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fantasy no. 1 in d major for four guitars

from music for apps: notion - an eternal album by dave stafford

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fantasy no. 1 in d major for four guitars

(note - this same track also appears on the pureambient album SSDL1747 "classical - an eternal album" as track 17)


track: 16

recorded: march 30, 2015 - may 31, 2015

duration: 29:48


and finally, I got up the nerve to score a piece of guitar music, a quartet of no less than four nylon string classical guitars, which have a lovely, almost piano-like tone when they play melodically or harmonically - which happens a lot in this particular piece.

since there are four "players", I've also taken the liberty of arranging the piece to be played in circulation form, and the reason for that is that some of the tempos are a bit...sharpish, shall we say - and perhaps, a bit difficult to actually perform, so, to ease this problem for any players brave enough to attempt this, I've scored the piece so that the quickest, trickiest parts can be played "in sequence" in "circulation style" a la Guitar Craft or as done by spin-off groups such as the California Guitar Trio.

OK - these are classical guitars, and nylon-stringed, so technically, I've done an odd thing, by considering that this piece could actually become a piece of Guitar Craft repertoire in the future.

That is actually what I had in mind when I created it, that future, or even present, groups of Crafty guitarists might take some of my pieces on, and play them in performance. I also have a piece for four steel string guitars that is nearing completion, which will appear on the Notion channel as well, under the genre "alternative" because I couldn't in good faith call it classical - as I can call this piece, because it is scored for nylon guitars.

But in performance, this piece, could be performed with steel strings, or, my piece for steel strings, could be performed with nylon strings - anything is fine, it matters not - the main thing is, when I composed this, I was imagining a group of four senior Crafty guitarists learning and performing it - I would be so pleased if any Crafties would like to take it on - that would be fantastic.

Since I have no Crafties proximate to me, being in the far north of Britain, I have to imagine playing with a group - the nearest other Crafty guitarist is hundreds of miles away (hi Chris!). so I imagine this, with myself playing one part, and three other players joining in; working out the circulations, learning the solos, learning the supporting parts - this is meant to be a piece of repertoire.

The piece settles into a long, slow descent / ascent part, made up of single notes, which is added to, circulation style, until the maximum number of notes possible is crammed into the space - not sure how many that ended being maybe six? it's just like doing a live circulation with one guitar and a delay - you play one note, then count silently, then play a second note, count silently, and eventually, you have filled in all the notes for each number of the count.

So that technique, which I pioneered way back in the 1990s, still works for me now as a compositional technique - and again, working out how to do a "solo circulation" was in response to having no Crafty guitarists anywhere nearby - I did it so I could still do circulations (which, along with The Whizz, are my favourite type of Guitar Craft piece) - the circulation really, really resonates with me, deeply, I really love the sound and the feel of it - completely and utterly - and it's joy to be able to fit it into current compositions for multiple guitars, even if there are no guitarists to play the pieces with - I can still work out the parts as if there were.

Then the slow part resolves, and a wistful, minor key section begins, and leads us into more and more interactive and intricate sections, where the melodies and circulations abound, and some wonderful ascending, high speed circulation, interspersed with chords, bring a real excitement to the piece.

recurring themes, in this case, where there are several "constant notes" playing with other notes working around them, do appear, to remind us of the previous movements, and in the space of nearly 30 minutes that this piece afforded me, I was able to weave themes and ideas with a lot of variety, and it was a truly satisfying and wonderful experience.

in the final sections, we have some wonderful climbing harmonies, which then resolve back to the high-speed climbing circulations interspersed with chords, then - we move back to the minor chord section once more, a reprise of that haunting theme - this piece has many twists and turns and unexpected changes. a nice new, melodic, almost bouncy theme emerges, then, it mutates into descending chord/note figures, with some wonderful dissonant note clusters repeating like made, as the bass notes climb down - a wonderful new section. then, pulsing notes, for quite some time - and then back to one of the earliest themes of the song, which has a lot of personal meaning for me, I really love this theme, with it's strange, climbing "support guitars", and the odd melody, which finally resolves in a three-note climb up - it's really a lovely little theme.

A false ending then moves into a sort of "clock" theme, with a rotating two note idea, with octave guitars played over it - a really nice, cheerful little theme, which then, blends back into one of those lovely descending themes that appeared early on in the piece - beautiful recurrence of the nicest themes.

Finally, there is a joyous, happy sounding section that really takes flight, climbing slowly, building slowly...building and building, with a very happy, almost African feel, and then, the guitars pare down, to almost nothing, the "tick tock" or "clock" like part begins again, and then melodies and harmonies arrive, weaving in and out of the constant notes, some really complex structures involving harmonising melodies, with other notes following behind in a lower register - when you have four guitars, there is a lot of room for some of them to explore some strange and interesting alternate musical paths - and that is exactly what I had the freedom to do - next up, is a sort of country and western chordal section, followed by some minor chords whipping around, and then, dual bass lines, then - into a crazy, crazy high speed circulation / climb up, which then slows and wanders down, down, down...until it reaches the final, resolved note - with a strummed chord as the final sound of this fantasy.

I've never, ever composed a piece like this before, of such a long duration, for four guitars, and I am really fairly surprised each time I hear this, that I could work out so many recurring themes, and interesting melodies, harmonies and counterpoint, as well as, whenever it seemed possible, making the parts into circulations, so the melodies can be played across the four guitarists - that is the most fun of all, composing for circulations - I really enjoy that part of it.

Note; to hear the circulations (of which, there are, many, many in this composition) I would suggest a good pair of over-ear headphones - on speakers, the stereo separation can sometimes be lost, but in headphones, you will be able to distinguish each individual guitar, and hear the melodies moving across the stereo field. Some of them move from left to right, or, right to left, or, combinations of the two, or from the centre two guitars, to the outer two guitars - the four guitars are set as follows in the stereo mix:

1) Hard left, 100 percent left
2) Mid left 33 percent left
3) Mid right 33 percent right
4) Hard right, 100 percent right

Headphones will give you the best results in terms of hearing and understanding the note sequences within circulations - although some of them are quite quick, so can be a bit tricky to follow.

Recording "fantasy no. 1 in d major for four guitars" was an absolute delight, an unforgettable experience, and has laid a mental grounding for myself, in terms of what I can do with future compositions - especially the circulation technique, which I've been developing for quite some time - I am really pleased with how well that has worked within the confines of this piece - it's a beautiful piece of repertoire, and it would be my hope some day, to hear a group of four guitarists, play this piece in live performance - that would be absolutely amazing.

lyrics

instrumental

credits

from music for apps: notion - an eternal album, released April 17, 2014
dave stafford: notion application

instruments used:


nylon classical guitar - four instances

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dave stafford Stirling, UK

ambient loop guitarist dave stafford performed on stage with robert fripp and the orchestra of crafty guitarists in early 2009, and again with robert fripp and the symphony of crafty guitarists in 2015, and has worked with ambient music and looping for over twenty years. stafford has a rich back catalogue of ambient and loop music, +rock, prog or acoustic crafty guitar music: www.pureambient.com ... more

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