Notes

The CONCERTO FOR GUITAR is an homage to the composers and performers that had a big influence on the early stages of my compositional development. The first movement is a pastiche of the progressive rock group, King Crimson. I have always found their use of meter, cross-rhythms, and polyrhythms appealing and easily digestible. At the same time, however, the complexity of these rhythmic devices never obscured the exotic and beautiful lyricism that much of their music exudes. The second movement is an homage to the great Spanish composer, Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999). Rodrigo is arguably most known for his own concerto for guitar and orchestra, perhaps the most famous and well known of all guitar concerti, the Concierto de Aranjuez. Upon his recent passing, I felt a need to pay my respect to the loss of this great compositional master. The third movement is an homage to Frank Zappa (1940-1993). Rather than focusing on Zappa"s preoccupation with absurdity, I chose to capture the sound that I was so accustomed to hearing in his music: music filled with wild intervallic leaps, vivacious harmonies, and tenacious energy. Hence, I took the traditional Spanish zapateado, know for its own vigorousness, and twisted it into a breakneck double fugue.