales of nearly six million albums. His debut - "Flex-Able" (1984, self-released) – set the stage for Vai's most influential and best-selling album – "Passion and Warfare" (1990, Relativity). The album expanded the lexicon of rock guitar and ushered in an era of guitar virtuosos in the early '90s. Ironically, two record labels dropped Vai while he recorded the breakthrough album."



Steve and I are the same age, and he left Berklee to work with Zappa the semester before I got there. He was already a legend among guitarists, and he's my favorite guitarist among contemporary rock stylists by far: a true virtuoso. I thank God he's never done a nylon guitar solo piece because then I'd have to, you know, learn it as one of my crowd pleaser deals, which might lead to wrist slitting and all sorts of death. LOL!

Needless to say, I could go on, but I think readers ought to get the point: There is a difference between possessing virtuosity - i.e. the ability to play fast - and being a virtuoso which implies a transcendental level of mastery. There is also the dimension of being a virtuoso in a particular style or at a particular task - I consider myself a virtuoso at programming the Lexicon MPX-G2 Guitar Effects Processor, for example - versus living a virtuous life: Many virtuoso musicians live lives that are a wreck or even abjectly tragic.

What would you get if you combined a virtuoso musician with a virtuous life? Who would be my pick for the complete virtuoso, IOW? This guy right here.


Andres Segovia

"Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) is considered to be the father of the modern classical guitar movement by most modern scholars. Many feel, that without his efforts, the classical guitar would still be considered a lowly bar instrument, played only by peasants.

Segovia's quest to elevate the guitar to a prominent position in the music world, began at the early age of four. His uncle used to sing songs to him and pretend to strum an imaginary guitar in his lap. Luckily for us, there was a luthier nearby and Segovia took an instant liking to the guitar. Although discouraged by his family (according to them he should play a "real" instrument), he continued to pursue his studies of the guitar. He set a goal for the guitar and himself early in life. It was, to bring Guitar studies to every university in the world, have the guitar played throughout the world, on every major stage, just as the piano and violin were, and lastly, to pass on his love of the guitar to generations to follow. He considered himself to be the messenger that would complete this impossible quest.

He succeeded in all respects."

Yes he did. If you are a guitarist in any style of music this man is your father. He's the father of us all. And, he lead an long, exemplary, and honorable life.

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Why I Don't Care that the Apple iPad Won't Have Flash...

...and other miscellaneous musings.



Flash is buggy excrement as software. Over 90% of the crashes my Apple computers - all four of them - experience are Flash related. Besides, all those annoying ads that take over your screen and ruin your web surfing experience are Flash powered. Not having Flash is a feature, not a bug.

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MMM has passed 100K hits... in just less than five years. LOL!



Some blogs get that many hits in a day.

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I've been doing Google image searches this evening - since I'm not a football fan - for my upcoming post, Define: Virtuoso. An email bud who is a regular reader suggested the topic (I think he works at Wang Labs, but I'm not positive), and I thought it would be easy, but I've ended up spending an inordinate amount of time on it. Philosophical questions like the difference between being a virtuoso and possessing virtuosity have been filling my thoughts as I drift off to sleep every night, but I think I have a handle on it now. It's sure a fun post because I've collected some rocking images for it.

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Ultimate Classic Guitar Arrangements: Eu So Quero Um Xodo

I tell the anecdote about how I discovered this piece all the time as an example of why I love the internet era. About four years ago, I was putzing around on the World Guitarist website when I clicked a link to check out NYC classical guitarist Don Witter Jr. Well, Don has a clip of his version of Eu So Quero Um Xodo as the intro music for his home page. I freaked - I'm ridiculously jaded, so not many pieces freak me out anymore - and so I contacted Don and asked what the piece was and where I could get the music for it. He told me it was the Brazilian classic Eu So Quero Um Xodo, that it was arranged by Tim Sparks, and he gave me a link to Tim's site. Then I contacted Tim and asked where I could pick up the sheet music, and Tim responded with the PDF attached!

This entire episode took about forty-five minutes.

Don's version is a bit hot rodded compared to the version Tim sent me, so I decided to do my own version, and I changed quite a few things. I added a section of parallel major triads in the bridge to answer the parallel minor thirds - an exotic sounding idiomatic feature of some latin music that does not fit into the diatonic system at all - which I think adds quite a bit to the piece, and then I composed a coda to wind the piece down because I though the ending was too abrupt.

Here's the usual MIDI to M4A version...

Eu So Quero Um Xodo - Dominguinhos

... but you can also hear me playing my first recording of it at my main site. Obviously, I slowed the piece down a lot, and I did this after hearing some of Dominguinhos' recorded versions, but I have since worked it up to about where the M4A file is at.

The piece is in D major with a drop-D tuning, and so it is the concluding crowd pleaser for the D major/D minor suite in my set, which looks like this:

VII] D Major Suite (Drop D Tuning):

48] Figuration Prelude No. 6 in D major
49] Bianco Fiore - Cesare Negri
50] Figuration Prelude No. 23 in D minor
51] Bourree II in D minor, 3rd Cello Suite - J.S. Bach
52] Eu So Quero Um Xodo - Dominguinhos

On to the score.



You can see the traditional Brazilian rhythm pattern in the bass, and with the straight quarters in the melody, there's a nice cross-rhythmic cumulative rhythm created that just propels the piece right along. It takes a while to get this straight in the old noggin - at least it did for me - but once you have it, it's a blast to play. All of this page is quite close to Tim's original, but I fattened it up with a few notes added to the harmony here and there.



I added an internal repeat in there at measure 19 to keep the thing on five pages. The open G in measure 25 I added, and I think it's very effective. I also let the bass notes over-ring, which makes the thing sound positively huge.



I had to make the first and second endings three measures here to get the To Coda in the second one, in case that appears strange to you.

OK, starting in 35 is the bridge, and Tim had three voices in the lead by doubling the top line down an octave. This had the bass alternating between the low D and A, without the high D in there. I didn't want to break that pattern, so I changed the lead to just two voices in minor thirds. You can see that this charming lick is "out of bounds" vis-a-vis the diatonic system, and that's what makes this section sound exotic.

The answering phrase starting in measure 43 originally cycled back and forth between C major and D major triads over the ostinato...



... but created an entirely new lick by putting an E major triad in there too, as you can see at measure 45. Since three major triads all whole steps apart also violate the diatonic paradigm, this also sounds exotic, but happily so, versus the earlier minor thirds, which are almost sinister sounding. I love this section.

At 53 we get the D.S., and the Segno is only needed to avoid the pickup measure: It basically goes back to the top. The To Coda is back at measure 32 on page 3 in that three measure second ending I mentioned, and it keeps the piece from going through the bridge a second time.

Tim's arrangement ended at what would be measure 56 in my version, but it seemed to abrupt to me, so I composed an entire concluding coda to wind things down. Keeping with my minimalist approach, it is simple yet effective from my perspective.



I didn't program a retard into the M4A, but you can hear how I execute it in the home studio recording I did. The last measure of 4/2 is just a written-out fermata, and so I got to employ the breve, which almost never happens in contemporary music. Yay me! lol.

Now, about the word, "xodo." I know some Spanish, so Portuguese is not too hard for me to figure out, but the word xodo had me completely stumped. Well, after posting my recording of this at MySpace Music, I got over a hundred Brazilian friends, so I asked one of them. He told me it's basically a slang term for something that gives one extreme satisfaction, and he used the example, "My iPod is my xodo." In this song though - the original has lyrics, remember - it is referring to a girl, so the title, "I am wanting (or needing) a (or my) xodo" would be, "I am looking for the one." meaning that one special girl. There are cross-cultural constants, you know. :-)

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