Details
This project will research and disseminate an area of previously unexplored historical repertoire for guitar which will include an album completely comprised of premier recordings and the preparation of edited scores to facilitate this. This music dates from the mid-nineteenth century and would be recorded using replica and original period instruments and techniques based on historical sources. The additional written material, to compliment the recording, will be undertaken by the world’s leading authority on the subject, underscoring the academic rigour and significance of the project.
Due to the widespread belief that the origins of the classical guitar are predominantly Spanish, entire catalogues of Central and Eastern European guitar music have lain dustily unexplored in distant libraries, unknown even to local performers intent on mastering the ‘core’ Spanish repertoire. In addition, because of the dominance of the piano in chamber music during the 19th century, many Eastern European guitarists attempted to expand the range of the instrument, to rival the piano, by adding extra strings. These innovations render their music unplayable on a standard classical guitar without some alterations being made. However, once the appropriate instrument is found, or the relevant editing undertaken, the music itself is of a quality and inventiveness that equals the more well-known staples of the guitar literature.
This project explores the works of one composer, the Russian Ivan Klinger (1815-1897), a reasonably prolific composer and arranger of works for guitar about whom little biographical information is available outside of Russian sources.
Klinger was active in the busy St. Petersburg guitar community but rather than write for the regional seven-string Russian guitar with its sonorous G major chord tuning - which has been explored in depth both academically and in recordings by Oleg Timofeyev - chose to work within the Viennese tradition, employing standard guitar tuning but with additional bass strings tuned diatonically. Klinger’s musical language includes Russian folk songs, which he adapts to the harmonic idiom of Eastern European Romanticism and original works far removed in style from the familiar Spanish nationalism of the standard guitar repertoire.
Klinger’s music displays nationalistic traits common for his era, along with an awareness of wider trends in music-making from throughout Europe. Despite this, his music has yet to be accepted within the cultural framework from which it arose. Whilst mainstream Russian composers of the nineteenth century have achieved immense worldwide popularity, for their immediately identifiable ‘Russian’ sounding works, the historical application of this idiom to the guitar has yet to be explored in the modern world. This project would initiate the process of bringing attention to this unique and overlooked music, allowing its place in the repertoire of the guitar to be finally acknowledged and accepted.
Due to the widespread belief that the origins of the classical guitar are predominantly Spanish, entire catalogues of Central and Eastern European guitar music have lain dustily unexplored in distant libraries, unknown even to local performers intent on mastering the ‘core’ Spanish repertoire. In addition, because of the dominance of the piano in chamber music during the 19th century, many Eastern European guitarists attempted to expand the range of the instrument, to rival the piano, by adding extra strings. These innovations render their music unplayable on a standard classical guitar without some alterations being made. However, once the appropriate instrument is found, or the relevant editing undertaken, the music itself is of a quality and inventiveness that equals the more well-known staples of the guitar literature.
This project explores the works of one composer, the Russian Ivan Klinger (1815-1897), a reasonably prolific composer and arranger of works for guitar about whom little biographical information is available outside of Russian sources.
Klinger was active in the busy St. Petersburg guitar community but rather than write for the regional seven-string Russian guitar with its sonorous G major chord tuning - which has been explored in depth both academically and in recordings by Oleg Timofeyev - chose to work within the Viennese tradition, employing standard guitar tuning but with additional bass strings tuned diatonically. Klinger’s musical language includes Russian folk songs, which he adapts to the harmonic idiom of Eastern European Romanticism and original works far removed in style from the familiar Spanish nationalism of the standard guitar repertoire.
Klinger’s music displays nationalistic traits common for his era, along with an awareness of wider trends in music-making from throughout Europe. Despite this, his music has yet to be accepted within the cultural framework from which it arose. Whilst mainstream Russian composers of the nineteenth century have achieved immense worldwide popularity, for their immediately identifiable ‘Russian’ sounding works, the historical application of this idiom to the guitar has yet to be explored in the modern world. This project would initiate the process of bringing attention to this unique and overlooked music, allowing its place in the repertoire of the guitar to be finally acknowledged and accepted.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | In preparation - 2021 |