What's new

Guitar Duo

pkoi

Member
Hi! Here's a new guitar duo, which I composed this spring for a guitar festival held annually in Helsinki, Finland. Unfortunately the festival was postponed due to the covid-situation but luckily I was able to get the guitarists to perform the piece for a recording. In this composition I wanted to explore the possibilities of natural harmonics, and hence a major part of the composition is composed using only them. Using natural harmonics, I was able to create large, heavily sustained chords and melodic passages that wouldn't otherwise be possible, or would be very hard to perform on the guitar. On the parts where I didn't use them, I continued the idea of sustaining as much notes as possible but with normally produced notes. Occasionally I drifted away from this kind of sound altogether for more stormy/active passages. I hope you like it!

The piece is performed by Kasperi Leponiemi & Elias Lehti.

 
It'd be fun to hear this live. Seems like it'd be a challenge for any guitarist. Also, there's the issue of finding guitars that are capable of projecting these harmonics in a hall.
 
Thanks eph221! Yeah, it is quite hard to perform, especially the parts where I've divided the melodic lines between the instruments. I think the guitarists did an excellent job with it! If the covid-situation permits, the piece will have a couple of live-performances this autumn here in Finland. This recording is also almost a live performance; I recorded them playing the piece 5 times + did re-recordings on some parts they were not satisfied. However, I pretty much ended up using the last full performance on about 90% of what you hear on this recording, the rest was compiled from the previous takes and some of the single parts they wanted to redo.

As for the instruments needed to produce the wanted sounds live, it does require a well-built classical guitar and a very precise player (especially on those harmonics played from the 2nd and 3rd positions). I might amplify them very slightly on an upcoming performance, as the venue is not as good as where we recorded it (this was recorded in a local church).
 
All great points. I wish some of the fantastic composers here would write for guitar.
 
I can only imagine the work that went into this - well done. Great composition and performance!

Normally I would say this is not my cup of tea, but last year I heard some new guitar music live in a small concert, which gave me a new appreciation. I experience your piece as a transport to somewhere else, hard to describe... the closest analogy would be a desert from a Dali painting. In any case it was effective!
 
Thanks for your kind words Tom! The piece took me a few months to complete. I got commissioned around September last year, and started to compose this actively around November and finished it in late February.

I like the Dali analogy! I wanted to create a work that has this overarching nocturnal or mystic feel, and I think the desert trilogy of Dali fits into that description well.
 
I'd love to here what happens with your piece. Are you connected to GFA at all? They're the supervening authority on all things classic(al) guitar these days (in the states)
 
I'd love to here what happens with your piece. Are you connected to GFA at all? They're the supervening authority on all things classic(al) guitar these days (in the states)

No I'm not. I used to teach guitar before and back then I was a member of a similar society here in Finland. I remember seeing a lot of pedagogic material created by members of the GFA, I might even have some etude books authorized by them still laying somewhere. I will keep my eyes open in case they have call for scores for a competition piece etc.

This piece has now, if covid permits, three performances booked for this Autumn in Finland. I'm also publishing the score via Music Finland's (an organisation promoting Finnish music) sheet music service later this autumn, and I'm also considering uploading the score to nkoda or some another monthly subscription-model sheet music service.
 
Top Bottom