New Baroque

Three Airs Of Court 1. Preludio

Concerto in D (Vivaldi RV 93) 2. Largo

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "ólga við ós // turbulence where a stream meets a lake," is a rapid and technically challenging piece that shifts time signatures in each measure; after a few measure of 15/16 and 13/16,"ordinary" time signatures like 5/8 or 7/8 feel like a breeze! 

On an unrelated note, you might have noticed the comical mismatch between how short the Icelandic title ("ólga við ós") is vs. how long the English one is: "turbulence where a stream meets a lake." This is all due to the last word in Icelandic, ós, which refers to any meeting ground for waters (estuary, river mouth, etc.), and the specific instance Björnsson is thinking of is a lake and a stream. You could say "turbulence at the river's mouth" or even "turbulent estuary" — but it wouldn't be what Björnsson had in mind.

Landslög

Landslag 7: ólga við ós // turbulence where a stream meets a lake

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "grjóthrun úr fjalli // fallen rocks from a mountain," a stately piece in 3/4, and in an unusual key for guitar, C minor (guitarists avoid flat keys, which are harder to play, and with 3 flats, C minor is as flat as I care to get!).

Landslag 6: grjóthrun úr fjalli // fallen rocks from a mountain

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "birkikjarr í fjallshlíð // birch shrubs in a mountain slope," possibly the slowest and most introspective piece in the collection. It technically has a time signature (4/4), but it almost more like each element is its own sonic world.

Landslag 5: birkikjarr í fjallshlíð // birch shrubs in a mountain slope

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "lækjarsprænur í grænum dal // river creeks in a green valley," a bit faster still, with a strong sense of a tonal center (compared to many of the more ambiguous pieces here).

Landslag 4: lækjarsprænur í grænum dal // river creeks in a green valley

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "grjóti þakin háslétta // rock covered plateau," a faster and more animated piece in 6/4.

Landslag 3: grjóti þakin háslétta // rock covered plateau

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, continuing with "leira í botni fjarðar // littoral mud in the bottom of a fjord," a quiet and meditative piece with some very "muddy" harmonies (Björnsson prizes the open strings of the guitar, even when don't form a conventional harmony).

Landslag 2: leira í botni fjarðar // littoral mud in the bottom of a fjord

Gulli Björnsson's music is spacious and ambient, but compelling. Ten of his landscapes (landslag is "landscape" in Icelandic, landslög is the plural "landscapes") are included here, beginning with "dökkar sandþúfur með smá mosa // dark sand dunes with some moss," a simple piece in 9/8.

Landslag 1: dökkar sandþúfur með smá mosa // dark sand dunes with some moss

Andrew York is a pretty amazing guy—one of the best guitar players around in a pretty wide variety of idioms, extremely smart and cultured, a pretty avid painter (although I can’t say I love his paintings), and a programmer specializing in advanced encryption algorithms. He really transformed the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) into a major musical force, and is a rare player who is a real virtuoso, but who often chooses to play—and compose—extremely simple music. That’s the case here, with three “discernments” from Dénouement, one of several albums of all-original material recorded during the Windham Hill heyday of New Age guitar. All three of these pieces are simple enough for even a very poor reader like me to sight read, but they all have their own charm. They don’t in any way form a trio or a triptych (there are eight “discernments” originally), but they were all new to me, and all by Andrew York, so they are a new York trilogy—followed by a fourth.

“Squares Suspended” is a gorgeous piece from York’s latest solo album, and apart from some fast-shifting chord shapes in the final section, not terribly challenging to play (I could play it after a fashion in less than an hour, and reasonably well after two). I loved the piece, but hated the New Agey, impressionistic title—until it occurred to me that, with his math and music background, perhaps York meant something a little more numerological with his title. The piece is, after all, filled with suspended (hanging over, continuing) fourths and firsts—literal mathematical squares, in musical suspension.

Squares Suspended

What a beautiful piece this is—another one, if I recall correctly, that I heard over the radio and decided to give a try (and indeed, it turned out to be eminently playable). I have something of a soft spot for drop-D tuning pieces like this one, and I also have a soft spot for these beautiful, traditional Catalan songs. This one means “song of the thief.” It’s actually rather difficult to think of a title for this piece that is less thematically appropriate than “song of the thief.” Wouldn’t a thief song be in a minor key, fleeting and fast? This piece sounds like a lullaby. But it isn’t: the words are the sad lament of a thief at the end of his life, about to be executed.
 
Quan jo n'era petitet
festejava i presumia,
espardenya blanca al peu
i mocador a la falsia.

Adéu, clavell morenet!
Adéu, estrella del dia!

I ara, que ne sóc grandet,
m'he posat a mala vida.
Me só posat a robar,
ofici de cada dia.

Adéu, clavell morenet!
Adéu, estrella del dia!

Vaig robar un traginer
que venia de la fira,
li prenguí tots els diners
i la mostra que duia.

Adéu, clavell morenet!
Adéu, estrella del dia!

Quan he tingut prou diners,
he robat també una nina,
l'he robada amb falsedat,
dient que m'hi casaria.

Adéu, clavell morenet!
Adéu, estrella del dia!

La justícia m'ha pres
i en presó fosca en duia.
La justícia m'ha pres
i em farà pagar amb la vida.

When I was young
I partied and boasted,
white sandals on my feet,
handkerchief at my waist.

Farewell, dusky carnation!
Farewell, star of the day!

And now that I’m grown,
I’ve turned to the wicked life.
I’ve turned to stealing,
my daily job.

Farewell, dusky carnation!
Farewell, star of the day!

I robbed a merchant
who came to the fair,
took all his money
and the samples he carried.

Farewell, dusky carnation!
Farewell, star of the day!

When I had enough money,
I robbed a girl, too,
I robbed her with falsehood,
saying that I’d marry her.

Farewell, dusky carnation!
Farewell, star of the day!

The law has taken me
and carried me to a dark prison.
The law has taken me
and will make me pay with my life.

Cançó Del Lladre

Invisible Dialogues 3

Invisible Dialogues 2

Invisible Dialogues 1

Erik Satie is a delightfully weird figure from this period, more surrealist than impressionist, of course, but his pieces are often wonderfully adaptable to guitar (in part because they tend to be fairly minimalist). He created a series of "Gnossiennes," somewhat eerie sounding pieces, of which I present the first and the third (there are six or seven, if memory serves). The pieces are accompanied by ludicrous musical directions, many of which are surreal or impossible: "open your head," "arm yourself with clairvoyance," and the like.

The word Gnossienne (the g and the n are pronounced, by the way, guh-nah-see-ENN)is obscure and goes in two different directions: one is toward gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge; the other is toward Knossus, the site of the Minotaur's labyrinth in mythology. A revelation, or a deadly trap? You decide.

Impression

Gnossienne No. 1

Steve Reich's gorgeous Electric Counterpoint, my first big experiment with multitrack recording, made back in graduate school in 1999. Still proud of this, but it might also be time for an update.

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