3 Guitars
Faye-Ellen1 Silverman
About this work:
3 Guitars was written at the request of the Peabody Guitar Ensemble. The opening idea, which generates aspects of the entire work, began as a joke with a friend, who suggested writing a “cricket concerto”. The alternation of pitches – growing louder and higher in the introduction and lower and softer in the coda – is meant to be an abstraction of the sounds produced by crickets.
The main body of the piece is in three continuous sections (faster – slower – faster). The first of these three sections begins with chords built partially from seconds and sevenths, related to the opening minor second of the piece. These chords, which progress from 2 – 3 notes per guitar to 3 –4 notes per guitar to six notes per guitar, reappear again (especially the opening few chords) in decreasing numbers. These chordal passages interrupt running passages created by the three guitars (not all used in every passage) going at independent speeds, each within its own register. The opening pitches of these runs are the same as the top notes of the chords.
The second section, which increase from one to two to three guitars, then later reverses the process, relates back to this introduction. This is seen in both the use of tremolo (a faster version of alternating pitches) and glissando, as well as in the opening of phrases with major seventh or minor ninth leaps. The third section uses some of the chords of the first section – the 6 and 3 – 4 note chords – but states them mainly in reverse order and scattered in increasing numbers. The feeling of the runs of the first section is somewhat recaptured by the use of sixteenths. These in-between passages start homophonically and end polyphonically, in contrast with section I (where the runs are always polyphonic). Thus arch form is carried out in many aspects of the piece. Additionally, much attention has been given to the special sound effects possible with the guitar, such as the differences between fingered and open string versions of the same pitch, bent tones, and harmonics.
Year composed: 1980
Duration: 00:13:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Guitar Ensembles
Instrumentation: 3 Guitar (Classical/Acoustic)