Contemporary guitarists are increasingly expanding their repertoire by performing recently-composed music and drawing from a great variety of styles and influences. Composer and guitarist David Leisner — who is widely admired for the rich invention and emotional power of his compositions as well as the interpretive depth and technical mastery of his performances on guitar — has released a new recording on Azica Records, Dedications, which is an outstanding example.
Dedications features first recordings of works for guitar by 10 composers whom Leisner particularly admires; most of whom composed the music specifically for him. The influences range widely, including blues, Beethoven, neo-romanticism, Song Dynasty China, Renaissance madrigals, Afro-Brazilian candomblé, Aboriginal chant, and more. Peter Sculthorpe and David Del Tredici are the most well known of the composers, but all the music involved is distinguished, and Leisner’s performances are superb.
Randall Woolf’s “Going Home” (1997) is an energetic, genre-bending blend of African American blues and classical form. Pierre Jalbert’s “Two Sides” (2023), inspired by the two-movement Beethoven Op. 111 Piano Sonata, is alternately lyrical and sustained, then rhythmic and aggressive.
David Del Tredici, a pioneer in the revival of tonal music after the aggressive modernism of the twentieth century, has said, “I like my Romanticism to be cracked, because this isn't the end of the 19th century, it's the end of the 20th, Tortured Romanticism!” His “Farewell, R.W.” (2010) is a bittersweet and beautiful reflection on a failed marriage.
Bun-Ching Lam has a fascinating compositional voice fluently incorporating influences from China, the United States, and Europe, but always remaining unique. Her “Five Contemplations” (2022) — simultaneously introspective, searching, listless, and passionate — was initially inspired by an autumnal poem on the passage of time by the Song Dynasty poet Li Qingzhao.
João Luiz Rezende, who was recently appointed to the faculty of the Yale School of Music, has attracted praise for his skillful blend of Latin American, classical, and jazz musical roots. The title of his piece “MadrigAfro II” (2023) is a play on words between Madrigal and Afro and a reference to the vocal polyphony of 16th-century Europe and African rhythms. The composition is a reflection on the atmosphere of Afro-Brazilian candomblé religious rituals blending African traditions with Roman Catholicism.
Laura Kaminsky’s “Ruminations” (2022) explores the contrast between calm introspection and restless mental activity with wonderfully idiomatic writing for the guitar. Similarly, Carlos Carrillo’s “Mariluna” (2012) is a pair of lullabies portraying images of the moon’s reflection on the sea that is then mirrored in the Sea of Tranquility.
Breaking the trend, Marilyn Ziffrin’s Rhapsody (1958) was written for Andrés Segovia. However, it wasn’t performed until David Leisner gave its premiere in 1979. Composed in a lyrical, freely tonal style that explores the guitar’s sonority, singing capability, and virtuosity, it is an extraordinarily effective piece, and Leisner is to be commended for giving it life.
Chester Biscardi’s “Finding Beauty in Small Places” (2021) follows the advice of its title by using the composer’s breath to shape its musical gestures.
Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014) was a pioneer of a distinctly Australian voice in contemporary music influenced by Aboriginal, Asian, and Pacific Islander music as well as the Western classical tradition. Best known for his large orchestral works, he has also composed a significant and widely praised body of work that features the guitar. “Oh, T.I.!” was written for the unusual combination of guitar and piano. It was inspired two musical fragments: first by a song praising the beauty of Thursday Island (what “T.I.” stands for in the title), which is located between Australia and Papua New Guinea, and secondly by an Aboriginal chant from Northern Australia called Djilile (whistling-duck). The evocative melodies and Sculthorpe’s creative use of the guitar and piano, alternately imitating a gamelan and playing yearning melodies, create a beautiful evocation of natural beauty and a longing for environmental survival
