First Performance
November 2001
Lily Afshar
Memphis, TN
Instrumentation
acoustic guitar
Duration
9'30"
Listen
Program Notes
MKG Variations for solo guitar was commissioned by Marlene Guzman and originally written for solo cello.. The version for guitar was created in the Summer of 2001 with a collaboration with Lily Afshar. The original version of the work took advantage of the sonorous qualities of the open strings on the cello. To create the same effects on the guitar the entire work was transposed up a whole tone. Many of the chords and harmonics did not speak the same way on the guitar and they were re-voiced. Alteration of tempi to the faster side made the work more apt for guitar. This version In essence is no different then the cello’s--it is just organic for guitar. It is like having the same role be played by completely different actors. Something which happens regularly in theater.. The piece stems out of a spiritual impulse. The first idea, an idea of calm yet anticipatory stasis, acts as a theme which is then varied in a string of variations. The variations range from a passionate expression of the theme to a percussive one; from an angry one to an extremely delicate one; from one that is somewhat Bach-like to one that is fleeting, but frozen in time; to one that is more raw and unforgiving. The work closes with a final presentation of the original theme, dissolving into silence, where it once originated from.
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