Foreword
by David Starobin
“It’s exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness,” wrote the poet Adrienne Rich. The twentieth century’s awakening classical guitar consciousness has had the happy result of spurring an outburst of new classical guitar repertoire. Contemporary databases document thousands of recent pieces written for the instrument, including contributions by the likes of Manuel de Falla, Toru Takemitsu, Leo Brouwer, Benjamin Britten, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Frank Martin, Alberto Ginastera, Elliott Carter, Manuel Maria Ponce, Sir William Walton, Hans Werner Henze, and Luciano Berio.
In Bryan Johanson and Jesse McCann’s ambitious Guitar Repertoire Volume 2 - Martin to Brouwer, the authors have judiciously chosen music which offers a panoramic view of contemporary compositional styles and guitar playing. In the Foreword to Volume 1, William Kanengiser asks: “What’s typically missing from the study of classical guitar repertoire?” and wisely answers, “Context. Historical, political, biographical, analytical and performance-practice context, to frame and deepen musical understanding.” In Volume 2, the authors give us all that and more.
We learn that Frank Martin’s Quatres Pièces Brèves disappeared from wider awareness because Segovia rejected them, and in the next chapter read of Segovia’s first successful “commissioned” piece. The Castelnuovo-Tedesco chapter features cogent formal analysis and includes detailed discussions of available manuscripts and publications, as do all the subsequent chapters of this invaluable book.
In this series, the authors have provided the reader with an “insider’s guide” to guitar playing- an important addition to the libraries of professional and amateur players alike. Teachers, too, will cherish this book, both as a valuable source of information, and for its wealth of pedagogical wisdom. That knowledge is generously shared in clear language, accompanied by dozens of helpful musical examples.
It is now clear that a bright musical future for our once-maligned “street instrument” is assured. These pages document the ongoing construction of a grand edifice – a body of music that spans style, nationality, and the varied tonal linguistics that have shaped the musical landscape for the past century. Players, listeners, and lovers of this most personal and intimate of instruments: It is time to feast!
