New York City Guitar Orchestra: Spectra: New Music for Guitar Orchestra

Andrew York’s Catwalk uses blues references and a repeated ostinato in the bass to paint a film-noiresque image.

The next several works incorporate minimalism in various ways. How Slowly, All of a Sudden by Joshua Eustis and Alfredo Nogueira uses layered minimalist cells to build a hypnotic sound world, featuring a chorus of bell-like harmonics in its contrasting middle section. Clarice Assad’s Magnetic Trance also uses the tools of minimalism, but the harmonic rhythm shifts more frequently, and the rhythmic material often is displaced or obscures the barline. Jonathan Pieslak’s Ambienspheres creates a washes of sound with repeated cells performed simultaneously, effectively capturing the mental state created by sleeping pills.

Despite its gentle outer sections, the focal point in Pat Irwin’s Unsung Hymn for a Friend is a Spanish tinged middle section, with melodic flourishes reinforced by forceful tutti chords.

William Anderson’s six movement Folksongs for guitar quartet exemplifies his disciplined approach to pitch materials and development. “The Wedding Dress” is based around a diatonic descending melody that gradually introduces non-scale tones. In “Scherzo,” a quick slurred figure serves as the motivic seed for this short, polytonal movement, returning later in “The Farmer is the Man.” “The Er-i-e” features a pentatonic main melody that is harmonized with clever chromaticism, reprised in a higher key and with more creative reharmonizations in “The Er-i-e II.” “Whistle, Daughter, Whistle” unfolds in a lilting tempo, with a glistening tremolo line adding shimmer towards its end.

NYCCGS orchestra conductor Jason Sagebiel’s Bachirvanas is expansive and accumulating, deftly orchestrating across the ensemble so that it functions as a hybrid unit.

Takuma Tanikawa’s Mist is an impressionistic score, reveling in swelled tremolos that are passed between players, and eventually become non-pitched percussive rolls on the bodies of the instruments.

Gyan Riley’s The Landloper establishes a cyclical groove based around a loping bass line and percussion effects, adding several layers of figuration on top of it. Hocketed accents amidst a repeated line interrupt the cycle, before harp-like chords utilize the resonance of the entire ensemble. Riley applies careful coordination to a section featuring string scrapes, Bartók pizzicati, percussive hits, and preparations on the strings.

Marco Oppedisano’s Two of a Kind is built from a declamatory, rock-influenced riff, contrasted when he explores the material with fewer instruments and in a more spacious context.

David Loeb’s six movement Concerto for Four Guitars and Guitar Orchestra is intricately constructed with luminous harmonic detail, and the expressive character can change on a dime. The accompaniment in the “Lento” swings like a pendulum, supporting a melody that grows in intensity. In “Grazioso” and “Moderato,” the pacific mood of watery arpeggios and dolce harmonics is broken suddenly with dramatic bursts. “Allegretto” weaves contrapuntal lines within the quartet, with bold supporting sonorities in the orchestra. “Adagio” evolves regally, while the final “Allegro Spiritoso” opens with several entrances of a strong subject that Loeb proceeds to deconstruct, mining it for its corners and angles.

Richard Charlton’s Inner Voices is in two movements, and features a solo part over the coloristic orchestration. A descending and ascending sextuplet in the solo part plays a key motivic role in “Misterioso,” while “Allegretto con Moto” is based on a rhythmic groove reinforced by percussion on the guitars.

The final work in the collection, Joseph Parisi’s Guitar Brigade in three movements, is also scored for soloist with orchestra, with the composer as soloist. The piece is lyrical in character, alternating between sections where the soloist plays primary melodic material and others where it merges with the orchestra to create a driving whole based on climactic strumming or pointed accents.

– Dan Lippel