Classical works for electric guitar

[arkiv]

Not much of them, but I have found that Blas Galindo authored one piece:
"Concertino para guitarra eléctrica y orquesta" (1973).


https://www.youtube.com/v/fA1q8RAke1Q

[Dax]

There's a late piece by Frank Martin entitled Poèmes de la mort for 3 solo male voices and 3 electric guitars.
Interesting stuff, but then most of his music is. There's one of them on youtube:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCrNoLQ5-U

[arkiv]

There's a late piece by Frank Martin entitled Poèmes de la mort for 3 solo male voices and 3 electric guitars.
Interesting stuff, but then most of his music is. There's one of them on youtube:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCrNoLQ5-U

Let explore this cavern.

[Karl Henning]

It's one of a number of adaptations . . . but I immediately thought of Reich's Electric Counterpoint.

[bhodges]

It's one of a number of adaptations . . . but I immediately thought of Reich's Electric Counterpoint.

That's a good one!

Just searched YouTube and there's a newly posted live version of Fausto Romitelli's Professor Bad Trip (1998-2000) by the ICTUS Ensemble, who did the recording (the only commercial one yet, I believe, though there appear to be 3 or 4 more performances on YouTube). Romitelli was influenced by spectralism, and also by psychedelic rock music; I've become a huge fan of his work after hearing this piece live, along with a few others.

The piece is for chamber ensemble, and includes a prominent electric guitar part. Here is Mark Swed's review from a 2011 performance in Los Angeles: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/01/music-review-professor-bad-trip-invades-monday-evening-concerts.html

http://www.youtube.com/v/D9kjd5rRSV4

--Bruce

[Kontrapunctus]

Absolute garbage. Sorry, I just had to say it.

+1 Had to shut it off after 30 seconds. Makes Malmsteen's sound like Mahler.

[pjme]

Belgian composer Luc Van Hove wrote "Stacked time" a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra. It is not on You Tube, I fear.

You may be able to track down the cd ....second hand.



Carnaval op het strand (carnival on the beach) (1985)
Concerto voor piano en orkest op. 32 (1995)
Symfonie nr. 1 op. 25 (1989)
Triptiek, concerto voor hobo en orkest op. 29 (1993)
Stacked time, concerto voor elektrische gitaar en orkest op. 26 (1990)
Symfonie nr. 2 op. 34 (1997)

Henk Swinnen (hobo), Levente Kende (piano), Tim Vets (elektrische gitaar),Vlaams Radio Orkest o.l.v. Etienne Siebens

this is what Hubert Culot wrote for Musicweb
Luc Van Hove, born in 1957, studied at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp and attended master classes at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the University of Surrey in Guildford. His present output (about forty opus numbers so far) includes many chamber works and several substantial orchestral pieces (including three symphonies and three concertos).

The earliest work in this cross-selection of his orchestral output is the beautifully atmospheric Carnaval op het Strand Op.17 commissioned for the occasion of an important exhibition devoted to the Belgian painter James Ensor and completed in 1985. Appropriately enough, it has as its starting point the eponymous painting of Ensor (the Dutch title means Carnival on the Beach). The piece though is by no means programmatic but rather evokes the main features of Ensor's painting: on the one hand, the superficially monotonous, unchanging seascape and, on the other hand, the exuberantly clashing colours of the masks (a typical Ensor fingerprint). The "sea music" is actually present throughout as a continuum upon which colourful episodes are superimposed. The latter build-up towards an impressive climax, brutally interrupted. The ever-present, if unnoticed "sea music", albeit in a highly simplified form, slowly fades away. A beautifully evocative piece on all counts. (Incidentally, this is its second recording, the first [RADIO3 R3 99012] being part of a collection of Ensor-inspired works by Belgian composers.)

The Symphony No.1 Op.25, completed in 1989, is characterised by a greater emphasis on rhythm and rough energy, though the central section Mahler, paying overt homage to the Austrian composer, has its calmer, more lyrical moments such as its outer sections. However, the whole work leaves a strong impression of troubled turmoil though there is near the end of the third movement a short-lived attempt at a big tune that does not succeed to take flight and that is abruptly cut short by the impatient, angry coda.


Stacked Time Op.26 of 1990 for electric guitar and orchestra was commissioned by the organization Jeugd and Muziek (i.e. "Youth and Music") for its fiftieth anniversary. The commission insisted that the piece should bridge the gap between pop and classical music, hence the choice of a rather unusual solo instrument. In this piece, Van Hove consolidates many characteristics already present in some of his earlier works and this one is a further attempt to blend tonal and atonal elements into one musically satisfying whole. Again, rhythms feature prominently in this piece that has its share of irony but also some more relaxed moments such as the central movement Träumerei.

The oboe concerto Triptiek Op.29, composed in 1993, is a much more lyrical piece in which long melodic lines abound. The work has three movements, though the weight of the musical argument is reserved for the long central movement, the outer slow movements acting respectively as short prologue and epilogue. To my mind, this is one of Van Hove's most beautiful and attractive pieces.

The Piano Concerto Op.32, completed in 1995, has a somewhat unusual layout. A short first movement A Dance Tune acts as a prelude to the longer, highly contrasted, narrative second movement A Story. (The title of this second movement says much as its content, i.e. a long ballad-like narration not unlike Frank Martin's Ballade pour piano et orchestre.) A Dance Tune begins somewhat hesitantly with the piano's gentle musings supported by chamber-like instrumental forces whereas A Story calls for larger orchestral forces. This rather unusual piano concerto could, I believe, become as popular as the Martin work mentioned.

Admittedly composed under the shadows of the horrendous affairs that brutally shattered Belgium in 1996 (the Dutroux case), the Symphony No.2 Op.34, completed in 1997, is a quite different piece than its predecessor. It is cast in two movements of fairly equal length (Elegia and Quasi una fantasia con epilogo) and is much more elegiac in mood and emotionally more introvert. It is also overtly more melodic than the First Symphony.

Van Hove's music is clearly of its time, though still rooted in some 20th Century mainstream symphonic writing, successfully blending tonal and atonal elements into a powerfully expressive and communicative idiom. These fine, superbly crafted pieces are well-served by committed readings though the sound level of the recording might be too high for some tastes, but this double-CD set provides for a quite comprehensive survey of Luc Van Hove's powerfully gripping music.


Hubert Culot





P.

[Karl Henning]

This thread is reminding me that I ought to revisit Naïve and Sentimental Music.

[pjme]

Maybe this can help....


http://www.youtube.com/v/MZuSaudKc68

[pjme]

On the other hand...there's also:

http://www.youtube.com/v/jzJzlI9DoX0

[pjme]

And from Bulgaria:


http://www.youtube.com/v/rHQyyOgQ2hY

[not edward]

There's a late piece by Frank Martin entitled Poèmes de la mort for 3 solo male voices and 3 electric guitars.
Interesting stuff, but then most of his music is. There's one of them on youtube:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TCrNoLQ5-U

It's amazing how, well, Frank Martin it sounds ...

Some others:

Tristan Murail's Vampyr!
http://www.youtube.com/v/4kshdlU2hD8

Fausto Romitelli's Trash TV Trance
http://www.youtube.com/v/ytrFldiO4sw

Georges Lentz's Ingwe (didn't see a YouTube video):
[asin]B004TWOX8U[/asin]

+ some pieces in Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung series (Lang uses electric instruments quite regularly).

[pjme]

http://www.youtube.com/v/59AaGR_s_Bo


Jehan Alain rocks!

P.

[7/4]

Jehan Alain rocks!

P.

He does. What is that piece of music anyway, sounds familiar.

[Brahmsian]

A serious question:  Would Edward Van Halen's Cathedral, count?  I think it is a brilliant short piece.

[pjme]

LITANIES

It is one of Alain's best known pieces.

It is best heard in a church or cathedral: very impressive; both mysterious and joyful.

Here is Jehan's sister Marie Claire with the original :

http://www.youtube.com/v/PrH-zCJMb7s

P.

[Karl Henning]

A serious question:  Would Edward Van Halen's Cathedral, count?  I think it is a brilliant short piece.

Guitarre engloutie?

[xochitl]

glenn branca counts as a composer, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_PO_d-SPe0&list=RD04KaOmzMz99uo

[Szykneij]

A serious question:  Would Edward Van Halen's Cathedral, count?  I think it is a brilliant short piece.

Only if you call him Edward, and not Eddie.   

[listener]

Peter Schat's Thema op.21 (1970) inspired by James Brown's "I Feel Alright" is scored for four bassoons, five clarinets, Hammond organ, bass guitar, three trombones, three saxophones, three trumpets, three guitars and oboe.   There's a recording in the Concertgebouw Live collection.