The collection that we have called TomJohnsonForSix is a comprehensive view of the complete work for guitar by the American composer Tom Johnson. The set contains all the pieces composed for one or more guitars, and an additional version of the 1973 piano piece Septapede. All compositions by Tom Johnson.
This work is an arrangement of the piano masterpiece by Tom Johnson. Originally written for piano, it consists of a variable loop turning around on seven keys. The performer repeats the loop freely, sometimes introducing very slowly the change to the next bar. Playing this piece with guitar needed the use of scordatura (changing the fourth string to C#) and a special care damping the strings to get the written durations. Some of the loops were unfeasible, and the performer just skipped them. Liner notes: English, French
Nine miniatures in phrases of 12 and 13 notes, following the rhythm of classical French poetry. Here the interpretation is very relaxed, but trying to avoid too much rubato, an expressive feature unrelated to the minimalist world. Liner notes: English, French
When one has to record a piece for six guitars, there is always the option to phone five colleagues and invite them to participate in a live recording and a nice chat afterwards. But if you recording studio is small, you simply fire up your digital audio workstation and tape all the tracks yourself. For Canon for Six Guitars there are six slightly different colors, and the guitars are spread out in the stereo field. All the tracks were recorded in full, without any copy-paste. Liner notes: English, French
These five short movements are logical up-and-down progressions, often with open strings. The third movement, Weaving, with its changing accents of a repeated loop, was the first approach of Tony Peña to the minimalist world of Tom Johnson. Liner notes: English, French
The last piece is the musical image of a geomagic square. Tinkelenberg Rhythms owes its title to Frank Tinkelenberg, a maths puzzler and programmer who found a special kind of magic square. Here the guitar sounds dry, at times even harsh, but the rhythmic patterns formed by three of the nine squares are crystal clear. Liner notes: English, French
The idea arose when Tony Peña decided to apply the technique of an ergonomic neck to the interpretation of contemporary music with electric guitar. This technique, learned from Frankue Martínez, uses a supplementary neck that provides a greater level of independence of the hands. It soon became clear that the use of this device was going to help a lot with the delicate nuances of most of the pieces by Tom Johnson.
TomJohnsonForSix is an attempt to show many years of music with a unified approach, and with the color of the electric guitar, that shares most of the virtues of the classical one and shines with new ones.
Liner notes written by Gilbert Delor who completed his doctorate in 2001 with the first musicological study ever written about Erik
Satie in French. He has also written articles for the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the
World.
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Tony Peña is a classically trained musician. Lately his interests are focused on minimalism, real-time composition and free improvisation. He usually works with Six Ensemble, an artist collective, and with José Guillén in Sustrato 2. He also plays duets with Joachim Spieth (trumpet) and Zebenzui Gonzalez (guitar).
Tony Peña is a big fan of collaborative working frames. This interest has led him to produce the project Dowland Revisited with Jose Guillen, to organize the experimental music cycle CEPA and to create IN PROMPTU, an artist residence for guest performers.
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Related links:
Guitarflow by Tony Peña
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