Eduardo Morales-Caso and Adam Levin

Composer Eduardo Morales-Caso is a rare artist of exceptional talent who for the past decade has been making a significant contribution to the classical guitar with many attractive works for solo guitar, flute and guitar, and voice and guitar among others. Morales-Caso also has an extensive catalog of compositions which include works for solo piano as well as orchestral and chamber music which has helped bring a great depth to his guitar compositions. There has been a growing demand for his music since his piece “El Jardin de Lindaraja” won first prize in the XIV Andres Segovia international composition competition for classical guitar in 2003. His music is contemplative, inventive, and stirs the imagination offering a new and exciting departure from the usual idiomatic repertoire. He is an expert at bringing out the dynamic and tonal possibilities of the guitar through his imaginative use of harmonics, colors and timbres, lush and extended harmonies, and exciting rhythms, proving he has a true gift for expressing his musical genius through the guitar.

Fuego De La Luna is a new CD featuring the music of Morales-Caso, and it also brings guitarist Adam Levin into the spotlight. Levin, a Fulbright Scholar, spent time in Spain researching modern Spanish repertoire and worked with the composer himself. This no doubt adds a dimension to the recording as Levin plays with expert precision and a deep understanding and connection with the music.

“El Jardin de Lindaraja” is a very attractive piece, a fantasy that pushes and pulls the guitar in many directions while bringing out almost every tonal capability and timbre the guitar has to offer. This piece is ternary in its structure and opens with a very imaginative introduction that delivers rich colors, creating a mysterious dream-like atmosphere. Then BANG, the next section of the piece begins and it is the exact opposite, filled with running scales, arpeggios, and intense rhythmically strummed chords which draw the listener to the edge of their seat. This is a very dynamic piece of alternating lyrical and rhythmic sections pushing the boundaries and the dynamic possibilities of the guitar. Levin’s passion for this music is quite clear as he performs with great precision, thoughtfulness, expression, and with what is no doubt a masterful technique.

“Homenajes” is a cycle of three pieces for voice and guitar which Morales-Caso describes as his “most meaningful lyrical-musical offering to the historical continuity of the transcendental legacy of Spanish composition.” “ Homenaje part I (Joaquin Rodrigo)” is a rhythmic song mingled with moments of unexpected baroque style counterpoint capturing the precise and rhythmic style Rodrigo is known for. “Homenaje part II (Frederic Mompou)” is a beautifully lyrical piece gently stirring up many familiar musical fragments and bits from Morales-Caso’s catalog. “Homenaje Part III (Manuel De Falla)” is the most intricate guitar part of the three song cycle and is very Spanish in nature. It has many impressive scale passages, aggressive strumming as well as a strong and passionate vocal part. Levin plays with amazing tone and clarity perfectly complementing soprano Lorna Windsor’s lyrical grace.

“El Jinete Azul” is a piece for classical guitar and string quartet and homage to the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, a forerunner of lyrical abstraction. This piece is fantasy-like in its form and alternates between periods of solo guitar and solo ensemble. This music is written with great artistic expression and paints an obscure yet poetic landscape bringing a depth to the guitar world not often heard. It no doubt is a great addition to the lacking repertoire for original chamber music featuring guitar. Levin and the Assai Quartet deliver an amazing performance creating an intriguing and beautiful atmosphere.

Fuego De La Luna is the new CD featuring music of composer Eduardo Morales-Caso. A step above many of his contemporaries, his attractive pieces have a delicacy, fire, and display a dreamy and sonorous character of great inventiveness which make this some of the finest music being composed for the instrument. Guitarist Adam Levin delivers a brilliant performance throughout and will no doubt become the authority on what is likely to be a popular addition to many concerts, recitals, and recordings.

Fuego De La Luna

Fuego De La Luna Track List:

1. Fuego de la luna (2003)
2. Diabolical Rumours (2011)
3-5. Homenajes (2004)
6. El jardín de Lindaraja (1999)
7. Samskara (2010)
8. Introducción y Tocatta (2002)
9-12. Il Sogno delle Streghe (2002)
13. Volavérunt (2009)
14. O Pássaro Triste do Mar (2003)
15. El jinete azul (2007)

Fig 1: The golden section constitutes a line segment divided according to the golden ratio. The total length a + b is to the longer segment a as a is to the shorter segment b.

In this article: Golden section and golden rectangles, the harmonic series and the model of its ideal behavior simplified, equal temperament and just intonation and a description of the beat frequency conflict produced by the deviations between simultaneous sounding of harmonic partials and prime frequencies and how it affects the tone and timbre of the guitar. Read to the end for some cool videos demonstrating the properties detailed here.

Beginning in the Renaissance, a whole rebirth of literature occurred that encouraged the use of the golden ratio (see note 1) in the dimensional relationship of many objects that aimed to possess an aesthetic and pleasing form.

These objects include buildings and statues as was done in the ancient period (see note 2) as well as forms found in paintings, books, instruments etc., and this repetitious practice of applying either the golden section or the golden rectangles to the forms of the constructed objects engaged most branches of the arts and sciences.

The golden section is a ratio based on the Greek letter phi (see note 3) written usually in lower case (φ) (=1.618033988749895…). It is also known as the Golden Mean, Golden Ratio and Divine Proportion as defined by Renaissance artists. Fig. 1. illustrates the geometric relationship and the algebraic expression that defines this constant (see note 4).

The golden ratio is expressed as the golden section (see note 5) of the line segments and also in the form of the golden rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio. Both these forms involving the line and the two dimensional rectangle have been used extensively at least since the Renaissance by many artists and architects in defining the proportions of their work.

Fig 2: The construction of a golden rectangle

Fig. 3. illustrates the golden section found in line segments a and b and also the three golden rectangles found in “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar” as shown in Vol. 1 of 7 of the series. Also, in Fig. 4. the additional six golden rectangles are shown.

When a sound includes vibrations of one and only frequency, is named a simple tone. Most musical instruments produce compound-complex tones, each tone producing a combination of many frequencies, which however, are comprehended by the human perception as a unity that forms one whole sound and this unique function of the human hearing conception has been named fusion.

Fig 3: The golden section and the three golden rectangles found in “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar”.

The lowest frequency within the compound tone is called the fundamental or prime and by being generally the loudest, conveys the sense of pitch of the tone, ex: C,D,E etc.

The other frequencies of the compound tone are called harmonic overtones or harmonic upper partials. These two definitions clarify the relation that exists between the fundamental or prime frequency and all the other frequencies or simply harmonics.

Their relation with the fundamental is expressed in whole-number ratios. This relation of the harmonics that defines the synthesis of every musical compound tone is called harmonic series.

Every harmonic overtone has a simple ratio relation with the prime. The ideal frequency of each overtone being an integer multiple of the prime, depending on the ordinal number the specific overtone holds within the series, ex: the fifth harmonic of E = 82.4 Hz is 82.4 x 5 = 412 Hz = g’#.

The word ideal is very important to be noticed because in real performance conditions of an instrument there are serious deviations occurring in all its musical sound productions in regard to the expected ideal frequency of each harmonic in its relation with the fundamental.

Of course, the ideal model of the harmonic series defines specific harmonics that will deviate upwards or downwards from the expected ideal frequency but in actual performance conditions all instruments have various deviations even on harmonics that the ideal model defines as stable.

The ideal behavior of the harmonic series remains the same for all musical tones. Every instrument though has its distinct sound, because of the fact that it deviates variably in its own peculiar manner from the ideal model itself. There are many additional factors involved that can be found on the specific presence in relative percentage value of each harmonic of the compound tone or the specific waveform outline of each harmonic or the noise presence that might occur in-between the harmonics.

A full acoustical Fourier analysis of a recorded complex guitar sound shows with a great accuracy all these deviations that occur and we will show further on in this series various Fourier analysis done on three different guitars.

All the harmonic overtones and including the prime, are called generally: harmonic frequencies or simply harmonics, the 1st harmonic being considered the prime and the 2nd harmonic being the 1st harmonic overtone.

For reasons of clarity the term prime will be used in this series and the term “harmonic” for the harmonic overtone, the 2nd harmonic being considered to be the 1st harmonic overtone.

Fig 4: The six additional golden rectangles found in “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar”

It can be observed, that the just ratios which form the common traditional interval names of the diatonic system, evolve directly from the whole-number ratios existing within the harmonic series. Also, because of their association with the intervals found in the harmonic series, intervals such as 2:1, 3:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:3 are often called natural intervals. A perfect fifth that is expressed with the ratio 3:2 is formed by the third and second harmonic of the series.

By dividing the numbers 2,3,4,5,6 with the corresponding numbers 1,2,3,4,5, we obtain the just ratios on the left that also give the equivalence of the traditional interval names and in each parenthesis the interval inversions are shown in fig. 5:

Fig 5: The just ratios, the traditional tonal interval names and the interval inversions

Harry Partch distinguishes between the 16:9 “small just ‘minor seventh’” and the 9:5 “large just ‘minor seventh’”. Also, the 16:15 ratio concerning the semitone in its most common form in just intonation takes a different value in 12-tone equal temperament, which is a form of meantone tuning where the diatonic and chromatic semitones are exactly the same, due to the unbreakable circle of fifths.

In equal temperament used by the guitar’s fret locating idiom, each semitone is equal to one twelfth of an octave. Every frequency is multiplied by 1.059463094 (1.05946 is regarded adequate) to reach the frequency of the next higher semitone. This ratio being the twelfth root of 2 () is equivalent to 100 cents but it is 11.7 cents narrower than the 16:15 ratio found in just intonation.

These are basic discrepancies occurring from the necessity of having fixed metal frets on the modern classical guitar, which obligate it to play in equal temperament. Contrary to this habit, the baroque and renaissance guitar or lute used gut frets that were movable to compensate for these important peculiarities and problems arising from conflicting tuning practices.

How do these conflicting discrepancies affect the tone and timbre output of the modern classical guitar?

If for example we play the sixth string (E=82.4 Hz), it includes in its harmonic content the note g’# as fifth harmonic with frequency value: 82.4 x 5 = 412 Hz. The g’# found on the fourth fret of the first string, gives for its prime frequency 415.26 Hz derived by multiplying the first open string (e’=329.6 Hz) by 1.05946 and also repeating the procedure for each next frequency until the fourth fret is calculated.

Between the g’# (fifth harmonic of the sixth string) and the g’# (prime frequency found on the fourth fret of the first string) there is a noticeable audible difference in frequency of more than 3 Hz that creates beats at a rate of a little more than three full vibrations per second. Beat frequencies are created when two or more frequencies have a small difference in Hz value when sounded simultaneously.

This creates an audible distinguished harshness to the sound that is not pleasant when the notes are played simultaneously and this problem is carried on in all the frequencies of the instrument. If one adds the possible deviations from the ideal behavior of the harmonic spectrum that are inevitable to occur, meaning that the fifth harmonic partial of the sixth string might deviate on the specific guitar even more downwards in its response, than the problem of tone harshness of the instrument becomes even greater.

This beat frequency problem occurring between the conflicts of the harmonic partials in their simultaneous sounding with the prime frequencies of the same notes with occurring discrepancies cause harshness and also loss in the beauty of the tone. The cause for this acoustical and musical problem lies mainly in the relation that exists between the harmonic series behavior and the necessity of having a fixed fretted instrument.

Not few guitars, while they possess an outstanding sound in volume in general terms, however, present a harsh and unpleasant feeling when the beat frequency problem is there and it was not solved acoustically in the design of the construction of the instrument.

If this problem is not solved by the acoustic design of the reverberation chamber (the functional properties of the inside space of the instrument that will be a direct result of the defined chosen outline) it will remain a main disadvantage for the tonal and timbre qualities of the guitar.

The mathematical model of the guitar provides various solutions to this specific tonal problem that is pinpointed and specifically defined here and in the following article these solutions will be explained in detail.

Classical guitar constructed in 2010 by the author incorporating “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar” with his innovational mechanism of the right hand pedal effect shown (left) and the overlaid with acoustical wooden stripes back and sides (right)

About the author: A classical-flamenco guitar soloist, composer, professor, luthier and string constructor, the Greek – Canadian Yorgos Kertsopoulos is also a researcher, inventor, author and founder of “the Guitar’s mathematic model and Geometric progression” (DAS MUSIKINSTRUMENT, Heft 9/ Sep. 1984, in German and English “The Physics of the Guitar”- Presentation of the same at the International Music Messe-Frankfurt, College of Furniture-London and seminars to respected luthiers and guitarists of England invited by GUITAR magazine)…. “His work is so unique in its scientific approach, but also so full of traditional truths, it includes everything…” -Jose Ramirez (at the press conference given by Y.Kertsopoulos at the Music Messe in Frankfurt-1983). His work as “Kertsopoulos aesthetics” involves the constructional revival of the different forms, tunings and sound timbres the guitar possessed in its history.

 

Note 1: The first known written definition of what is now called the golden ratio is provided in Euclid’s Elements (Greek: Στοιχεία): “A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the less”.

Note 2: Many studies of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon note that many of its proportions approximate the golden ratio, where the Parthenon’s facade and its elements are designed with the inclusion of golden rectangles.

Note 3: Mark Barr (20th century) suggests the Greek letter (φ), the initial letter of Greek sculptor Phidias’s name, as a symbol for the golden ratio.

Note 4: Very useful has been the (inverse) golden ratio also commonly referred as the golden ratio conjugate and denoted by the capital Phi (Φ): Φ = φ – 1 = 1.6180339887… – 1 = 0.6180339887…The first known approximation of the Φ was written in 1597 by Prof. Michael Maestlin in a letter to his former student Johannes Kepler.

Note 5: The golden section was used in the design of Notre Dame in Paris and continues today in many examples of art, architecture and design and used also in movements in the stock market.

Smaro Gregoriadou interpreting on a classical guitar respecting “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar”:

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Yorgos Kertsopoulos interpreting on a classical guitar respecting “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar”:

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Dionysia Blazaki and Yorgos Kertsopoulos interpreting on two classical guitars, both respecting “The Kertsopoulos mathematical model of the guitar”:

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American Landscapes

By: Brady Lavin

Arizona classical guitarist Brad Richter just released American Landscapes a week or two ago, and it is already one of my favorite collections of mood setting songs. These pieces, which are mostly meditations on outdoor landscapes that speak to Brad, are perfect for that; they are incredibly detailed and meticulous in their composition and adventurous in their use of new and interesting techniques, so seriously music-minded people have a lot to chew on and digest. If heard just in passing by the casual music fan, however, they just sound incredibly pleasing to the ear.

That dichotomy is what Richter is best at: bridging the gap between the extra-discerning ears of new music listeners who want to hear adventurous music, something new and exciting composition-wise, and the normal Joe on the street, who just wants to hear “cool stuff.”

Richter is great at the whole “cool stuff” thing, and he never really gets too inaccessible, which is a cliff where many contemporary composers can sometimes lose a good chunk of their audience. He does include some more daring elements to sate the appetite of the hardcore new music folks.

The perfect example of this is “Celebration Day,” which is a bouncy, upbeat piece that mostly stays in its major key, but it also has a few moments of shocking outside playing, and it begins with a highly chromatic introduction that builds tension into the decidedly tension-less main melodic/harmonic idea.

Since so much of the music is diatonic, when he does go off the deep end for a bit, it is that much more powerful; it makes you sit up and think, “Whoa, where did that come from?” Then the next time that idea comes around, though, the listener is ready for it, latching on to that departure and riding it out to the next landscape that appears in Brad’s playing.

Check out our interview with guitarist/composer Brad Richter!

Richter’s inclusion of a couple pieces with long-time collaborator, cellist David Finckel, nine-time Grammy Award winner, is a welcome oasis within all these vivid landscapes. While the solo guitar portions of the album, which are the vast majority, have some of the most beautiful and spellbinding music I have heard in a long while, it is always nice to include another timbral element.

A highlight is the second movement of the guitar/cello duo, entitled “Circles.” It begins with an ominous cello chord using harmonics, but quickly jumps into a disjointed interplay between the two instruments with decidedly eastern melodic ideas. As Finckel’s cello shifts to smoother playing, Richter wows with his rhythmic playing, incorporating percussive elements into his playing, like tapping on the body of his guitar near the sound hole. Richter has David Finckel perform some technical feats on his cello, as well. At one point, Finkel is using left hand hammer-ons, plucking open strings with his left hand and bowing the melody, all at the same time. This Ben Monder, guitar-esque technique translates well to cello, weaving a thick tapestry, especially along with Richter’s imaginative playing.

The centerpiece of American Landscapes, however, isn’t the compositions, amazing as they are. The undeniable feeling of Brad’s guitar playing is what really makes this music stand out above so many others. His playing brings these pieces into the listeners heart, making us feel what he feels as he contemplates on slower passages, and when Richter gets upbeat… well, sometimes it’s hard not to dance. He does not need lyrics to relate to his listeners; he knows just how to connect with an audience through music alone.

American Landscapes definitely has a whole lot to delve into and appreciate, as Brad Richter is one of the most innovative composers of contemporary guitar music around today. His barrage of impressive techniques never gets in the way of the pieces; quite the contrary, actually. All the wilder elements, like the slapping, cascades of harmonics, and guitar percussion all serve the music, helping to create this series of vivid landscapes, which transport the listener to where Richter was when he was inspired to write “Snow Melt,” “Forest At Dusk,” “Ebb and Flow” and others.

Check out Brad playing “Leaving Marble Canyon,” the sixth track on the album, live:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brad Richter is a rare bird. He is a classical guitarist, but you will never hear him playing a Bach piece or any Tarrega. Instead he performs solely his own compositions, utilizing techniques few other guitarists use, mostly because he made them up.

From an early age, Richter taught himself how to play guitar, having no formal training until he was awarded the Presidential Scholarship to Chicago’s American Conservatory of Music. For his Master’s degree, he went to the Royal College of Music in London, where he won both the Royal College of Music Guitar Competition and the Thomas Morherr Prize.

Since then he has spent his time touring all over the world, playing his solo guitar compositions and in duos with cellists Viktor Uzur and Grammy winner David Finckel. Guitar International had a chance to talk to him while he was taking a break from his busy schedule with his family in Germany, delving into his new album American Landscapes, composition methods, and the challenges of writing for cello.

Brad Richter at the World Youth Guitar Festival

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Brady Lavin: Let’s start with your “Open Letter to Paul Bowman” which was just published on Guitar International. I really liked that, as an open-minded guitarist in a music program myself, I have experienced a good deal of music narrow-mindedness as well. Why do you think this musical snobbery comes about so much in an academic setting?

Brad Richter: That’s a good question. I think some of it is insecurity. We all do it, including me. It’s easier to build yourself up if you’re knocking someone down. If a composer’s music doesn’t have a big audience or wide acceptance, I think sometimes they console themselves by believing that they and their colleagues understand it and no one else does. But I don’t think its necessary. I think there are enough people that appreciate that music.

There’s a lot of intellectual prowess that goes into even the most obscure of 20th century compositions, but its just not always that easy to listen to. I enjoy that music quite a bit, but most audiences don’t, and I think that audience rejection also tends to make those of us who focus just on atonal or avant-garde music lash out a little against those who do other things.

Brady: Have you read Practicing by Glen Kurtz?

Brad Richter: No, I haven’t.

Brady: In the first third of that book, he talks about his academic career studying to be a concert guitarist, and he encountered a lot of dismissiveness towards the guitar as a classical instrument. Have you experienced any of that in your career?

Brad Richter: Oh, absolutely. In a way, that was as much a source of writing that letter, being a part of both of those worlds. Guitar, which is probably the most often dismissed instrument in the classical world, and then being a composer who writes tonal music that is relatively accessible. I feel like I get that from both ends, and I get so tired of it.

I’m very subjective about this, but guitarists by and large tend to be pretty cool [Laughs] and open-minded. We tend to, more than most classical musicians, to cross over into other genres and experiment and be a little more into other types of music than, I mean this is a gross over-generalization, but than maybe a group of violinists might be. Of course that’s not always the case, but I do see that. We cross over and find interest in other types of music because guitar works so well in all those worlds I think it’s frowned upon by some very serious classical musicians of other instruments.

Brady: A lot of guitarists start out playing guitar on popular music….

Brad Richter: Yeah I think a lot of us go through that transition where we start as rock or pop musicians, and as we get better at it we look for something deeper and move to jazz or classical. And I think that we come from that background sometimes is off-putting to other classical musicians.

Brady: Let’s talk about your new album American Landscapes, which I really enjoy, by the way. Judging by the song titles, liner notes, and photography in the booklet, I think it’s safe to assume you’re somewhat of an outdoorsman, right?

Brad Richter: Yeah, I love being outside.

Brady: How does nature inspire you musically?

Brad Richter: One of the ways is that I practice outdoors quite a bit, in fact maybe a majority of the time when I can. I feel more relaxed, I focus better. I don’t bring a cell phone with me so there are no distractions. In fact I’m sitting outside now while we’re talking and I can hear the sound of birds singing and its a beautiful blue sky. I just feel much better sitting outside than inside.

Brady: When you compose something like “Lava Falls” or “Leaving Marble Canyon” do you consciously write music to fit that landscape, or do you write music and then think, “Oh, this reminds me of this place or that place”?

Brad Richter: Goes both ways. With some, in particular, “Snow Melt,” which is the first one, I knew how I wanted to begin that set, and it began with the beginning of the river. I had thought about that from the very beginning, and then tried to find a way to capture that with music.

And then “Lava Falls” was the same thing. Also the last movement, “Ebb and Flow”. Those three I thought of the program first and then wrote the music, and then the other two I wrote the music and then attached a program to it.

Brady: How do you translate a program that you have in mind into a musical piece?

Brad Richter: I think the first thing I do, and it’s probably less clear on this CD than on the previous one, it that I make up a lot of sounds on the guitar. I try to at least. I usually start by trying to develop a sound or a texture or a technique that represents the theme in some way.

So with “Snow Melt,” I wanted to represent that idea of water dripping, first slowly and then faster and faster and in multiple ways, and then turning into flowing water. That was actually easier than most programs to develop, having the program first and then writing the music, because the harmonics on the guitar seemed like such an obvious route to go for dripping water. That was kind of easy.

Usually I find its harder to do it that direction, if I have the program first, but the piece comes out better. The piece tends to be a much more accurate representation of the program and having that program as a framework before I start to compose will tend to push me in a new direction, whereas if I’m just writing for the sake of writing, it’s hard not to follow the cliché, even if its my own cliché, something I’ve done before many times.

It’s easy to kind of fall into the patterns or the musical forms that you always do. So having that program first kind of gives me a framework that sends me in a new direction.

Brady: We recently published an interview with New York guitarist Trey Gunn, who did an album where he was forced into the framework of a fifty minute drum solo. He said that the rigidity pushed him to new territory. When you’re hemmed in to something you have to follow, does that help you come up with new and exciting ideas?

Brad Richter: It absolutely does, and I kind of like being hemmed in. I wouldn’t if it were the only way I got to compose, but there’s a sense of security when you start a piece and you already have a specific set of parameters that you have to follow. You have a nice starting point already.

Brad Richter

I think the most difficult thing is to start a piece.. and to finish it, you know the beginning and the end. [Laughs] Sorry I’m getting excited. My favorite moment in composing is when you write maybe ten seconds, but you know it’s a good ten secs. The first ten seconds of the piece. It may the beginning, it may be the middle, but you know it’s an interesting ten secs of music. That feels so good to me and so promising, and also the hardest thing to get to.

Brady: American Landscapes is sort of a compilation of sorts, it seems, including different parts of a variety of works that work together thematically and musically. How did you choose the pieces and fit them together so that the flow so well?

Brad Richter: Well, I write pretty slowly in most cases, although its been going faster lately. That they all fit together nicely on one CD was luck, really, because honestly all that is pretty much everything I’ve written for solo guitar over the last 5 years, and it just worked [Laughing].

Unfortunately it wasn’t like I had thirty-five to choose from and put those twenty-one on because they fit so well. That was pretty much everything I had. There were several pieces that I threw out because I didn’t like them, but everything that I thought was worth putting on the CD I put on.

Brady: The duets with cello, that’s not a texture that I’ve heard a lot, that pairing of instruments. How did that come about?

Brad Richter: [World-renowned cellist] David Finkel was in Tucson to play a concert with the Emerson String Quartet, and I had a concert the night after his concert but he was stuck in town for some reason. My concert was near his hotel, and he happened to wander in. He heard me play and liked it and introduced himself after the concert. He asked if I’d be interested in writing a piece for him.

I don’t know if it would have occurred to me to write a duo for cello and guitar although cello is another favorite instrument of mine; I wish I could play it. I’d written little things for cello – a concerto, a string quartet and a few other things – but they weren’t that good, and I didn’t write that well for strings. But his invitation really inspired me to put my nose to the grindstone and learn how to write for the cello.

So I did a lot of listening, and then I learned cello, just a little bit, just so I could see what it felt like and what was physically possible. Then I did a lot of writing with the four bottom strings of my guitar tuned like a cello, CGDA, and that made a big difference too, cause then I knew what would work for the left hand.Of course for the right hand its possible to do double-stops, but you can’t really play three notes at a time other than in some exceptional circumstances.

And then after that piece was finished, I just really fell in love with the cello more and met Viktor. I play a lot with Vickor Uzur, who is a fantastic cellist, and we tour quite a bit together. Now, probably more than half the music I write has to do with the duo, which is another reason why I had relatively few pieces to pick from for the solo guitar album. A lot of my energy goes into co-writing with Viktor, the duo stuff now.

Brady: Was it a conscious thought to put the duo stuff in the middle of the CD to break up the solo guitar? I think it works really well in maintaining the listener’s interest because of the changing textures.

Brad Richter: That is exactly what I was thinking about, that wasn’t coincidence. I also thought a lot about the progression of keys from one movement to the other. There’s kind of a flow of modulation from piece to piece that plays around the Circle of 5ths.

Brady: That’s cool, I didn’t notice that, actually.

Brad Richter: Yeah, I don’t think it’s something you need to notice or that someone even should notice, but I wanted it to feel like it went smoothly from one piece to another.

Brady: I know you invent techniques to get sounds on the guitar, but did you work with David or Viktor to try to come up with different techniques to get a sound that you wanted or did you just use existing “academic” cello techniques?

Brad Richter: When Viktor and I co-write, he really writes his cello part and I write my guitar part and we fit them together, but when I wrote the piece for David, I did work a lot on trying to invent some new techniques for cello. So there’s some left hand only techniques that are new in that piece. I hesitate to say “new” because I don’t know the cello repertoire well enough, and I’m sure somebody else has done it before, too, but it was new to me.

It felt like creating new sounds and new textures when I wrote those pieces, especially “Circles,” the second movement that’s a little faster, which is quite different,. There are things where I’ve got the cello doing left hand hammer-ons without bowing and then plucking strings with a free left hand finger while stopping other notes and bowing those. So there are actually moments in the piece where there are three notes happening at the same time, but they’re not all bowed.

Brady: Seems like a guitarist technique…

Brad Richter: Yeah, and in a way, that’s all I really did. I applied some things that we all do on guitar to cello.

Brady: That’ll come up with something completely new because that probably hasn’t been done before.

Brad Richter: Yeah, it wasn’t that far of a reach, and it might be something that any of us might do who play guitar once we’re writing for the cello.

Brady: In your letter to Paul Bowman you mention a story where an old teacher of yours said, “It’s not music until it’s written down.” As a composer, do you ever come at a piece from the other direction, writing it down before you ever touch your guitar, and how different is the result?

Brad Richter: I try to because I think it’s a healthy exercise, and those pieces tend to be…I’m trying to think if there’s an example on my new CD. Everything that’s coming to mind I wrote essentially on the guitar.

On my previous CD, A Whisper In The Desert, there are several pieces that I wrote on paper first, and I think that’s just another thing that helps push you in new directions. You end up using voicings that you wouldn’t use if your hands were on the guitar, and maybe putting a melody in a range that you wouldn’t have done if your hands were on the guitar.

Brad Richter at the Aspen Music Festival

The pieces I write in that way tend to have a little more scholastic substance, but don’t necessarily have the same audience appeal. But that’s just me. I’m sure it’s different for everybody, but I just find that I tend to write edgier music when I write it down first and play it later.

Brady: It makes sense that it would be a wider appeal for more guitaristic stuff because it tends to be flashier, with fast pull-offs and open strings.

Brad Richter: Exactly.

Brady: You’ve been a teacher for many years in addition to composing and performing. What in your mind makes a really quality music teacher, ’cause we all know your thoughts on bad music teachers.

Brad Richter: [Laughs] I think the best music teachers can take someone who’s not that talented and turn them into a good musician. Somebody who’s open minded enough to take the skills the player has and work with them to find the repertoire that fits their hands, say the things that will inspire them to put in the hours to make them better, and to have enough experience to, when they see a certain physical problem happening to know how to describe the issue and how to remedy it, what exercises you can use to fix that particular thing. Then if it doesn’t work, how to build a repertoire around that student so that those flaws don’t come through.

I think patience is a big thing with teaching. It’s really easy to get frustrated with having to say the samet thing over and over to the same student, but I think a good teacher finds a new way to say the same thing each time so that it eventually sinks in. We all learn in different ways, and sometimes it just takes twenty times before you formulate something in the right way so that a student has that “Aha!” moment. I think not giving up on a student is a sign of a good teacher too.

Brady: Can you tell us a bit about your program “Lead Guitar”?

Brad Richter: Sure, that started in 2000. I was playing a concert for the Lake Powell Concert Association in Page, Arizona, essentially on the Navajo reservation, and after the concert they asked me if I would visit the high school to work with some of the guitarists there.

I did, and I was shocked at how good they were; and a lot of them were self-taught. They didn’t have much in the way of technique and theory or other fundamentals, so I began do develop a curriculum so that I could help them learn from a distance. Then I began to go there for two weeks every year, just to give everybody private lessons and do some workshops. It grew and grew until there were about 160 guitar students enrolled at the high school there.

Eventually, PBS came out to the program to make a documentary about what the students were doing there. I would do the two-week program during the school year, and then at the end of the year I would take the dozen or so most at-risk kids on a hiking and camping trip, speaking of loving the outdoors [Laughs].

So we would all take our guitars and we would have kayaks and tents, and I would give the kids lessons for a week out on the river. And there were a couple of purposes behind that. One was, even though they were essentially living there, a lot of those kids didn’t have a chance to make it out into the environment because they didn’t have cars or a way to get there. They also didn’t always have a lot of good adult influences, so I would go on these trips with a school counselor, myself, and a professional outdoors guide. I just though having those kids around some adults who wanted to have fun with them and just spend time with them would be good as well.

So a friend of mind, Marc Sandroff, saw the pilot for the documentary that PBS was making and asked if I would be interested in making it into a not-for-profit in order to establish similar programs at schools all over the place. I jumped at the chance, and Marc really did the bulk of the work to establish a board of directors and make the larger organization work, while I worked on developing a curriculum that we could pass on to all the schools that we’re gonna work with, and it kind of grew and grew from there.

Brady: Does your self-taught past helps you in developing a curriculum for students without much music theory and technique training?

Brad Richter: I think it makes a big difference in the curriculum development for sure, but also in my teaching style with those kids. As you probably already have, you have to imagine that these kids, if we are speaking about the kids from the Navajo reservation, are some of the most at-risk kids in the country. They don’t make the charts very often because the native population is so small now compared to the rest of the nation.

A lot of these kids bus literally an hour and a half each way to school and live in a remote place with no running water or electricity. The lone outlet for a lot of them is playing heavy metal on electric guitar, and so when I show up the first day and tell them I’m gonna spend the year teaching them to play classical guitar, a lot of them are like “Dear God, forget that.”

So my experience with teaching myself and going from rock to classical really helps me find the right words to bring them along with me. I make a big effort to show them that I respect what they’re doing and that I respect the music that they’re drawn to. One way that I do that is that I’m a big pusher of ensemble playing in guitar orchestras. So they play guitar orchestra pieces, but what I’ve done is I’ve made arrangements of “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath and “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin and a couple of Metallica songs, but they have to learn it by reading the music.

I try to meet them halfway in that sense, so that I’m teaching them the fundamentals of classical guitar, like music reading, following a conductor, and ensemble playing, but with music they know and appreciate so that they don’t feel like its just “Hey, listen to what I’m telling you do and do it.” They have to buy into what we’re trying to do together.