My Roots as a Composer | necessity and education

A couple of years ago, a young guitarist from Vanguard University wrote to say that he is a fan. He was preparing a presentation on me as a living composer/guitarist, and asked if I would help with some background info. Here’s the result.

Hello,
My name is Javier Castillo. I performed in a Masterclass where Mr. Wallace was the speaker back in Fall 2011 at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California (I performed one of his pieces, “Sand And Sky” for him that day). I’m currently going to Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California and in my Guitar Literature class I chose Frank Wallace for my research report on 20th Century/Modern classical guitar players. I was wondering if I can possibly get some information on Mr. Wallace? Information on his early career would be great, especially some background as a composer. Who and where did he study composition? Who were his influences? .

I’m a very big fan of Mr. Wallace’s music and I figure since I’m one of the few people in my class who is presenting/researching on a composer/guitarist who is thankfully still alive, I can try and reach out to him.

Thank you for your time, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Starting easy

In brief – I started composing out of two events: 1) desperation to get a particularly difficult college student to actually learn something; 2) subsequently, deciding to teach young children. Both inspired me to write short studies to teach what I wanted to teach. For example, my Single String Studies are quite unique as far as I know. They combine my interest in singing with the concept of a medieval drone (as accompaniment to melody) and my desire as a teacher of guitar to have simple material that presents upper positions and shifting at an earlier stage of development in students.

Secondly, my wife loved these little pieces, as did I, so she challenged me to do a concert of them. I said, “that’s ridiculous, they are too simple for a professional concert.” But the seed was planted. One day a new little blues piece for a student suddenly took on life and developed into Sweet Ladyslipper, a 6 movement concert suite. Here’s the Prelude, as recorded on my first CD of my works.

Two composer lessons

After a few years, I had my first actual composition lesson with Dick Winslow, a neighbor and retired professor of music from Wesleyan (who happened to be David Leisner’s comp teacher in college). Dick took a look at some of my works then we sat down to talk. He asked, “What do you want to know?” I said I was self-conscious that I don’t really hear music in my head, not precisely and clearly. His response astonished me, “So what? Do you like the music you write? It doesn’t matter what the process is as long as you like the result.” “Frankly, I love my music,” was my sure response.

A couple of years later I visited Herman Weiss, former head of the theory and composition department at Longy School in Cambridge MA who studied with Messiaen on a Fulbright. I asked, “Do you think I should get a Masters in composition?” Again the response surprised and delighted me, “That would be the worst thing you could do!”

Herman said I already have a distinctive voice as a composer and school would only force me into someone else’s style. So my style and skill came from my own resources and experience. I learned simply to trust myself as a composer. That’s the biggest accomplishment I have ever made, and somehow it came fairly naturally and painlessly to me.

In terms of influences: I frequently say Dowland, Schubert, Britten – they all wrote great solo music as well as songs. But I am firmly rooted in the guitar classics as well: Sor, Tárrega, Villa-Lobos, etc. They are the ones who taught me how to create sonority on the guitar, and that is extremely important to me.

The interview | Where did it all begin?

[Javier] Hello Frank, thank you for answering my letter and for helping me with my research report. Great responses! They certainly give great insight into your background as a composer and musical style. It’s always fascinating to read about the humble beginnings of creative people. As someone who occasionally composes his own musical ideas, it is definitely inspiring.

I have one big question, and this one is about you as a musician. Where did it all begin for you? How old were you when you decided to pursue classical guitar? Who were your instructors? And what interests you about the Lute and Vihuela De Mano? And also, since you’re also a composer, and I see that you’ve written pieces with violin and flute, did you happen to learn any other instruments to help give you a better understanding of them for when you compose?

[Frank] My family was not particularly musical. My mother and two older sisters played a little piano, my older brother trumpet. No one was great or very serious, but I grew up hearing them practice and I would sit down and bang the keys or spit into the trumpet. My father always got compliments for his voice in church, but refused to join the choir. He was very proud of his Harmon Kardon stereo system and listened to musicals fairly regularly – no classical music that I recall.

Apparently my grandfather played piano by ear, but I don’t remember it. The inspiration that got me going was the Lawrence Welk TV show that we watched when my grandparents visited from Texas. The accordion player on the Welk show, Myron Floren, really impressed me – how dorky is that!? The Beatles were hitting the scene and I wanted to take accordion lessons at age 10! We found a teacher and after a couple of years, he brought me an electric guitar, saying any musician should play at least two instruments. My cynical side thinks he just needed to make a few extra bucks that week. I began doing my own arrangements of Jobim songs and other jazz – got into Charlie Byrd as well as Wes Montgomery, etc., but no rock!

Classical guitar enters the scene

Somewhere in there my parents bought me a Romeros boxed set of flamenco music. Serendipity! That was followed with Bream, Parkening and Segovia. Then I found the Carcassi Method at a local store, along with a flamenco guitar, and started teaching myself. It wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I found Ed Bishop, my first classical teacher. He was very enthusiastic about my potential and immediately got me playing stuff I shouldn’t have – Bach, Britten, Albéniz. I feel I never had a truly proper education – it was quite eclectic from the beginning. Now I am grateful for that, I think it feeds my creative spirit, and steered me away from being a typical player with typical repertoire.

Una Sañosa Porfia by Juan del Encina, as recorded by Trio LiveOak on Star Shining on the Mountain, 1980, Mnemosyne Records, at the Groton Chapel in Groton MA

My interest in early music began in college by chance. The choir director was into it and one or two semesters we had a rep class with Robert Strizich who had us learn tablature. He also substituted for my busy teacher Michael Lorimer when Michael was on the road. Of course, Lorimer also played lute at the time and was heavily into Bach. That might have led nowhere if I hadn’t stumbled into the Quadrivium in Boston. This was a vibrant scene of instrumentalists and singers dedicated to Medieval and Renaissance music in the Boston area led by charismatic and brilliant teacher Marleen Montgomery. I moved to Boston after college just for the adventure and met these folks, including my wife to be, Nancy Knowles, within days.

It was an incredible scene that encouraged wide exploration of the repertoire, but we constantly arranged works to be adapted to the particular forces at hand [Una Sañosa Porfia as example]. I think this was one of the many factors that led to my compositional abilities, including, as you ask, how to write for different instruments. On that front, I’m not as well trained as I would like to be, but it’s pretty instinctual for me and I do consult with †he players I am writing fo® or do other research. I’d love to write a symphony, but that feels outside my realm of experience and training. I have played saxophone, piano, recorder, viola da gamba, chalumeau, vihuelas and lutes of many different sizes and a bunch of medieval and ethnic instruments – so I’m rather fearless. When I wrote a lot of mandolin music a few years ago, I borrowed an instrument and worked closely with German virtuoso Annika Hinsche and a few other players.

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