September 1998
Volume 2 Number 3

Letter from the President
They Are Just Composers By Jörg Jewanski
Ross Thompson: Composer/Performer Extraordinaire By Arnie Williams

Letter from the President

Dear Readers:

The Guitar Society needs your help!!!
What a way to start a letter—but it's true. The San Francisco Classical Guitar Society was established to develop and bring together a community. We are pleased that we are accomplishing that goal, but we are at a point where we need more people to help maintain and support this organization. The Guitar Society's success until now has been the result of the dedication of a handful of people. Each one of us has worked on a volunteer basis because we want the Guitar Society to continue reaching its goal of making available a monthly forum for all to share guitar music. For us to continue to succeed, we need the help of a few people:

1. A public relations person—someone who is willing and able to contact various local media (such as the S.F. Chronicle) to publicize our monthly presentations.
2. Someone who is willing and able to arrive at our monthly events (the first Friday of each month) at the First United Lutheran Church on 30th Avenue and Geary by 6:45 p.m. to be in charge of setting up chairs and tables as well as returning them to their stacks at the end of the evening.
3. Someone who can be available at 7:00 p.m. at our monthly events to welcome guests and collect admission charges.
4. Someone who can be in charge of refreshments and setting up the refreshments table.

If you are interested in one or more of these volunteer positions, please contact me by phone or e-mail at the number or address at the bottom of this page. We would love to have you on board with us.

We are also looking for someone who is interested in developing and directing a new program that would involve classical guitarists visiting public schools to perform and talk about the instrument. We want to develop interest among school-age children and teens in playing the guitar, and to provide a program for them to learn to do so. We are seeking a director for the entire program, as well as someone to write grant proposals to the appropriate agencies to fund the program. These two positions may be filled by the same person. If you are interested, have ideas, or know of good candidates for these positions, call or e-mail us and I will get in touch with you.

It will be gratifying to become more involved with the Guitar Society. Your financial support is of course appreciated, but we are all in this together and the only way we will survive in the long term is if we give our mutual support.

With best wishes and until next time,

Frances Kalfus, President

(Editor's note: The following interview was originally published in the German classical guitar magazine Staccato. It has been translated and edited for the SFCGS newsletter. Part One was published in the June issue.)

Staccato: If you compare the pieces of the Great American Guitar Solo CD with the pieces of the Acoustic Counterpoint CD, is the style similar?

Tanenbaum: I think it is not. Except with Bolcom and Curtis-Smith, it is hard to find even any common style between the two CDs. I'll tell you honestly, Acoustic Counterpoint is the more important CD. The composers are more known and the quality of music is one step higher. And I knew that before I made it.

S: Now we have the names of ten different composers of the two CDs. Hans Werner Henze said one time about the situation of composers: "Each composer stands at a different place and stands alone at that place." Is it a typical sentence of American composers of the 80s? Or are there groups of composers composing in a similar style?

T: For me, what Henze says is a half truth. While each composer and each person is unique, no artist works alone without influence.

S: But in the 50s many composers wrote in a post-Webern style; in the 60s many wrote in an experimental style.

T: You can find trends now, but they're far less universal now than even thirty years ago.

S: Why?

T: Today everyone speaks of postmodernism. If modernism was the breaking down of a lot of systems, postmodernism is the period where they are broken down, where everything interacts and it's much harder to define borders or create separate categories. What exactly is "classical music" anymore? Does anybody care? I think it's healthier that styles are not distinctly separated from each other, because music is bigger than categories anyway. The problem for composers is that now they have to create a new language for each new work, or at least address the questions of language anew each time. There are so many choices now and there is no predetermined way to go. Composers can no longer go into a corner and say,"We are serialists." That is not happening any more. In that sense composers are a little more isolated. They are more on their own than they were in former times.

S: In his dissertation, "The Guitar in the Music of the 20th Century," from 1994, Hans Gerd Brill writes that there is a trend in the 90s to write in an introverted style because the prevailing view of the world leads composers to go around in a kind of resigned and dumb grief, which is reflected in the music they compose—music like Edison Denissows "Concert for Guitar" from 1991 or Eugen-Mihai Mártons "Fo" for flute and guitar from 1990.

T: It is hard to say. Look at Berio, who is extroverted. I find Denissow also is extroverted in some ways. For every introvert, I can name an extrovert. Steve Reich, for instance, is extroverted. Personally, Takemitsu himself seemed a very shy man, but he was more shy on tour in Europe or America. I think the shyness might have been a bit of defense mechanism for him, because when I saw him in Japan, he loved to drink and gossip and he was far more extroverted. But I would call his music introverted. Berio is the opposite of Takemitsu, a very extroverted person.

S: By the way, the Sequenza XI of Berio for solo guitar would be a wonderful piece for your kind of playing.

T: I played it. There was a big birthday celebration of Berio in New York, where all the Berio-Sequenzas were done in one night. Do you know the new one for bassoon?

S: No.

T: It is a twenty-five-minute solo bassoon sequenza and the first, maybe, ten minutes is one tone with circular breathing. One note and you don't hear the breath. It's unbelievable.

S: The piece is from 1988, nearly at the border of the 90s. Do you see tendencies in guitar music of the last decade of the 20th century?

T: Well, I certainly don't see it in terms of extroverted and introverted. I do see trends back to tonality.

S: Like the piece "Partita" of your friend Aaron Kernis you just played for the videotaping?

T: He is a young composer and he represents the future in a lot of ways. As I said, I think there is more sense of pulse in music than there was thirty years ago, because of the influence of pop on younger composers. You could also say that composers these days are generally working a little harder to please the audience. Certainly they are doing so more now than during the serialists' time. And there are composers trained in classical music writing for "classical" performance situations pieces that sound just like commercial music.

S: Like Brouwer during the last years.

T: You said it, not me [laughs]. In general, it is the best time for guitar in its whole history. There are so many great composers writing for guitar in so many different styles. It is also the best time for luthiery because the best instruments are being built now. Clearly the level of guitar playing is the best ever. And guitarists are more educated. They are playing more chamber music. They know more what they are doing than they did some time ago. It is a fantastic time to be a guitarist.

S: Which five composers and which five pieces would you chose to make a CD similar to Acoustic Counterpoint with music of the 90s?

T: The answer to the question is that you can't do it. You can't limit it to five. I can start naming you some names, but I cannot limit it. For my new CD I have just chosen some pieces that interest me. Let me tell you some about my work with Terry Riley, the inventor of minimalism. He lives not far from here. I asked him for a piece some years ago, since I've known him for fifteen years. In 1992 his son started to play the guitar and brought many CDs and the sound of the guitar to the house, and partly because of that Terry decided to accept the commission and wrote a thirteen-minute piece called "Ascencion." I was very happy with it and felt, OK, this is a wonderful piece and a new experience. However, soon after that he called me and said, "I decided I love the guitar and I'm entering my Spanish period. I'm going to write twenty-four pieces for guitar in various combinations." And he said further, "I don't want to accept commissions anymore. I want to write pieces and then send them to players I like. If you like the pieces, then you find the money. It will be like 'guitar/percussion piece for only $39.95!'" Now he's writing his tenth piece. He has written three solos, a duo for the Assads, five for flute and guitar, and is now writing for percussion and guitar. Just two weeks ago I finished raising enough money to pay for all the music for my next CD, which I will record this fall. It will be a complete Terry Riley CD.

S: Who are other great composers of the 90s?

T: I'm involved with some of the composers of the West Coast scene, for instance Lou Harrison, who I hope to get another piece from. Also on the new CD there is a piece created with Steve Reich. I got a call from my friend Aaron Kernis and he said, "I heard a piece of Steve Reich's last night and I think it will work for two guitars. It is called 'Nagoya Marimbas' and is a five-minute piece for two marimbas." I called Steve, got the music, and made an arrangement, or I should say, I sight-read the music from the score. I got a friend, we did a tape, sent it to Steve, and he said, "People have tried it on piano and on other instruments; I don't like it on anything but marimba. It doesn't work and I reject it." I was stunned, but I went back and changed the key, added some slurs and some harmonics—and now he loves the piece. This could be a real repertoire piece for two guitars.

Aaron Kernis is an important composer. He was born in 1960 and wrote a twenty-two-minute "Partita" in 1981 that he revised in 1995, and he has written a double concerto for guitar and violin. He also has written "100 Greatest Dance Hits" for string quartet and guitar, which became the title of a CD for New Albion. I have played the piece twenty-five times and it is very popular. In January the San Francisco Ballet will choreograph two of the movements. The inspiration for that piece was that Aaron was writing his "serious" music every day and then he went out at night in New York and heard the kids doing rap music, playing ghetto-blasters and so on, and he thought, "Why is there a separation between my writing during the day and what I hear now?" So, using the guitar as a catalyst, because it is a popular instrument, he wrote a very well-structured piece in which the guitar leads the string quartet through various pop styles. That's why it is called "100 Greatest Dance Hits." It is a real American experience, including rap, salsa, easy listening, and other styles. It is absolutely successful.

There are so many things going on. Roberto Sierra is also a very important composer. He has written a set of five short solo pieces and he is writing a concerto for me next year. There is an American composer named John Anthony Lennon who wrote a concerto and a set of twelve studies for private practice, not for the concert. But I just disagree and think they need to be played in concerts.

S: So this new CD is the successor to Acoustic Counterpoint?

T: In some ways. It has six composers. There is one piece that is nearly forty years old; the rest is music from between 1979 and 1994. The oldest one is by Frank Zappa from 1958 called "Waltz for Guitar," written when he was eighteen years old.

S: What is the style?

T: It is twelve-tone serial style, typical for the 50s. He studied Webern, of course, at the time. It is only thirty-six seconds long, so I play it twice in concerts.

S: Is it published?

T: It was unknown till 1992. There was a Zappa celebration edition from Guitar Player magazine in which it's published.

S: I think no one knows it.

T: Yes. There are so many pieces written for classical guitar in the 20th century that no one plays.

Let me tell you one more story with a private background. Another CD I've just released contains guitar chamber music of my father, Elias Tanenbaum, who's been writing pieces for me since I began the guitar. He was born in 1924 and teaches at the Manhattan School of Music. He lost his leg fighting in World War II in 1944 and for many years wanted to write a piece about that war. He finally set the "Last Letters from Stalingrad," which many Germans know because of the recent WDR production. Those are letters that the German soldiers wrote home when they were surrounded in Stalingrad. My father set the piece for guitar, viola, percussion, and baritone. It is loosely modeled after Henze's "El Cimarron" in that the instruments act out the feelings of the letters, and all players play percussion. I play piano as well. That is the centerpiece of the new CD. One of the points my father is making in the piece is that everyone suffers in war, and though he lost his leg fighting Germans, he sees their humanity and suffering in the piece.

S: Mr. Tanenbaum, thank you for your time and we wish you much future fun in your discoveries of new music for guitar.

Discography
Acoustic Counterpoint: Works of Tippett, Reich, Davies, Sierra, Takemitsu. New Albion (NA 032 CD), 1990.
Hans Werner Henze: Le Miracle de la Rose, An eine Äolsharfe. Ars Musici (AM 0859-2), 1991.
Lou Harrison: The Perilous Chapel. New Albion (NA 055 CD), 1993.
Peter Scott Lewis: Beaming Contrasts. New Albion (NA 060 CD), 1993.
Great American Guitar Solo: Works of Curtis-Smith, Currier, Bolcom, Korde, Johanson. Neuma Records (450-84), 1993.
Astor Piazzolla: El Porteño. New Albion (NA 065 CD), 1994.
Aaron Jay Kernis: 100 Greatest Dance Hits. New Albion (NA 083 CD), 1996.
David Tanenbaum: Works of Hovhaness, Kernis, Reich, Richmond, Riley, Zappa. New Albion (NA 095 CD), 1997.
Last Letters from Stalingrad: Music by Elias Tanenbaum. Albany (Troy 247), 1997.
Terry Riley: Music for Guitar. In preparation.

Check out David Tanenbaum's homepage: http://www.members.aol.com/DTanenbaum

The interviewer can be reached at Joerg Jewanski, Hesslerstr. 13, D-59065 Hamm, Germany. Phone/fax: 49-2381-25484; e-mail: JewaWink@aol.com.

Members of the SFCGS who attended the July program were treated to the considerable talents of Ross Thompson, a San Francisco-based classical guitar virtuoso who bills himself as a composer-performer. Ross ably lived up to that billing at the July meeting by presenting a series of pieces for guitar, voice, cello, and violin under the working title Orfeo.

Ross began studying guitar while in high school in Portland, Oregon, under the tutelage of Scott Kitzer. He completed his undergraduate work in guitar performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, working with David Tanenbaum. After a year in London for postgraduate study with famed guitarist Carlos Bonell, Ross returned to the Conservatory to earn his master's degree. But unlike many who embark on a career of repertoire performance, Ross has channeled his considerable energy into writing and performing his own work.

He completed his first opus, a work for solo guitar entitled Winter's Book, in 1996. With Orfeo completed in 1997 and Avilla Serenade completed this year, Ross moved on to composing for string and voice ensemble. "If you can write for the guitar, you can write for any instrument," says Ross. "The challenge is achieving balance."

Members who attended Orfeo witnessed that challenge firsthand. The inherent volume and range of the violin poses a compositional problem for the guitarist. The cello, which is closer in range to the guitar and typically played in the lower register, presents less of a challenge. The voice blends well with the guitar, but can also be overwhelmed by the other instruments.

Ross's task was made easier at July's program thanks to the capable handling of the violin by personal friend and noted Bay Area virtuosa Robin Sharp. Robin has played Carnegie Hall a number of times, toured Europe, won several national and international competitions and plays regularly with the San Francisco Symphony. She attended the SF Conservatory with Ross and often participates in performances of his ensemble compositions. Joining Robin was another SF Conservatory classmate, Sam Bass, on cello, and mezzo-soprano Denise Fraga sang the lyrics.

"I'm still working with this combination," notes Ross. "I've had to amplify the guitar, which is not ideal, but necessary to avoid being covered by the violin. For the voice, I wanted clarity and a clean, sustained tone. Denise delivers those qualities very well."

A critic recently dubbed Ross Thompson the twentieth-century John Dowland. It's an apt comparison and one that Ross delights in. His compositions are indeed influenced by the Baroque period music that he loves. Among Dowland's (1563–1626) key works is Lachrimae, or Seven Teares, a composition for five viols and lute. Interestingly enough, Ross discovered through his recent compositional work for the California Shakespeare Festival that the gamba, a precursor to the cello and a kind of fretted viol, favored by Dowland is quite well suited as a companion instrument for the guitar.

Ross composed all of the music for As You Like It, one of the plays presented as part of this year's California Shakespeare Festival and one that the director chose to set in Spain at about the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Unlike composers in the past who have written music for the festival and "dropped it off" just prior to rehearsals, Ross became a veritable artist-in-residence with the company, working with the actors, getting a feel for the acoustical demands of an outdoor theatre, and even composing music and voice pieces so that they would not prove insurmountable to actors who do not normally participate in musical theatre. Although he would not describe himself as a flamenco guitarist, Ross created a Spanish mood for the prologue of the play based on the Bulerias and Farruca flamenco idioms.

Ross is already mentally at work on his next project, taking the small mood-setting five-measure pieces that appear in As You Like It and transforming them into an opera—something long and baroque, he says. He also wants to explore further the natural synergy between the gamba and the guitar.

There were days during preparations for As You Like It when he composed around the clock, says Ross. He also readily admits that to pursue his art and also devote time to his full-time job selling guitars and guitar literature at Guitar Solo he puts in 12- to 16-hour days more often than not. As if that weren't enough, in addition to composing and performing his pieces, Ross also serves as producer, distributor, and marketer of his recordings. But he does so without a backward glance. "The days of the subsidized artist are long gone," says Ross. "If you want to create in this day and age, you pretty much have to take full responsibility for doing what you have to do to create your art and put it before the public."

That's likely what John Dowland had to do in his day. Ross is merely carrying on the tradition.

If you didn't attend the July program or As You Like It (Aug. 8–Sept. 12), keep a vigilant eye out for Ross Thompson's next project. He'll be around, and he's a composer-performer you don't want to miss.

Arnie Williams hails from Petaluma, where he is a first-year classical guitar student with John Stover, a Peabody and SF Conservatory of Music graduate and former faculty member at the University of Memphis. Arnie is editor in chief of Cadence, a San Francisco–based magazine covering computer-aided engin-eering. He can be reached at awilliams@mfi.com.