Arabescata
Andrew McKenna Lee
About this work:
'Arabescata' is the first movement from the 'Scordatura Suite'- a collection of three pieces for solo guitar, each in a different tuning. Scordatura tunings provide a much greater diversity of harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities on the guitar, an instrument which has a large but limited number of intervallic combinations available to the left hand. By altering the tuning of the instrument, different chords and voicings become possible that would not be otherwise, and I find that as a composer, the different tunings help me to think outside the realm of what my hands just might end up doing naturally as I improvise, which turned out to be a crucial part in the creative process of these pieces. In spite of having studied the classical guitar seriously for a number of years, these pieces are somehow deeply connected to my adolescent experiences as a rock guitarist. The guitar represents a very intuitive and physical side of my music making, while my ensemble works, which I hope are no less visceral, grow out of ideas and expressions of sound that I hear in my mind. It is my creative goal to somehow combine these two different stylistic approaches in order to derive a deeper and more developed musical language as a composer.
Year composed: 2001
Duration: 00:05:09
Ensemble type: Solo instrument, non-keyboard:Guitar (Classical/Acoustic)
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: Tuning for this work: DADGAD