This technical demanding piece is in scordatura tuning which the 6th string tune D and the 3rd string tune F sharp. In this piece the composer employ fast Arpeggios and Campanella effect (sometimes beyond 12th positions!) to create an exotic soundscape.
Cavatine by Sébastien Vachez is a lyrical and beautiful piece which in the key of C minor. The composer retuned the 6th string to E flat and 5th string to B flat to create a special effect of this alien key in guitar.
Here’s we go to the 4th part of the Scordatura series. This time I introduce the 6th string tune D, 5th string tune G and other strings remain standard tuning. This tuning is quite common among the classical guitar repertoire.
The model of this tuning is Nevicata (snow-fall) by Italian guitarist, composer Benvenuto Terzi (1892-1980). The music is lyrical and shifting between G major and G minor (that’s what this tuning for). There’s a special technique that the left hand playing the trill while the right hand playing the artificial harmonic at the same time create an amazing effect.
“Kinkachoo, I love you” is the work from Australian composer Phillip Houghton’s pen. Phillip Houghton (1954-2017) was a highly original guitarist, composer and teacher.
“…the Kinkachoo, a mythical bird, once wounded in the Spirit-Realm, heals and flies into the world …” this is the words from the composer on the score. This lyrical and poetic work required the 6th string tune to F added the mystical ambience to the piece.
Scordatura – beyond standard tuning explore by the composers. In this Scordatura series I will share the different tunings of guitar music to you.
French composer/guitarist Roland Dyens use drop D tuning in his composition “Saudade No.3”. While he arranged the famous chanson Française “L’Hymne à l’amour” employed the drop E flat tuning, which is tune the 6th string from E to E flat to fit the key of the song E flat.
There’s a saying that Japanese reserve the best for their people. The most popular version of Sakura Variations by Japanese composer/guitarist Yuquijiro Yocoh which is published by GSP.
Back in 1980s’ a friend bought me a book from Japan by the same composer which included the Sakura Variations is so different than the GSP version. There including 6 variations with an extent introduction and slightly different arrangement of the theme compare to the GSP edition. So this Japanese version is more substantial than the GSP version, including the coda there’s 9 sections at all. And I find that some of the variations are interesting indeed.
Here’s the Japanese edition of Sakura Variations I play on 9 different guitars, hope you enjoy it.
Guitar is a versatile instrument cover different style of music and technique. But the most fascinated me is the use of Scordatura.
Scordatura or alternate tuning is a technique in which players tune their strings to different notes from standard tuning. The use of this technique is found throughout the history of classical guitar. This made it possible to play unusual chords or combination of notes in string-crossing and even unusual keys on guitar.
The standard tuning of guitar is from 6th string to 1st string : EADGBE . The most frequently use of scordatura on classical guitar is the Drop D tuning. It is tune the 6th string from E to D, the tuning became DADGBE. This tuning got a deeper bass effect and mostly played in key of D.
Here’s two examples pieces by the same composer Leo Brouwer. The first one is his famous movie theme ‘Un día de Noviembre’ is in standard tuning. The other is his arrangement for guitar ‘Drume Negrita’ which is in Drop D tuning.
I first found this piece when I was studying in Spain in late 1980s, and started to play and performed it in 1990s. It was in 2014 when Roland Dyens, the composer of this piece, visited HK to play a concert and giving master class. During the class I learned that the composer had did a new edition to this piece. So I acquired the new score and learned it again.
This music is Dyens’ first published work and after 25 years in 2005 the composer had re-edited to it. According to Dyens’ words “…..(this music) undeniable brought me the first signs of recognition as a composer.”
I played 3 Kazuo Sato guitars in this video: a 2020 Prestige model in the 1st movement Rituel; a 2019 Special model in the 2nd movement Danse; and my 2018 Special model in the last movement Fête et Final.
At last I like to thank Mr. Mok Wai Hin of Enjoyment Music House who produces this beautiful video and generously let me play his newest arrival Kazuo Sato guitars in this video.
Sérgio Assad (born 26 December 1952) is a Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger who often performs with his brother, Odair Assad in the guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad, commonly referred to as Assad Brothers or Duo Assad.
Born into a musical family in Mococa, São Paulo, Brazil, Sergio Assad began creating music for the guitar not long after he began playing the instrument. He learned Brazilian folk melodies from his father. By age 14, he was arranging and writing original compositions for the guitar duo he had formed with his brother, Odair. At the age of 17, he and Odair began their studies under the best known classical guitar teacher in Brazil at the time, Monina Tavora, a former disciple of Andrés Segovia. Sergio later went on to study conducting and composition at the Escola Nacional de Música in Rio de Janeiro,and worked privately with Brazilian composition teacher, Esther Scliar.
Farewell is the music about death which is from Japanese movie Natsu No Niwa (Summer Garden). The story of the movie : One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden.
The music is about the boys say goodbye to the suddenly dead of the old man. When the composer composed this music after his wife just passed away.
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