Guitar Circle Sundays #13, 4-10-11

Long rehearsal today. Some new repertoire to be looked at, other current repertoire to be refurbished . . . and of course, addressing the simple need of playing together.

We arrive between 2:00 - 2:30, and set up as we normally would.

Before we decide what to do with our time, we begin with a circulation, ending on three "chords" cued by Victor. Then, Glenn cues three chords - and so on, until everyone has had a turn at the baton, twice. Curiously, each circler generates unique harmonic feedback from the group. This little game serves as an invocation for our work this afternoon.

The first task on the docket is some focused work on Shostakovitch's Prelude XXII. The piece is originally for solo piano and is made up of a winding chromatic passage over a rhythmic scaffold, and a chordal accompaniment in the bass (there's some play with the structure throughout). Our arrangement features a circulation of the melody between four players and a section playing the bass part.

Following a preliminary effort as an ensemble, it becomes clear that the challenges facing the two parts are quite different, and we opt for individual section work.

The leads begin by going as far into the melodic passage as their memory of the note order will take them, but this turns out to be an ineffective strategy. Victor suggests breaking the melody down into the smallest repeatable circulation pattern (which happens over two bars) and tackling the resulting "cells" one at a time. This gives us an easy way to dissect and follow the melody; at the same time, we are beginning to listen to the music, rather than becoming absorbed in the mechanics of the note order and circulation. This process is slow, but the circulation is becoming coherent.

The basses later report that their work involved looping entire sections and recongifuring parts to make certain passages more playable.

Break around 4:30. Plans for the fall are beginning to take form.

Returning, we pick up on a piece that has "sunken" into our backlog repertoire over the past few weeks (for various reasons), The Sunken Cathedral, a kind of program piece by Debussy (also originally for solo piano, arranged for eight guitars by Brad). Little is said, and coming out of the gate the music already has something of an inner life. We hit a speed bump during a specific section, however, and need to take some time to clean up the mess of different ideas regarding tempo and timing. Unlike the Shostakovitch prelude, we aim to have this ready for performance tonight.

We take the floor at 7:30. An enticing set emerges, which seems to dwell on moods rather than visit them. The Sunken Cathedral, Opening and Austurias form the end of the set with a circulated coda in D minor, still in the audience's ears.

There are a few performances after the audience departs. Chris, Dev and Alex take the stage to debut Voices of Ancient Children to their curious circlemates. Later, it is Brad and Chris reviving Hommage, their take on Bartok's take on Bach. An encore performance of this is called. To wrap things up, Victor introduces a canon by Haydn to be used as a catalyst for improvisation. A fun rehearsal for all, and the "ginger after sushi" following a good day of work.